Book Review: The Virgin Suicides

From Goodreads: The haunting, humorous and tender story of the brief lives of the five entrancing Lisbon sisters, The Virgin Suicides, now a major film, is Jeffrey Eugenides' classic debut novel.
The shocking thing about the girls was how nearly normal they seemed when their mother let them out for the one and only date of their lives. Twenty years on, their enigmatic personalities are embalmed in the memories of the boys who worshipped them and who now recall their shared adolescence: the brassiere draped over a crucifix belonging to the promiscuous Lux; the sisters' breathtaking appearance on the night of the dance; and the sultry, sleepy street across which they watched a family disintegrate and fragile lives disappear.

Thoughts: "On the morning the last Lisbon daughter took her turn at suicide - it was Mary this time, and sleeping pills, like Therese - the two paramedics arrived at the house knowing exactly where the knife drawer was, and the gas oven, and the beam in the basement from which it was possible to tie a rope."

As opening sentences go, I think this is one of the best I've ever read. But in the end, the book is not so much about the girls as it is about the effect of the girls on those around them. Told from the point of view of one of the neighbourhood boys who desperately wanted to know the girls better, 20 years after the events, the reader, like the narrator is never fully in the picture of what is going on. Instead we are standing on the outside, looking in, trying to make connections, trying to be a part of their lives and feeling helpless as it all falls apart around us. The Virgin Suicides is a metaphor lovers wet dream - the demise of the girls, the demise of their house, the demise of the neighbourhood, the demise of middle class America. It's all there. Commentary on teen suicide and it's rise is an obvious, but important theme, although there is a slightly disparaging tone as you feel the focus on suicide by the media and schools is simply an effort to appear to be concerned without offering any real solutions - an attempt to look like you're doing something while actually having no idea what you should do.
Once again Eugenides writing has me believing I was reading the recollection of someone who many years on was still trying to make sense of it all. You  could imagine sitting with the narrator at a bar as he told you this sad and desperate tale, realising the lasting effect it had on him and the others who grew up within the orbit of the girls. I find his writing captivating. Not a word is wasted or misplaced. Another writer I will definitely read more of.

The Virgin Suicides gets 4 stars

 *        Did not like it
**       It was OK
***      Liked it
****    Really liked it
*****   It was amazing

 

Book Review: Middlesex

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From Goodreads: In the spring of 1974, Calliope Stephanides, a student at a girls' school in Grosse Pointe, finds herself drawn to a chain-smoking, strawberry-blonde classmate with a gift for acting. The passion that furtively develops between them - along with Callie's failure to develop physically - leads Callie to suspect that she is not like other girls. In fact, she is not really a girl at all.
The explanation for this shocking state of affairs is a rare genetic mutation - and a guilty secret - that have followed Callie's grandparents from the crumbling Ottoman Empire to Prohibition-era Detroit and beyond, outlasting the glory days of the Motor City, the race riots of 1967, and the family's second migration, into the foreign country known as suburbia. Thanks to the gene, Callie is part girl, part boy. And even though the gene's epic travels have ended, her own odyssey has only begun.
Spanning eight decades - and one unusually awkward adolescence - Jeffrey Eugenides' long-awaited second novel is a grand, original fable of crossed bloodlines, the intricacies of gender, and the deep, untidy promptings of desire.

Thoughts: I really wanted to have this finished by the end of 2014 as it was part of my 100 Best Book List Challenge 2014. I missed by a day so I'm including it anyway - it's my challenge and I can cheat if I want to! 
To tell you the truth I had no idea what the book was about. Like a few other reviewers before me, the title suggested to me English, 1920's or 30's. To say I was incredibly wrong is an understatement!
Middlesex did however, draw me in. From the beginning where Callie tells you

I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974

to the end I was enthralled, first by Lefty and Desdemona's story and then by Callie's. The depth and breadth of the novel was captivating. I found Eugenides writing lovely. For me his phrasing and pace had me completely believing I was reading the story of someone who just needed to get their story on paper. When life was going well for Callie, it was smooth and calming. More troubled times and the writing was rougher and anxious.

This year I'm going to rate all  my books. I'm going to use the same scale as Goodreads, as I rate all my books there as well. They use the following five star system:

*        Did not like it
**       It was OK
***      Liked it
****    Really liked it
*****   It was amazing

For this, my first review, I'm giving it a 4. Not a bad start to the year!