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Five teenage sisters all smart, beautiful, beloved are dead by their own hands.
The story unfolds during a hot 1970s summer, somewhere around Detroit.
Cecilia, the youngest Lisbon sister, slashes her wrists but is rescued before she bleeds to death.
The Virgin Suicidesmade an impact nearly as dramatic.
For readers, its compressed time frame distills the haziness of youth into a song of misplaced nostalgia.
When the novel was published in 1993 we were pre-Bieber Fever, pre-13 Reasons Why, pre-nubile vlogger fame.
Teenagers were consumers rather than influencers.
The rest of the 1990s would see a surge of narratives that relished the complexities of teenage life.
Teens certainly tuned in.
The Virgin Suicidesanticipated, and perhaps set off, that American adult obsession with teenage tragedy.
The novel somehow feels like youth itself, a collection of overheated memories.
And then he takes it all away.
Eugenidess plot recapitulates that imaginary journey through time.
Eugenidess men never ask themselveswhytheyre so fixated on that year, and as readers we dont ask, either.
The setting feels Edenic, too,Leave It to Beaverwholesome.
Its a setting like Riverdale or Capeside orPretty Little Liars Rosewood, unblemished until tragedy strikes.
This is the cultural legacy ofThe Virgin Suicides.
But the story of the Lisbon sisters remains encased in amber.
The boys end up with no answers: This is all a chasing after the wind.
I used to be one, I still am one.
