Doe

The Virgin suicides [Review]

[Review for those who have not read it]

This book is the story of five doomed sisters; Cecilia Lisbon, Lux Lisbon, Bonnie Lisbon, Mary Lisbon, and Therese Lisbon. From the beginning of the book you know who's gonna die and by what means, or more precisely how they each kill themselves. Over the course of 12 months each Lisbon girl commits suicide one after the other. This story takes place somewhere around the 60s and takes a biased play on the American religious household. Not only is this story awful [in a good way] but it is romanticized by the story's narrators, the neighborhood boys know in there 40s and 50s looking back at the events of the girls in awe and wonder through the male gaze as they try to debunk the female mind and the reason for there actions. I give this a 5/5 [as you will soon notice i do for most books] and is a thoughtful emotional read. As a word of warning I do not recommend this book to anyone younger than thirteen for it has Suicide[obviously],Self harm,Cussing, Alcohol,Self harm,Sexual Actions, Sex, and pedophilia along with heavy topics that carry a lot of emotional baggage so I do not recommend this to the faint of heart [i shouldn't talk much as I am faint of heart]

[Review for those who have read the book]

I was stunned by this book throughout for its use of death. The was that they romanticized each girl until she was unbelievable, as if she did not exist in the first place. Eugenides has a special way of making each girls death mean something specifically even though most can not see the meaning at first glance. Cecilia is remarkable remarkably unselfconscious for a 13 year old the youngest child , never reaching the age past childhood whimsy that she starts to see her flaws and how others think of them. A thing most female reader envy her for. Never once thinking of her appearance. She lives in an ill fitted 1920s wedding gown stained and torn. She is seen as the odd one out of the girls often blasting Celtic music and embodying the virgin Mary. As well as speaking of herself as a single entity. Her first attempt sets something off in the girls like a candle burning. Firstly trying to slit her wrist in the bath with a picture of the virgin Mary. She survived this first attempt which led us to her famous quote about being a 13 year old girl.[which I greatly related to as I was 13 when I first read this] This shows both the boys[narrators] and the male readers that a women's, girls problems run deeper than just appearance and insecurities but the action of simply existing as a female becomes painful after reaching puberty. Though Cecilia lives in a heavily religious house she is very religious in different ways as she believes is the unexplainable [zodiac signs,fate, etc.]. This is reflected in her death as she dies in an unexplainable way. And whether or not she was trying to aim for the fence or not most can agree that her death was one of the most brutal that lead the other girls to there death in a spiral.                        

Next is Lux Lisbon age 14, the second youngest Lisbon sister. She is depicted as a male fantasy. She had been a secret smoker since 12 and is seen riding motorcycles with older men and laughing with delinquents. Her masculine foil, trip fontaine seems to be the only person able to catch her off guard,leaving her for dust heart broken at homecoming. This sends her down her spiral of sex outside in the winter with strangers and chain smoking starting her self destructive behavior. Lux always seems to act strategically and deliberately leaving the boys to wonder her real actions throughout the book. As most would think, Lux is a polar opposite of Cecilia but that is far from the truth. Lux is beautiful but not self conscious. She is never depicted doubting herself or her abilities, rather using her feminine charm as a weapon to destroy both herself and the boys[and men sadly] she encounters. Lux dies of carbon monoxide poisoning after locking herself in the garage.

The next child that is 15 years old is Bonnie. Bonnie's is described as skidish and quite, almost docile. She begins to crumble as the house dose. For she is one of the two true opposites of Cecilia. Leading to her death she becomes thin and anorexic,along with becoming obsessive with religion praying the rosary every morning. Not for spirituality, no but more of the further expand the hole in her that is growing because of the environment around her. She hangs her self in the basement.

Mary, second oldest at 16 is the true opposite of Cecilia. Becoming obsessive about appearance as the house begins to deteriorate. She attempts to rid herself of her rotting by obsessive hygiene and constantly dressing up in odd sweaters to do menial task such as going out to get the mail each morning. What also makes her interesting is that she failed to commit suicide that same night as her other sisters and died a month later yet everyone treated her as it she was dead. It was like she didn't exist until her death. She finally dies in july by overdose a month after her other sisters after spending a month in the empty house sleeping and showering obsessively.

Lastly there is the oldest, Therese age 17. She is described as bright and studious almost the opposite as her sisters,planning on going to an ivy league till her death. Greatly self conscious for many reasons she is almost pushed to the side even though she is the most successful of her sisters. Outshined by there wild self destructive acts. She dies by a overdose of gin and sleeping pills.

I think this book is a perfect description of the teenage girl both modern and not. A book girls can universally understand.