August '13 / Jeffrey Eugenides Reading: The Virgin Suicides

[Scheherazade]

In August, we will be reading The Virgin Suicides by Eugenides.

Please post your thoughts and questions in this thread.

[Dark Muse]

One of the things I am finding rather interesting about this book so far is the narrative voice. The narrator is a nameless individual, who we really know nothing about, other than the fact that they seem to have first hand knowledge of these strange events which began to take place. Also I found it interesting the way in which the narrator frequently uses terms such as "we" "us" and "our" opposed to "I" it is almost as if the narrator is speaking for the whole town.

[Scheherazade]

Yes, plural first person narrative voice is very unusual. The whole thing reminds me of Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" a little. Everyone watching intently but still clueless as to what's going on.

Also thought how different it is from "Little Women".

[mona amon]

Yes, at first I thought the narrator was one teenage boy accustomed to including his gang along with him when he speaks, but later discovered that it was a very definite 'we'. More thoughts about it later, when everyone's finished reading.

[Dark Muse]

Does anyone know when this story is meant to be taking place? I do not recall if anything was said to indicate what year it was. At first I just presumed it was present/modern but than there was a remark made about a milkman delivering milk, which made me wonder just when it was supposed to be.

[mona amon]

The Wikipedia entry says it takes place in Grosse Pointe, Michigan during the 1970s. I wouldn't have figured out the actual time period from the book as I'm unobservant on a first read, and anyway, it is a completely different culture to mine, but I did realize it was not happening in recent times.

[Dark Muse]

The Wikipedia entry says it takes place in Grosse Pointe, Michigan during the 1970s. I wouldn't have figured out the actual time period from the book as I'm unobservant on a first read, and anyway, it is a completely different culture to mine, but I did realize it was not happening in recent times.

I think that the sort of timelessness and also placenelessness so to speak (as I do not think there was anything stated in the book to clearly indicate where the story was set. I only knew it was meant to be in Michigan from reading a synopsis which said that is where the book was set) is interesting, while there are perhaps little details mentioned here and there which might given an indication of a particular time and place, I also think it is possible for this story to have been set anywhere, at anytime. There is nothing really obviously to set it up as belonging to a specific time and place. I think it is very universal/relatable.

There was the section about the article listing all the suicide statistics, and the high number of suicides in teenagers is something which is still discussed today.

And the Day of Grieving at the school reminded me of some of the asinine things my own school did, believing it was being helpful or productive in some way, when really it was just awaked and time wasting.

[papayahed]

The description of the fish flies on the first page jumps out at me as being from the Grosse Pointe/Lake St. Clair area, but that is probably only because I lived there.

[Dark Muse]

The narrative of this story kind of makes me think of The Brothers Karamazov in so far that the narrator who is telling the story imparting to the reader information that either they have witnessed themselves, or was imparted to them by others who knew the individual or individuals in question, but every once in a while a private detail will be revealed that makes you wonder, just how could have the narrator been privy to that?

Something that did not occur before the public eye or in the presence of the narrator, and that does not seem like something the individual would have spoken about or confided into anyone.

****Possible Spoiler*******

In this case it was a minor detail, but it did make me wonder. But I wondered how in the world could the narrator have known about Lux writing trips name with washable ink upon her undergarments? Particularly when it was acknowledged that Lux never spoke of Trip to any of the girls at school and it was only presumed that she confided her feelings to her sisters.