The Virgin Suicides by Jeffery Eugenides Pgs. 1-74

Summary: By far this has been the most interesting book I’ve read ever.  It’s mainly about these five sisters called the Lisbon girls. This family is crazy, twisted and strange from any other family the neighborhood of this suburban place as witnessed. It start off with thirteen-year-old Cecilia, the youngest, is found with slit wrists in the bathtub a picture of the Virgin Mary. She is rushed to the hospital and she is life saved. Neighbors think that Celia attempted suicide because of her deep love for Dominic Palazzolo. Dominic, an Italian boy, who also has a deep desire for her but doesn’t know how to go about it. You would think one time of all this is all you need to take a second look at life. But I guess maybe its not, reading that Cecilia attempted a second time and succeed. The second time she was looking out her window and fell over the window seal on to the fence which killed her instantly.

            Oddly at this time the cemetery workers on the time are on strike. This neighborhood as unnescary seeing that nobody has really passed away except for dogs, goldfishes and such. As time goes on the family tries to “handle” the “accident “death of Cecelia. No one leaves the house except to go to church or to school. Groceries are delivered once a week. Before Cecilia's suicide had attracted no media attention but on October, an anonymous letter in the local newspaper called for the school to address teenager anxiety. A local reporter writes a detailed report on Cecilia’s suicides. Also, a local television station interviews teenagers who regret their attempts at suicide. At the end of the day, the Lisbon girls were entertainment for the neighborhood boys like people and daytime television.

Quote:  “Cecilia’s eye’s opened and her mouth keeps contracting like that of a stinger fish, she had succeeded, on the second trying hurling herself out the world” (Eugenides 46)

Reaction:  When I read this part my mouth dropped. Not because she was successful but that fact she did it again. Cecilia wore a 1920s dress hardly took showers and many other strange things. Personally I feel she was one of two things. Either crazy, as in she be sent to an asylum, or in need of some serious attention. If I was a parent the first my child who does such a thing I would have my eyes on them at all times. It seems as if after her first attempt nothing in the house changed. Then went she was gone for well the serious mourning began. Maybe it’s just a lack of understand on my behalf.