The Virgin Suicides by Jeffery Eugenides— A Book and Film Review
I still have my first copy of The Virgin Suicides. The same copy I took from my sister. The same paperback worn from years of being read and carried everywhere, every page dogeared at one point or another. I still have the same DVD, with permanent scratches on the disc brought about by constant rewatches. In high school I spent a lot of time watching Sofia Coppola’s masterful adaption of Jeffrey Eugenides’ debut novel, finding myself lost in the dreamy visuals Coppola created. I didn’t understand the importance of the novel or that it would become such a vital part of my life and influence my art.
The Virgin Suicides was the book I had on hand when I went through a medical scare at 19. Just as the Lisbon sisters spent their days idly lying around, I had to spend my lazy summer days indoors doing the same. I would read the book and then watch the film again and again. The repetitive rewatches and rereads allowed me to notice all the similarities and differences between the two, as well as become more mesmerized by the hazy lives of the sisters.
“What lingered after them was not life, which always overcomes natural death, but the most trivial list of mundane facts: a clock ticking on the wall, a room dim at noon, and the outrageousness of a human being thinking only of herself.”
Sofia Coppola was able to faultlessly bring to life a book that is so poetic in it’s storytelling and that so closely resembles a Greek tragedy in that the pain that is shown transcends time and is buried deep within their DNA, carried through generations. This is something that is obvious in both the book and the film. The Lisbon sisters as well their mother seem to carry a melancholia that reaches far into the past and that they themselves have no way of describing. This melancholia is something that Coppola and the actresses who played the Lisbon girls took from Eugenides’ novel and exquisitely portrayed on the screen.
How exactly does a first time director make a film based off a beloved book with an almost cult like following? She stays true to the story that the fans love and have carried with them. Coppola presented die-hard fans of the book with an honest adaptation. Although the first scene of the film is of Lux standing in the street with the often mentioned fish flies covering a car behind her, for me the moment Giovanni Ribisi as the narrator begins his voiceover as we see Cecelia onscreen (in the white dress, of course) for the first time is the real opening scene. And what a captivating opening scene it is.
“The trees like lungs, filling with air. My sister, the mean one, pulling my hair.”
In the book, Eugenides gives us a glimpse into Cecelia’s diary and the home life of the girls. When bringing that scene to life, Coppola choose to use Cecelia’s diary entries as voiceover to what I consider one of the best scenes in the film. The boys envision the girls in a field as Cecelia writes about the mundane activities they participate in day after day. It is in this scene - particularly in the film - that the boys’ infatuation with the girls becomes apparent. In the book, it is clear that the boys have crushes on the girl(s) across the street, whereas in the film I got a real sense of this almost false image that they have created. They hold the girls up on a pedestal and see them as these other worldly creatures that they just can’t help being attracted to, but they don’t really know them, just the idea of them they’ve created. It can be said that the girls presented in the dream scene are a false representation.
“Obviously, Doctor,” she said, “you’ve never been a thirteen-year-old girl.”
One of the differences I noticed with the book and the film was Cecelia’s attempted suicide. She lay in a tub of her own blood clutching a laminated picture of the Virgin Mary. And although Coppola got this scene in the film almost exactly how it was described in the book, Mrs. Lisbon’s stoicism was a change from her screaming and crying in the book as the paramedics carried Cecelia out on a stretcher. I feel like this slight difference really set the tone for her behavior throughout the rest of the film.
Her control over the girls is something that is apparent in the two mediums. She loves them so much that she wants to protect them and her way of protecting is to keep them closed off from the world, afraid that they will get hurt - whether physically, emotionally or mentally. After Cecelia’s suicide Mr. Lisbon begins to retreat inwards, while Mrs. Lisbon takes on the responsibility of taking care of the girls - something that in both the book and the film she seems perfectly okay with. It is incredibly clear that Mrs. Lisbon loves her daughters and this love doesn’t always come across as controlling. For me the scene in which she stands up for them when the city wants to cut down the elm tree in the front yard that has Cecelia’s handprint in its trunk is an example. Mrs. Lisbon is in pain over losing her youngest daughter and therefore knows that her other daughters must be hurting just as much, if not more.
The elm tree is a symbol for Cecelia, a last living piece of her. When the workers come to cut the tree down it is like being told once again that Cecelia is dead and that there is nothing they can do. They must cut it down before it starts to infect the healthy trees in the neighborhood. Which in turn is a metaphor for the worry that the parents in the neighborhood have about the effect Cecelia’s suicide will have on their children, as if suicide is a poison that will slowly seep into their drinking water the way the elm trees have started to poison each other. I think the book covers this really well. The film really presents it in a way that you understand more clearly the repeated references to the elm trees and what they represent.
Coppola really stayed so true to the book. She gave readers a stunning adaptation of a beloved book and introduced the story of The Virgin Suicides to those who hadn’t yet read the book. She managed to bring to life all the characters that Eugenides created (except for Uncle Tucker! Where did he go?) exactly as they were presented in the book. This is why the film became has remained such a favorite among its viewers and has reaffirmed the following of the book.
Karla Mendez
Karla Mendez is a writer and artist based in Florida. She is obsessed with buying books at a faster pace than she can read. An avid journal keeper, her favorite part of the day is watching the sun rise as she writes. She is always happy to discuss books and films - find her on Instagram at @kmmendez
