THE VIRGIN SUICIDES

What if all the pieces in the kaleidoscope were black? Meet the Lisbon daughters. Cecilia is first to end her life, followed not long after by Lux, Bonnie, Mary, and Therese. The girls, shielded from life by overprotective parents, leave everyone wondering--why? Jeffrey Eugenides, who won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Middlesex, reminds listeners that sitcom suburbia is a facade, that troubles lurk just behind the pretty paint. Narrating from the point of view of the town’s collective consciousness, Nick Landrum makes the ethereal feel real and the unusual, commonplace. Whether voicing the sisters, reading their diaries, or revealing the secrets of “boy-think,” his voice nudges the listener into a strange place that seems oddly familiar. Eugenides’s haunting debut novel gets a top-notch reading by Landrum. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/ SEP 06]