The Virgin Suicides

By Jeffrey Eugenides

First published in 1993, The Virgin Suicides announced the arrival of a major new American novelist. In a quiet suburb of Detroit, the five Lisbon sisters—beautiful, eccentric, and obsessively watched by the neighborhood boys—commit suicide one by one over the course of a single year. As the boys observe them from afar, transfixed, they piece together the mystery of the family’s fatal melancholy, in this hypnotic and unforgettable novel of adolescent love, disquiet, and death. Jeffrey Eugenides evokes the emotions of youth with haunting sensitivity and dark humor and creates a coming-of-age story unlike any of our time. Adapted into a critically acclaimed film by Sofia Coppola, The Virgin Suicides is a modern classic, a lyrical and timeless tale of sex and suicide that transforms and mythologizes suburban middle-American life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Sep 20, 2011
• ISBN: 9780307401939

Jeffrey Eugenides

Jeffrey Eugenides was born in Detroit and attended Brown and Stanford Universities. His first novel, The Virgin Suicides, was published by FSG to great acclaim in 1993, and he has received numerous awards for his work. In 2003, he received the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Middlesex (FSG, 2002), which was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and France’s Prix Médicis. The Marriage Plot (FSG, 2011) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and won both the Prix Fitzgerald and the Madame Figaro Literary Prize. His collection of short stories, Fresh Complaint, is from FSG (2017). Eugenides is a professor of creative writing in the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton.

Reviews for The Virgin Suicides

[starbox_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A weird but terribly compelling tale, set in a middle class town in 1970s Michigan. Narrated not by any one character but by a 'Greek chorus' of the local boys; every event told from the 'we' perspective. They recall the Lisbon family - schoolteacher father, overprotective Catholic mother and their five lovely daughters. After the youngest - and strangest - commits suicide, the family begins to crack up. We never really know what propels the other daughters to eventually follow suit: the loss of their sister? their abnormal home life? something genetic? The whole narrative is kind of Gothic, dreamy, other-worldly; just as we never get a real handle on the several narrators, so too the girls are seen only through their eyes and their recollections and opinions- like watching them in a mirror rather than really knowing them.I've never read anything like this, an incredible feat of writing.

[tronella_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

The plot was compelling, but I found the writing style deeply unpleasant. Not for me.

[sometimeunderwater · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If GG Marquez had written Arcade Fire's debut album. At times a bit try-hard, as if the readers would be bored if everyone didn't have an over-engineered cartoon quirk, but once you settle into the style it works. Possibly more effective if the ending hadn't been telegraphed from the start.

[renbedell · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A story of a family of mysterious girls seen from an outsiders perspective. The book focuses on the history of the family told by a narrator who lived down the street. It works well as it slowly reveals more and more about the girls and the family. It is written very well. Can be dry, but the tone usually fits the aspect of the story. The story is very sad and the author does a good job of creating empathy for the characters. I really enjoyed the book and felt I got a lot out of it.

[justagirlwithabook · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I made it through this one but can say right away that I wouldn’t recommend it for winter reading or for those who have struggled or are struggling with depression. The feeling is a bit similar to the feeling I got from The Bell Jar (which I also intentionally read during the summer). I’ve had to read this one in snippets and while out in the sun to combat that oppressive feeling. Overall, I think it was pretty good. The back end of it lightened up a little bit and wasn't quite as depressing (though the content is still a bit rough). I don't know that I'll be recommending this to many people unless it's up their alley, just for the oppressive feeling it emits.

[askelmore · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

From my Cannonball Read V review ...

This novel is one of my sister’s favorites so I needed to check it out. While it isn’t one of mine, it isn’t bad. It was a pretty quick read, and definitely held my interest. I just had some issues with it.

The title tells you what’s going to happen in the book. There’s no surprise, really, except in how the five sisters will all take their lives by the end of the book, but the first couple of pages make it clear that they do. As a plot device, that works in this instance.

The first issue is the narrative structure – the book is told from a collective first person. The guys in town who attended school with the sisters provide all of the detail. The guys have names (well, some of them do), but the perspective is of them as a group. It’s an okay idea, but it definitely prevents anyone from taking personal responsibility for their perspective. They appear to be discussing the events years and years after they occurred, trying to figure it all out in their minds by piecing together evidence and interviews, but it’s sort of awkward.

The second issue stems from the first, and that is that because the narrative comes from a group of men, all we learn about these women is how guys see them. How they may be idealized, or put on a pedestal, or judged by their male peers seems especially cruel given the subject matter. These women are apparently only coming alive to the reader because of how some men noticed them. That’s sad to me.

Because of the above two issues I almost feel like I’m missing something. I’d love to talk about this book in a literature class to see if maybe the devices that bothered me just completely went over my head. But the further I get from the book the less I like it.

[borrows0n0wants · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a good book. I read it shortly after watching the movie and was surprised to find that the story was told from the boys' point of view rather than the girls'. After getting into the novel though, I liked that it was written from a point of view not so close to the main story. This book can be depressing at times, but I did not have a hard time finishing it at all. It gets a little darker toward the end, but not dark/depressing enough to stop me from finishing it.

[bravenewbks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I knew the rough plot already from having seen the movie years ago, but the book still managed to blow me away. The language was gorgeous and sumptuous, which made an amazing contrast to the somber subject of the novel. I will pick up another book by Eugenides soon, to see how he weaves words around a different subject. Anyone have a particular recommendation?

It's been a long time since I was so impressed with both the command of language (such descriptions!) and the mastery of plot and pacing.

[stephlaymon · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Virgin Suicides is a very good coming of age story that is told in the style of a chronicle. It shows beautifully how a family comes completely undone by tragedy and how they then create their own continuing tragedy. Unfortunately it felt very YA-ish to me, and I was hoping for something that felt more adult, even with the coming of age theme.

[nessa33-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was actually a bit disappointed in this. I love this movie. I mean I've seen it dozens of times, but I think I was expecting....more from the book. It wasn't bad, I just wasn't really impressed.

I felt that the story dragged on quite a bit an left me bored. I get that the book is written in the 'outside looking in' perspective of these boys who have watched and loved the girls for forever, but I was a bit creeped out. Like I closed my curtains because, do people really pay THAT much attention to what goes on in other people's houses? Creepy.

Loved the movie. Love the story, as sad and disturbing as it is. Found the book lacking.

[tjwilson_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

There are places where one wonders about the conceit of this story, but all is well wrapped up in the end. Black humor and vicious satire abound but with an air of sentimentality. Sadness and mockery converge in this book.There is sure to be a final guttural sound like "hm," "huh," "hrmm," etc. after reading the last page, closing the book and staring at its cover.

[danimak_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Jeffrey Eugenides has a unique ability to bring out the comical in the most mundane events, especially in the way children think about the world. In the case of the Virgin Suicides, his topic is a poignant one, and yet he manages to excellently weave his usual humorous take on suburban America and childhood into the story without making it a comic novel. All of the characters are interesting, well-developed and likable in the literary sense. The Virgin Suicides is a great read, but is just an overture, preparation for, the masterpiece of his next novel, Middlesex.

[cookiedemon · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a really memorable, intense read that speaks of unrequited love and the end of childhood. It was a novel that I enjoyed a lot, despite having this sat on my bookshelf for years and only just getting around to reading it.The Virgin Suicides takes a story of everyday suburban life in the 1970's and re-crafts it to be a tale of dark postmodern humour with creepily persistent narrators collectively recapping their youth and their obsession with five suicidal sisters. It is something of a mystery as to why the five sisters killed themselves and even now, years later, this now balding group of men are still trying to unravel it and have disturbingly gathered evidence and testimonials of the time to try and put the pieces together once and for all.I found this book to be effective mainly owing to the narrator's style- as the person or persons remain a bit of a mystery and are never identified but have witnessed the whole situation from the start. The real impression given to the reader through the description and prose is that you too are surveying the neighbourhood and the Lisbon household and that you have also been pulled into their world.Though the book was admittedly odd and gloomy and the subject matter was complex, there was just something appealing about it that spoke to me. Generally, the underlying message I took from it was the story of destroyed innocence in a suburban community that has never fully recovered from a tragedy and that of dysfunctional family relationships. I would recommend trying the novel yourself if you enjoy contemporary fiction with a difference.*This review also appears on Amazon.co.uk*

[delphimo_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This novel came highly recommended by the critics, but frankly I disliked the novel. The story involves five Detroit sisters around the 1950's. The five Lisbon girls all commit suicide in a year. The chapters are long rambling affairs that lead nowhere. No one in the community steps in to prevent tragedy after the first suicide. The father, a math teacher in a private high school, resigns from his teaching position and the girls are withdrawn from school. The narrators of the story are the boys who watch the five Lisbon sisters and attempt to explain the problem after the event. I was relieved when the book finally ended.

[redpandabear · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Through the observations and discoveries of a group of teenage boys, the tragedy of the Lisbon family is revealed. Brought up in an authoritarian household, the five daughters all commit suicide. This is the story of the events which led up to their deaths and effect they left on the town they lived in. At times the story dragged, but the wording was beautiful, and the story in itself is haunting. It doesn't ultimately solve the mystery of why they killed themselves, but does a good job of explaining in detail all the factors which led up to their deaths. After reading (and absolutely loving) Middlesex, I was excited to read this. Eugenides is an extremely talented writer in that he makes the details more interesting than they really are. The tone of the book is pretty dark, which is interesting for a story about youth, but ultimately I guess it's because it's more about the passing of youth and everything that's lost.

[poprockz · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Close second to Middlesex. Can't wait to read The Marriage Plot.

[rdhawk6886 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The narrators' collective voice remind me of a Wes Anderson film where the texture of the story is authenticated through recording of the small details. Where Anderson introduces complex melancholic human situations, he allows them to dissapate into the absurd. I like Anderson. The difference here is the ripening of youth is looked at through a melancholic lens, the absurdities of that time remembered, but those sentiments are not side stepped. I found the focus to be somewhat morbid but I would not describe as dark. Although there are certainly more refined interpretations, for me the "virgins" represent youth itself -- where things, particularly with the opposite sex, take on mythic perfect proportions that we never fully know or understand and which must die in order to preserve them in that state. Full recommendation.

[megan2143 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was wonderful in so many ways. I love how the plot is set up. As the reader, you know from the first sentence (well, actually from the title) that all of the Lisbon sisters will be dead by the end of the novel. How could a book be interesting when you already know the ending? Well, that was not the case with this book. The reader is pretty much kept in the dark as to why the Lisbon sisters do what they do. You have no idea what they are thinking or what is going on in their household. The only glimpse you get is through the group of boys who "study" them both before and after their deaths. I think that this is what makes the book work so well. If it was told from a sister's point of view, there would be no story and no mystery. All of your questions would be answered. Thankfully, this is not the case. This is sort of a spoiler so be warned: I was suprised that the sisters, except for Cecelia, all killed themselves on the same night. For some reason I thought they were going to do it one by one. The fact that they all did it at once makes it more of a mystery as to why they did it, and also more shocking. I love that the book really has no answer to this question. As the reader, your guess is just as good as the boys who witness/went through it. I love how this book is sort of surreal and dreamlike but still feels like it is something that could happen in your neighborhood. I completely loved this book and is now one of my all-time favorites!

[foolplustime · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I wanted to like this more.It was very well written - insert various burblings about the male gaze - however, I feel it suffered from a lack of grounding context. The story is recounted from this non-specific point in the future by this/these narrator/s, but there wasn't, for me, the reason for it. You've got this male gaze but I didn't feel it had the level of self-awareness there; it doesn't feel quite as deliberate as it could in either direction (ignorance is a great trick to pull).As a result, I felt the ending sputtered and fizzled out rather than drawing to a close. Lacking, but the rest of it was excellent.

[rainpebble_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides; (5*)This is, I think, a rather unique story. We never really understand the main characters but we do get to know the minor characters quite well. We do not see growth in the characters within the covers of this book but somehow it all feels right. It seems on the surface to be a simple story, however it is anything but. It is artistic without losing any of its entertainment value.Eugenides gives us a story with many layers filled with strong undercurrents and quiet symbolism. The book is about the sad fate of the Libson girls but on the other hand the author uses the girls merely as a focal point for themes (often using strong symbolism and light subtext) about the place of religion, the nature of humans, and perhaps even the meaning of life within the book. There is deep significance in the recurring themes of religious icons and in the fate of the neighborhood's elm trees. The Virgin Suicides is full of symbolism and metaphors but he manages to stay very readable. To have such heavy symbolism and not create a pretentious book is a very difficult balance but Eugenides pulls it off brilliantly. The writing is fluid and the prose beautiful. Eugenides turns the most mundane into the most haunting and beautiful prose and the book is filled with dark humor along with reality. Though some may find it's ending somewhat unfulfilling but our libraries are full of books that can offer you character growth but few can offer such appealing prose and such powerful emotions and ideas as The Virgin Suicides offers. Just read it!

[adonisguilfoyle · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Jeffrey Eugenides' books are not the easiest to read, combining anecdotal angst from his own background with a sort of modern American mythology, but I seem to be hooked anyway. The Virgin Suicides is probably his most famous title - with 'the film of the book', starring Kirsten Dunst - but also the shortest and the strangest. I don't think I could have handled more pages on the subject!Narrated by a group of teenage boys, looking back as men on the sad demise of a neighbourhood family, the story charts the suicide of one young girl, Cecilia Lisbon, the impact on her family, and then the climactic response of her four sisters. Set once again in Grosse Pointe, although never directly referenced, Eugenides' once again balances the unlikely events of the plot with teenage angst and the very real depiction of despair. I felt sorry for the remaining Lisbon girls, not only for losing a sister, but also for seemingly being punished by their parents for not dying. The crumbling house is a haunting display of the family's grief.A very taut and poignant study of loss and longing, brief but powerful.

[xuebi-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The debut novel by Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides tells the story of Grosse Pointe, Michigan in the 1970s and how this community is deeply affected by the suicides of the five Lisbon sisters. The narration is uniquely in the first-person plural: a group of teenage boys infatuated by the sisters and mesmerised by their deaths.

Eugenides richly describes the story and thus allows the reader to fully absorb themselves into the lives of this community and become similarly obsessed with the mysterious Lisbon girls.

The story itself is rich and creepy, the slow horror of the inevitable suicides gradually grows on the reader even as they experience along with the boys the increased carefree attitude the girls have.

A moving story of growing up, life, love, and death, this is a perfect example of mythology building - how the suicides affected the boys particularly as they try to understand the mystery. For even when adults, the boys are still captivated by the deaths of the Lisbon girls, whose hold transcends the novel itself and captivates the reader also.

[morgantaylor-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a hard one to rate and review. It's a very beautifully written book and the unique outside perspective is what carries the book. But I found myself liking the concept of this book much more than how the book actually played out. I would have been fine with not knowing all of the answers and not getting to know the girls personally if there had been more to the story. More piecing together of the mystery even if the mystery wasn't solved. As I continued reading and figured out that this book wasn't necessarily about the girls but really about male youth in the 1970's it really was hard not to be disappointed. I am not in need of more stories about male adolescence. Frankly not much happens in this book, one comment I read on goodreads is that it's "masturbatory reminiscence of what it felt like to be an American middle class white boy in suburbs in the 1950s (Mike Finn)" which I think is accurate and it left me wanting more. I mean really nothing happens. We don't learn much at all about the girls. We already knew they were going to commit suicide from the beginning. And these things could have worked well for me if we had gotten more in some other sense. I am glad I read it and I will be watching the film adaptation to see how they worked with the perspective which is so crucial to this book.I don't know this seems harsh but at the same time I did like it in ways and it's just really a hard one. I'm not sure how exactly I feel.

[cestovatela · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Shortly after reading this book, I wrote: I was surprised by how much I liked this book. I believed in the girls' anguish and I was touched (and creeped out) by the boys' efforts, first to save them and then to preserve their memory. Now I find it impossible to retrieve any memory of reading the book, which puts it solidly in my middle-of-the-road category. If I can't remember it, it couldn't have been too striking.

[susanbevans · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I'm not going to give you my traditional plot summary in this review - I believe the title pretty much says it all. The story centers around five teenage girls - sisters: Therese, Mary, Bonnie, Lux and Cecilia Lisbon. Set in 1970's era Michigan, The Virgin Suicides is narrated through the eyes of the boys orbiting around the Lisbon girls' lives. And that as they say, is that. To give more details would take away from the magic contained within.Let me first say that despite the disturbing subject matter, I found The Virgin Suicides to be well-written and tragically beautiful. Jeffrey Eugenides' writing gives this obviously dark story the gentle and enchanting feel of a fairy tale. The Virgin Suicides is simply haunting, perhaps due to the obsessive point of view and speculations of the neighborhood boys. Jeffrey Eugenides is a superb example of everything a writer should be - brilliant with his prose, compelling with his setting, and engaged in his plot. The finished product is a remarkably readable, atmospheric tale, bending at times towards the Gothic. A touching and realistic story, artistically written, The Virgin Suicides is an interesting and unsettling story that should not be missed.

[alexrichman_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A dark, modern fairytale scattered with wonderful lines but hampered by the bizarre narration. Calliope's presence in Middlesex grounds the story as something which could be real, but the collective of creepy youths presenting a dossier on the titular sisters distanced me from their plight.

[snakeshands · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Tour-de-force. And I mean it literally, not as one of those stupid things reviewers use to mean "real great!" This book is only as good as it is because Eugenides is such a talented writer. It could have been another dull story about male tween-age alienation in the 50s, but instead by sheer skill, he makes it into this super-elegiac look at what it's like to be a suburban boy still kinda confused by this whole mysterious fascinating and frightening world girls seem to inhabit at that age. It's also a great look at the life cycle of suburbia, and the way you slowly realize the way it flattens real life into something a little more artificial.But really, just, the LANGUAGE. It's one of those books that's polished to Great Gatsby levels; I can't even IMAGINE the number of drafts here to get those shimmering, piercing sentences. And the sense of voice and mood is right up there as well. It's gorgeous, it draws you in, and when I noticed I hadn't added this one, I knew I had to say something.

[foxen_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Forwarning: this will be a wishy-washy review. I had trouble liking this book. I could tell what it was going for- it wanted a sort of haunting, To Kill a Mockingbird-esque, classic neighborhood childhood feel. I suppose it had it, but it never pulled me in. By all rights this is a very interesting book. It's narrated in second person plural, "we" is (are?) the narrator- ostensibly one of the neighborhood boys, but really kind of a generic boyhood collective consciousness; he's never one of the boys who does anything or has a name. It's an interesting device. It puts the reader in a position of generic nostalgia, the way you would remember childhood events that you witnessed but were not a part of, that seemed just a little bit unreal looking back. But it still didn't quite get to me the way I wanted it too. It was haunting, but it was also a little bit boring. The narrator is looking back, trying to piece together why the five Lisbon girls committed suicide. That's the hook of the story, the thing that's supposed to keep you reading, and I suppose it does but, as I said, it never really pulled me in. The first three quarters of the book, looking at the girls from a distance in the time between suicides, mainly just struck me as a little bit dull. Maybe that was just me, though, and it did pick up at the end. Also, though, I think the problem I had with it was part of what the book was going for. The suicides are a mystery being investigated by someone who's entire character is defined by not understanding why this happened; it shouldn't be very surprising, then, that you never get to know the characters. The narrator is interested in the suicides because they were a part of his childhood, but that's not a good enough reason for the reader (or at least for me), and the book, though it tried, didn't ever really give me a good substitute. I could see what it was going for, but in the end it didn't pull me in. If you don't care why the girls did it it's very difficult to appreciate the narrator trying to piece it together.On a slightly different note, though, the aspect of the book that did interest me was the treatment of gender (really shouldn't be a surprise from the author of Middlesex, I suppose). The girls being constantly referred to homogeneously as "the Lisbon girls" and the way the local boys (i.e. the narrator) sometimes got them confused and regarded them as a unit grated on me. As, I think, it was intended to. I think the end of the book strongly suggests that this attitude is actually a big part of the real answer to the mystery, which the narrator continues to fail to grasp. "The Lisbon girls" say more about the narrating childhood culture than about the girls themselves, I think.So, the book was interesting enough that I finished it, and it kept me thinking about certain aspects of it for a while afterward, but I still didn't really like it. There were aspects that were very good, and a lot that it didn't really earn, to my mind. Or maybe I just missed the point by wanting a bit more narrative interest. If anything I've said sounded interesting to you then give it a try; plenty of people think the book is literary genius so it's worth the attempt, but know what to expect.

[silenceiseverything · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I remember watching The Virgin Suicides when I was 11 and it had first come out on VHS (and DVD probably). My first thought when I finished the movie was "They all killed themselves? What a STUPID movie!" So, I decided to finally check out the book (and rewatch the movie). And I did like the book a bit more than I liked the movie, but then again, I wasn't really blown away. After rewatching the movie, I am led to believe that it is highly overrated. Pretty good flick? Yes. Wonderful, beautiful, masterpiece? Ehh no! In regards to the book version, it's sort of scary what can happen when you smother your kids. Seriously, the mom in The Virgin Suicides was a bit of a monster. I am a firm believer that kids need an opportunity to breathe. Helicopter moms always annoy me, but Mrs. Lisbon took it to a freaky level. Taking your kids out of school and giving them no means to contact anyone outside they're house is way extreme. I can understand why the girls killed themselves. I may not approve of it, but I understand it. Since The Virgin Suicides is narrated by Lisbon girls' next door neighbors, teenage boys who were vastly infatuated with the Lisbon girls, we're not given a direct road into their inner psyches. In fact, the Lisbon girls seem to be less individual entities than one whole group. Sometimes, it was hard to tell who was who. However, I'm thinking that was Eugenides intention. These boys didn't see Mary. Therese. Bonnie. Lux. Cecilia. But rather saw Mary, Therese, Bonnie, Lux, Cecilia AKA the Lisbon Girls. Due to this, the Lisbon girls remain a mystery. One thing that heavily annoyed me in The Virgin Suicides (besides the monster mom and the submissive dad) was that the narrator tended to go on tangents that had nothing to do with them or the Lisbon girls themselves. I kept thinking "and the point of mentioning that is?"; like things their neighbor's grandmother thought about life. I'm sorry, but what does that have to do with the Lisbon girls? So, I thought The Virgin Suicides was just okay. I would have liked to known more about the Lisbon girls themselves, even though I know it isn't possible for the boys to know that much about them. Interesting read and interesting movie, anyway.

[carpe_librum · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides (author of Middlesex and more recently The Marriage Plot) seems to have been around for ages, despite only being published in 1993.The novel is set in 1970s Michigan, USA and centres around the Lisbon girls, who - we learn very early on - all commit suicide.Their decline and ultimate demise is narrated in first person plural, which I found confusing in the beginning until I realised I wasn't just reading their story as witnessed by a teenage boy, but from the perspective of a group of boys.Their curiosity about the Lisbon girls fills the pages, each of them having their own story to tell about one of the sisters. This fixation develops into a morbid fascination that never really leaves the boys in their later lives.Despite the somewhat dark subject matter of teenage depression and suicide, Eugenides is somehow able to weave in plenty of humorous moments and amusing observations and his writing is a pleasure to consume.The Virgin Suicides is a haunting but rewarding read, and I would definitely consider reading more from Eugenides in the future.