I read the book after having seen the movie years ago. It was the perfect situation: I could only remember fragments of the movie, and only vague glimpses of the characters, so I can say the book is better than the movie, but the movie's interpretation didn't infringe on mine. I still had room to imagine. The novel is Eugenides' first, and I'm reading it at the same time as Middlesex, another of his. The narrative styles are similar, and there is crossover in details, like his use of Detroit and Greek mythology and history. It's really interesting to read them at the same time. Give it a try.
A group of boys follow the lives of the Lisbon family, the father, mother and five teenage daughters, aged a year apart from thirteen to seventeen. Under the strict surveillance of Mrs. Lisbon, the girls go from school to home, school to church, and very few places in between. When Cecilia, the youngest kills herself at her own party, the girls withdraw from the few activities they're involved in. And after a brief window of freedom to go to the only school dance they'll attend, their house is kept on lockdown. The remaining girls fill their time silently watching the boys who are watching them. Finally the girls make contact with short notes and coded light flashings, convincing the boys their love is returned, only to take it away, just as silently.
And despite all this, the book isn't stiflingly depressing. The back of the book sums it up well: "a tender, wickedly funny tale of love and terror, sex and suicide, memory and imagination". Somehow Eugenides makes the suicides survivable through the boys whose obsession with the five girls leads them to collect every memory of the girls' life they can.
I'm giving it 8 70's records out of 10.
Steph
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