Pages

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Review: The Virgin Suicides

The Virgin Suicides

Synopsis from Amazon:
Eugenides's tantalizing, macabre first novel begins with a suicide, the first of the five bizarre deaths of the teenage daughters in the Lisbon family; the rest of the work, set in the author's native Michigan in the early 1970s, is a backward-looking quest as the male narrator and his nosy, horny pals describe how they strove to understand the odd clan of this first chapter.

My review:
I read another book by this author, Middlesex, a couple of years ago and really liked it.  I have had this book on my shelf for awhile and just got around to reading it.  The story itself was a bit odd and morbid, but it was very well told.  I liked the way the author told the story through characters who weren't really even in the book.  The narrators are a group of neighborhood boys who don't know the whole story but tell it as they saw it.  I thought that was a really interesting way to tell the story.  I would have liked to get to know some of the sisters better.  Lux was really the only one who was talked about in detail.  I thought the writing was fantastic.  I would definitely read more by this author.

5 comments:

  1. Jeffrey Eugenides is one of my daughter's favorite author. We have had this book in the house for a while, but my daughter thinks it's too sad for me. Maybe I should read it anyway?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I didn't think it was all that sad. I think it is definitely worth a try! Come back and tell me if you like it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ved middlesex too but felt a bit ho hum about this one. It was good, but I wouldn't rave about it. Glad you enjoyed it

    ReplyDelete
  4. I wasn't a fan of Middlesex but I liked this movie and would like to read it at some point!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've always wanted to read this book. Thanks for the review!

    ReplyDelete