The Virgin Suicides opens the sticky, somnorific suburbia of '70s Michigan with the closing of doors as the body of last Lisbon sister is carried out. The beginning of the Eugenides’ debut novel is marred by the aftermath of a year of suicides - the five Lisbon girls one after the other, their passings mysterious and incomprehensible.
Through the nostalgic eyes of neighborhood boys once infatuated (only some 20 years later), we are offered a glimpse back into the cloistered lives of the five girls—to lengthen those 13 months to endless summer days spent under elm trees, weeks in the autumn dampness of the Lisbon house, and years of winter that forever shrouded their town in a blanket of memory of their lost youth.
Considering that 20 years have passed since the suicides, why do you think that the boys narrating the story never really moved on?
Art by Arielle
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Arielle is currently a fine arts student (Information Design). She loves taking pictures, watching movies, going to new places, hoarding books and collaborating with other people to make things. She would like to pursue a career in photography, film and design (yes all three) in the future.
I think they never moved on because the girls were just so different. Imagine being bored to death growing up in the suburbs, and having 5 beautiful sisters who were practically the symbol of romantic (they always seemed otherworldly, or nymph-like) and sexual 'extremes' (like Lux and the 'virgins'). Plus the mystery behind why they did it in the first place (and the fact that it happened in a year) is scary but fascinating enough to remain with you for life. The suicides, imo, are a metaphor for the loss of youth and innocence, and I think that the boys were so affected by that that they can't help but not forget.
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