Camp #2, which tended to be dominated by slightly older white guys like myself, who perhaps identified more strongly with the boys/men narrating the story, took it more as a contemporary fable of the neighborhood, a suburban myth that had grown and evolved over time to attain the status of folklore.
Of course, as moderator, I remained entirely neutral and impartial throughout the discussion and resisted the temptation to add further fuel to the fire by suggesting that perhaps those dual interpretations were precisely what the author had in mind all along.
Earlier in the evening we enjoyed a thought-provoking tour of the Cameron Jamie exhibit conducted by our buddy Ray. The parallels between the exhibit and the novel are striking. Beyond fascination with/abhorrence of the suburbs, both artists seem to exploit the spiritual emptiness and social hollowness of its cultural landscape.
In an interview Mr. Eugenides stated, "If I were an emotion, I would be longing. That is a kind of human emotion that’s very clear to me, and very strong from an early age, as perhaps it is in everyone... VIRGIN SUICIDES is almost one long longing."
NEXT UP:
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
Can't wait!
*My computer tells me this isn’t actually a word, but I like it anyway.
I can’t recall why the book is considered to be set in the “suburbs”. Perhaps someone can claify this for me. White picket fences, elm trees that reached across the road and touched, saddle shoes — it never occurred to me that the setting was “the suburbs”. I thought it was America in an era gone by — the 50s? A small town in America in the 1950s? Any thoughts?
Comment by Trish — 8/10/2006 @ 4:23 pm
According to the author Jeffery Eugenides, THE VIRGIN SUICIDES is set in Grosse Pointe, MI, an upscale suburb about 15 minutes from downtown Detroit. The pop songs referenced in the novel seem to set it in the mid-1970’s.
Comment by Roger Nieboer — 8/14/2006 @ 11:12 am
Thanks, Roger. Guess I was thrown off by the saddle shoes. (I think I wore platform sandles in the 70s.)
Comment by Trish — 8/14/2006 @ 6:23 pm
You know, sandals.
Comment by Trish — 8/14/2006 @ 6:25 pm
I remember platform shoes all too well.
Comment by Roger Nieboer — 8/14/2006 @ 7:11 pm
They said that “fad” would never last. Instead platform shoes became a permanent part of fashion — still available at Bloomies and Saks today.
Comment by Trish — 8/14/2006 @ 8:11 pm
And still causing twisted ankles! Those shoes seem too dangerous to me.
But back to the book, I, too, was curious about the way Eugenides hid the location of the story–only throwing us hints about a distant inner city that the characters never visited.
Comment by Sarah Peters — 8/16/2006 @ 2:46 pm