Book review: 'The Virgin Suicides'
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BULLY PULPIT
Just about everyone knows someone who has been bullied, in ways big and small. Understandably, though, many victims are reluctant to speak about their experiences. We found some who aren't.
By ALEXIS SKOPOS, Tarpon Springs High
One suicide, two suicides, three suicides, four . . .
It started with the youngest of five Lisbon sisters, 13-year-old Cecilia. A few weeks after a botched attempt to end her life by cutting her wrists, she succeeded by jumping from the second-story window of her family’s suburban home. No one knew why, until her family read journal after journal written by Cecilia. They could come to only one conclusion: The pressure of growing up was too much for her to bear.
That summer changed each of the Lisbon girls’ lives, as well as the whole neighborhood. The mysterious Lisbon home became more eerie to the boys who liked the sisters, and adults tried even harder to keep their children away from the girls. Lux, Bonnie, Therese and Mary Lisbon try to go about their lives in isolation.
One fall, handsome Trip pursues Lux. Their romance spirals out of control, resulting in the Lisbon parents putting their girls on lock-down. They are pulled from school, not allowed to see or communicate with anyone other than family.
The neighborhood boys persist in getting in touch with the girls, using, among other things, light signals from the house across the street. One night the girls finally answer and invite the boys over. The boys get the shock of their lives when they show up at midnight to discover a mass suicide.
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides is a novel turned into a film (in 1999), like a lot of other books, but what sets this story apart is how it pinpoints the difficulties of growing up, of moving from young, tender age to maturity. It’s also written from the point of view of a boy in the neighborhood, so you get the teenage-boy-in-love perspective.
Even in the sad, disturbing face of lives lost, this book is heartwarming, and should resonate with anyone who has ever gotten older (that would be all of you, one hopes). It’s easy to make a personal connection with the girls, and guys, in this tale. That’s what makes a story great.
Author: Jeffrey Eugenides
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1993
