The Lisbon girls -- Mary, Therese, Bonnie, Lux, and Cecelia -- are five alluring, mysterious teenagers that draw and hold the attention of a group of boys on their street. The book begins with an attempted suicide by Cecelia, the youngest, and ends with the death of the eldest, Mary. From the beginning there are no secrets as to what will happen -- it is told from page one that all the girls will take their own lives. Yet Eugenides' witty (though slightly macabre) narration allows the reader to become so swept up in the lives of the Lisbon daughters that this is almost forgotten through the course of the book.

The decaying Lisbon house is used to demonstrate the time that passes from the first death to the last, and the fish flies that lay inches thick on every surface are often brought up as a subtle metaphor for death.

Any afternoon when one has a couple of hours to dedicate to a good book.

The portrayal of the Lisbon girls. Each one took on her own personality throughout and became very real characters -- especially Lux, on whose outrageous stunts and erotic affairs much of the book was focused. The narrator was neither named nor often mentioned; and though his friends played an essential role in the book they were never allowed to fully devolop as characters. This further drew attention and attracted me, the reader, to the Lisbon sisters.

I didn't much care for Mr. Lisbon. Though essential to the story, his character was neither in the background nor the foreground, but stuck awkwardly somewhere in between.

Go back to page one and start reading again.

Jeffery Eugenides has written one other novel that I know of, Middlesex. Though I haven't yet read it, both critics and readers have said it's very good. Judging by his first book, I wouldn't doubt that at all.

It's disturbing yet funny, and it stays with you long after the reading is done. It's both haunting and witty, morose and sexy, and it's very well-written.

If you're offended by sex, language, or suicide itself this wouldn't be the book for you.

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Created Jul 19, 2004 at 4:59pm • Submit your own review...