The Virgin Suicides

Maybe one of the five most important books I've ever read in my life.

It does everything I hope to do with my own fiction. It is darkly witty. It reveals the dark side of human psychology. It has obsessive characters who are at times nameless (and dark). We never truly understand how the girls came to their decision (which means they seem to have been dropped into their situation with no explanation of how they got there). It is an allegory for our current society. It is both extremely personal and tells a universal truth. The girls are seductive in their mystery.

I'm more excited than ever to write the novel I know is the only novel I can write at this time in my life. It will include thoughts and actions from my own life but will be fiction, as I think I will need to weave the story with more details and scenes to help the reader understand my psychology. It will be a fictionalized memoir, which has two meanings. One meaning is to write a novel pretending it is a fictional character's memoir. The other meaning is to write a true memoir but hide it behind a character with added content. My novel is the latter.

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides gets an A. Go read it and then give it to someone else. I don't say that about many books. I can't even think of one right now.