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kristinmasse's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
rossetto_e_guai's review against another edition
2.0
La sola cosa che mi resta di questo romanzo è un vago senso di oppressione e fastidio.
Non ho apprezzato l’espediente letterario del narratore collettivo maschile esterno, avrei preferito un narratore femminile, e nemmeno il filtro dell’innamoramento/venerazione adolescenziale con cui sono rappresentate le sorelle Lisbon.
C’è qualcosa di claustrofobico e forse un pelo morboso in questo romanzo a mio parere interessante ( l’ambiente borghese, il bigottismo religioso, la noia della normalità della vita di provincia, l’elaborazione psicogena del lutto inspiegabile di una sorella minore), solo non ne apprezzo la “forma” finale.
Non ho apprezzato l’espediente letterario del narratore collettivo maschile esterno, avrei preferito un narratore femminile, e nemmeno il filtro dell’innamoramento/venerazione adolescenziale con cui sono rappresentate le sorelle Lisbon.
C’è qualcosa di claustrofobico e forse un pelo morboso in questo romanzo a mio parere interessante ( l’ambiente borghese, il bigottismo religioso, la noia della normalità della vita di provincia, l’elaborazione psicogena del lutto inspiegabile di una sorella minore), solo non ne apprezzo la “forma” finale.
squid_vicious's review against another edition
4.0
“Obviously, Doctor, you’ve never been a thirteen-year-old girl.”
Ouch.
Does anyone else remember the sheer insanity that being a teenager was? I mean, obviously Jeffrey Eugenides does: he remembers that it’s physically uncomfortable to simply exist at times, and that becoming utterly obsessed with just about anything is a good distraction from that feeling that your skin fits on all wrong. And that’s what a little band of boys from suburban Michigan end up doing: they become obsessed with a quintet of ethereally beautiful girls, who left behind a story as enigmatic as it is morbid.
Cecilia, Lux, Bonnie, Mary and Therese. The enigmatic Lisbon sisters, daughters of the high school’s math teacher, and the objects of every boy’s desire. But the nameless boys who tell this story do not simply desire them sexually: they crave an intimacy with those girls that only romantic adolescents crave. They want to know them and understand them, their insatiable curiosity spurred on by the suicide of the youngest sister, Cecilia. It is only much later in their lives that they manage to piece together the Lisbon sisters’ story, by collecting souvenirs, notebooks and testimonials from those who knew them and putting them together in this strangely beautiful and sad tapestry. But even that is only a superficial knowledge of those girls, and the much-wanted intimacy remains elusive and out of reach.
I love the image on the cover of my edition: five dead roses for five dead girls. Simple, perhaps a touch affected, but then, that’s what this novel is: a short read that sometimes comes across as melodramatic and pretentious, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t touch a lot of nerves. I loved the prose, dense and sensual a little drowsy; I could see the story in snapshots, like going through an album of old faded pictures.
We never really know what the deal is with Mrs. Lisbon, but I hated her fiercely. For locking her girls up to "protect" them, for crushing their spirits by systematically denying that they were flesh and blood creatures, for destroying Lux’s records - but mostly by refusing to admit that she may have a part of responsibility in the children's tragic demise. I have my own biases for being so angry at her denial, but that fear parents have of being the reason their children are not the picture perfect kids they wanted, and blaming everyone else in their denial, is a very frequent and hugely damaging problem.
I grew up in a suburb not unlike the one the Lisbon sisters lived in, and it was, just as described by this book, a sanitized living Hell. Everyone spent a lot of time pretending everything was hunky-dory, but I later learned that the West Island had one of the highest teen suicide rates in the world in the 90s. Good thing I didn’t read the book when it first came out… When “the boys” mention the gossipy neighbor who said the girls didn’t want to die, they just wanted to get out of that house, I knew exactly what she meant by that. Few teenagers really want to die, they just want to be someone else and somewhere else. It takes patience and resilience to grow up and get out.
I thought a lot about the way these boys, who are now men, perceive those girls, how artificial if romantic, their ideas (and ideals) of them are – and how strange the realization of this spuriousness is to them. And I greatly appreciated that this novel in no way tries to romanticize suicide, or make it sexy: the impossibility to ever fully understand it is painted very sensibly, as is the effect it can have on not only the people close to someone who takes their own life, but their entire community.
A strangely luminous, evocative and haunting novel. 4 and a half stars.
Ouch.
Does anyone else remember the sheer insanity that being a teenager was? I mean, obviously Jeffrey Eugenides does: he remembers that it’s physically uncomfortable to simply exist at times, and that becoming utterly obsessed with just about anything is a good distraction from that feeling that your skin fits on all wrong. And that’s what a little band of boys from suburban Michigan end up doing: they become obsessed with a quintet of ethereally beautiful girls, who left behind a story as enigmatic as it is morbid.
Cecilia, Lux, Bonnie, Mary and Therese. The enigmatic Lisbon sisters, daughters of the high school’s math teacher, and the objects of every boy’s desire. But the nameless boys who tell this story do not simply desire them sexually: they crave an intimacy with those girls that only romantic adolescents crave. They want to know them and understand them, their insatiable curiosity spurred on by the suicide of the youngest sister, Cecilia. It is only much later in their lives that they manage to piece together the Lisbon sisters’ story, by collecting souvenirs, notebooks and testimonials from those who knew them and putting them together in this strangely beautiful and sad tapestry. But even that is only a superficial knowledge of those girls, and the much-wanted intimacy remains elusive and out of reach.
I love the image on the cover of my edition: five dead roses for five dead girls. Simple, perhaps a touch affected, but then, that’s what this novel is: a short read that sometimes comes across as melodramatic and pretentious, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t touch a lot of nerves. I loved the prose, dense and sensual a little drowsy; I could see the story in snapshots, like going through an album of old faded pictures.
We never really know what the deal is with Mrs. Lisbon, but I hated her fiercely. For locking her girls up to "protect" them, for crushing their spirits by systematically denying that they were flesh and blood creatures, for destroying Lux’s records - but mostly by refusing to admit that she may have a part of responsibility in the children's tragic demise. I have my own biases for being so angry at her denial, but that fear parents have of being the reason their children are not the picture perfect kids they wanted, and blaming everyone else in their denial, is a very frequent and hugely damaging problem.
I grew up in a suburb not unlike the one the Lisbon sisters lived in, and it was, just as described by this book, a sanitized living Hell. Everyone spent a lot of time pretending everything was hunky-dory, but I later learned that the West Island had one of the highest teen suicide rates in the world in the 90s. Good thing I didn’t read the book when it first came out… When “the boys” mention the gossipy neighbor who said the girls didn’t want to die, they just wanted to get out of that house, I knew exactly what she meant by that. Few teenagers really want to die, they just want to be someone else and somewhere else. It takes patience and resilience to grow up and get out.
I thought a lot about the way these boys, who are now men, perceive those girls, how artificial if romantic, their ideas (and ideals) of them are – and how strange the realization of this spuriousness is to them. And I greatly appreciated that this novel in no way tries to romanticize suicide, or make it sexy: the impossibility to ever fully understand it is painted very sensibly, as is the effect it can have on not only the people close to someone who takes their own life, but their entire community.
A strangely luminous, evocative and haunting novel. 4 and a half stars.
eucandcitescgen's review against another edition
4.0
deluluness ul tanar si inocent masculin (stalking, intrare prin efractie, furt de obiecte personale)
pankaplan's review against another edition
5.0
Skoro se mi chce napsat: První kolo, a hned premiér. Je fantastické, že debut Jeffreyho Eugenidese je tak hrozně dobře napsaný. Příběh na pevní pohled morbidní, při podrobném zkoumání mimořádně něžný a hlavně hrozně, hrozně dobře napsaný. Eugenides má dar popsat všednodenní okolnosti a jevy tak dobře, že po dobu čtení knihy budete takřka doslova žít před domem Lisbonových. Budete potkávat jejich dcera, budete šmírovat za oknem a vzrušovat se u něžně lascivních momentů. Ten příběh je o zkáze a proměně a ta metafora je tak působivá a stále aktuální, že to bere dech. D
veravdb's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
alexh1538's review against another edition
3.0
It took me about an entire year to finish this book. Got half way through and completely gave up, then forced myself to finish because I couldn’t justify me spending money on new books yet. This book just gave me a headache, and left me unsettled. There is no deep meaning to it, but I do like the movie. These poor girls never had a chance, mom was actually fucking insane and too controlling. The boys freakish obsessive nature with these girls that they’ve had two exchanges with is creepy. Religious guilt, abusive parents, and being a teenage girl at the same time. Yeah I don’t blame them for killing themselves.
davalanche's review against another edition
3.0
if i could give this book 2.5 stars i would. it was entertaining but it just felt plain creepy most of the time. and not in an “edge of your seat” creepy kind of way. more in an “this is just making me uncomfortable” creepy.