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Jeffrey Eugenides

The Virgin Suicides Paperback – June 1, 1994

by Jeffrey Eugenides (Author)

1,533 ratings

Part of: Picador Modern Classics (11 Books)

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Juxtaposing the most common and the most gothic, the humorous and the tragic, author Jeffrey Eugenides creates a vivid and compelling portrait of youth and lost innocence. He takes us back to the elm-lined streets of suburbia in the seventies, and introduces us to the men whose lives have been forever changed by their fierce, awkward obsession with five doomed sisters: brainy Therese, fastidious Mary, ascetic Bonnie, libertine Lux, and pale, saintly Cecilia, whose spectacular demise inaugurates "the year of the suicides." This is the debut novel that caused a sensation and won immediate acclaim from the critics-a tender, wickedly funny tale of love and terror, sex and suicide, memory and imagination.

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Product details

Publisher : Grand Central Publishing; Reprint edition (June 1, 1994)
Language : English
Paperback : 256 pages
ISBN-10 : 0446670251
ISBN-13 : 978-0446670258
Item Weight : 9.1 ounces
Dimensions : 5.25 x 0.75 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,442,136 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #7,078 in TV, Movie & Game Tie-In Fiction
- #14,647 in Psychological Fiction (Books)
- #34,733 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction

Customer Reviews:
1,533 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		69%
4 star		16%
3 star		9%
2 star		3%
1 star		3%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Toodles

If you watched the movie and liked it, Read the book.

Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2018

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I've seen the movie multiple times and really wanted to read the book. I was hoping for a bit more detail at the ending than what was shown in the movie but that doesn't change. However, as with most movies the book has many other details that the movie doesn't. It's just impossible to put everything into just a couple of hours on screen. It's a good read. I recommend it for anyone, especially those who have seen the film.

12 people found this helpful

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Sabrina R.

Mixed feelings

Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2017

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This book is beautifully written and I loved the fact that you couldn't really understand the Lisbon girls any better than the narrator because how much can we ever truly know or understand about the innermost feelings of others? On the other hand I had a hard time with the misogyny in the book and the frequent dehumanization of the girls through the lens of the boys' perceptions of them. I'm glad I read it and I really loved the style and the dreamy quality of the writing but it was too frustrating a read to rate it any higher.

19 people found this helpful

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Denny cranford

The characters are so real you remember them fondly.

Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2020

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Engines is a genius. His depiction of young men’s longing to bond with and understand the opposite sex is superlative.
Summarily, his description of the plight of the adolescent girls wad so adept it made me wonder if Middlesex was an autobiography. Or, had he read my diary?
That’s Eugenides. Don’t expect to put one of his books down and be done with it. You will reference it in your life and memories for a long time.
The characters were so well developed I felt I knew them and remember them fondly.
If you haven’t read Middlesex; you are missing this author’s masterpiece.

6 people found this helpful

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One of My All Time Favorite Books

Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2014

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I absolutely love gothic and mildly depressing stories which are poetic but go nearly nowhere. Coming of age tales where the ending could be anything? Love it. Tragedy on a Shakespearean level where barely anyone is left breathing at the end of the tale? Adore it.

I read this book at least once a year and I haven't gotten tired of it. It's beautifully written, but it's a short novel, and a simple tale.

I became obsessed with The Virgin Suicides when I saw the commercial for the movie on television at age 10 or 11. I begged my parents to let me see it. They forbid it. I wasn't able to watch it until I was fully grown and married, I read the book afterward. I'm now thankful for that because I think if I'd seen the seen the movie and read the book as a tween/teen, it would have definitely negatively influenced my adolescence. I did have severe depression and my parents kept watch over me much like the parents in the story. I was definitely the Lux type as a teenager and luckily I grew out of it.

Since I see the parallels in my past reflected in the story, when I read it I feel like the sister who lived. Eugenides writes the girls so realistically that I can't help but feel so connected to them, like they are my family. I grieve for them at the end of the book after each reading. Especially since I see so many teen girls damaging themselves the same way the sisters did, over bullying in school or other problems. This book definitely shows how suicide can rip families apart. I read somewhere that suicide affects a family for 10 generations. That's a long time, and I do believe its true.

I don't feel this is a YA book, though I've seen it classified as one. It's far too dark, and while condemning suicide, Eugenides simultaneously glorifies it. Yes, the survivor's hearts were broken. But more is made of the fact that the sisters will be young and beautiful in their memories forever. How irresistible for a young girl is that? Yes, I'll be dead, but I'll have impacted an entire town for years to come with my death. Yes, my boyfriend will move on and marry, but he'll discuss me and my death with his friends at high school reunions.... He'll never get over me. To be immortalized is every teen girl's wildest dream. If one has to kill herself to do it, she will. For an already depressed and impressionable teen girl, this book is a loaded gun.

I have a beautiful blonde daughter of my own now. I'm hiding this book from her until she's at least 25.

39 people found this helpful

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sara

The author does a wonderful job in making the uncomfortable topic of suicide seem ...

Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2018

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The Virgin Suicides is one of those books I wish I could erase from my memory just to read it all over again. The author does a wonderful job in making the uncomfortable topic of suicide seem not so vile and to bring some beauty out it. Eugenides writes the story so well it is impossible for you not to appreciate it. The mix of dark humor and melancholy passages throughout this story definitely keeps it tasteful. What drew me into the story the most was the plural narration. Eugenides used “we” and “us” to narrate the story, which made it very unique. He makes you feel as if you are one of the neighborhood boys being obsessed over the lives of the Lisbon girls. It is impossible to express the beauty of this story just through a review.

6 people found this helpful

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bobwearda

Depressing ominous.

Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2020

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They are looking through their eyes with a face that is pushing against a Lisbon window glass like the unkept walls of the fish tank. They can not see what the five girls are. The girls are screaming for and nobody helps them.

4 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Patrick McAsey

I just didn't like it either

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 13, 2020

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Frankly, I got little out of reading this book. Like another reviewer I failed to detect any humour in this novel, but, more important, I seemed to learn nothing from it. I had hoped that this was based on a true story, but, apart from the author hearing about a similar series of suicides, it really isn't. And if it isn't then what's the point of writing it?

I had my doubts when I read the title, but I bought this because it was very cheap, and because I thought 'Middlesex' worthwhile. 'The Virgin Suicides' (they aren't all virgins anyway) was in no way worthwhile. It was immensely depressing. Much of the detail seems unnecessary. Many of the young male hangers-on seemed to have no role to play. I can say - only just about - that I don't regret reading it, but I certainly wouldn't recommend it. There should always be a point to reading a novel, but I couldn't see any point in this one.

Kindle Customer

I just didn't like it.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 27, 2020

Verified Purchase

I want to start by saying, I think the book is well written, and I think my dislike of it is personal and not a reflection of the quality of the book. Honestly, this book to me was only one thing, and that was depressing. And by that I mean, I didn't see any of the humour the reviews said weaved through, and I didn't feel much depth to the story... I waited to see a greater insight into the characters, or as a reader, to be satisfied in some way... But the only thing I can describe this book as being for me was depressing.

One person found this helpful

Dog lover

Thought-provoking and lingers long after read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 26, 2014

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I heard the book discussed a few years ago on the radio and was delighted when it was a Kindle deal - I'd now happily pay full price for it and will be reading it again. The book starts with a listing of how old the Lisbon sisters were when they committed suicide so, as we get to meet them, we know that no one can save them and that there won't be a happy ending - which is why I'd waited so long before reading the book and hesitated about paying full price.

But it's a beautiful, thought-provoking and mournful read about lost hope and childhood - not just for the girls but the posse of boys who grew up with them, including the narrator. The boys' obsession follows them throughout their lives, undermining their relationships with women and life in general in the decades after the girls have died. It's fitting that the boys were there for the defining moments of the girls' lives but this stalkerish behaviour can feel uncomfortable and was only explained in the very last pages, giving it a rounded but tragic conclusion.

Highly recommended with some missing steps and a slow pace which is why it's a four, not five-star book - but one which will stay with you long after you finish the final page. I'll definitely be reading his other books - Middlesex next.

5 people found this helpful

Felix the cat

Dreadful

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 7, 2020

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The book was very pretentious and said nothing very much. There were some very good pieces of writing, poetic and evocative but there was no substance behind his obvious talent. I had no feelings for the sisters, the parents or the narrator. The story dragged on and on in a meaningless way and I couldn't wait to finish.

LynneF

Emotionally weird

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 20, 2013

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I thought this book was interesting but a bit weird.

Although it's a tragic story I didn't care much for any of the characters. It's hard to understand why the sisters were so attractive for so long to their male peers. Some of the author's descriptions left me feeling a bit queasy I must admit! There's an element of mystery surrounding the sisters - their lives and deaths - but why the boys' obsession with them continued into adulthood is an even bigger mystery. The dark humour was the most entertaining part of the book for me. The author's witty and shrewd observations of their very American middle class neighbourhood were very amusing so the actual suicides seemed funny too. In fact I thought the whole book was quite lighthearted and not to be taken too seriously because neither the characters nor the situation were very credible.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book but it's not very long and for interest's sake it's worth a read.

4 people found this helpful

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