The Virgin Suicides

       I am at the beginning of the novel The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides but I have already noticed a lot. It is beautifully written yet still maintains the point of view of young boys intrigued in the neighborhood beauties--the Lisbon girls. It is no secret that all five girls commit suicide (it is stated in the very first sentence--and the title and blurb, for that matter). I believe that Eugenides didn't keep their deaths a secret for two reasons. First, the book is really a collection of memories told by the boys, and the suicides are really the most important part, so they wouldn't wait for the events to catch up to get to the climax. But secondly, the reader is enabled to focus more on the girls' actions and try to understand what drove them to kill themselves because the reader already know their fate. 
       
       I noticed that Eugenides describes the small town in Michigan as very dreary and the people in it homely and unattractive, all except the Lisbon girls, who are painted as very sophisticated and beautiful. This makes the girls stand out even more. For instance, Eugenides writes as the boys, "No one could understand how Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon had produced such beautiful children...Whenever we saw Mrs. Lisbon we looked in vain for some sign of the beauty that must have once been hers. But the plump arms, the brutally cut steel-wool hair, and librarian's glasses foiled us every time." And of Mr. Lisbon, he was thin and boyish, with a high voice and "girlish weeping." Other people were also described in quite a negative light: "We found Mrs. Buell much aged and hugely fat," and "...dark circles under his eyes and his mammoth hips..." This all accentuates the Lisbon girls' attractiveness and how they are so different from everyone else in the small suburban town.

       Another way in which the girls are separated from the rest of the town is because of the words used to reference the girls and the boys. The girls are always "they" and the neighborhood boys are always "we" or "us." But it seems that the whole town is actually behind the two small words that normally represent the boys, because the whole town is curious about the girls and enraptured in their mysterious beauty. The Lisbon girls are cut off from the daily life of teenagers because of their over-protective parents, and this makes them even more isolated. The boys and the town are on the outside, looking into their short, secretive lives.

       I am looking forward to continuing this novel. Although I already know the Lisbon girls' fate, I am still interested in analyzing their actions to attempt to understand why they would commit suicide. I wonder if the girls and boys will ever interact, and the "us" and "them" will dissolve into one.

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

       The novel Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan is about a young adult named Clay Jannon, who begins working at a mysteriously intriguing bookstore. In the front, it just looks like a normal bookstore, but as you dig your way deeper, you discover ceiling-high shelves with obscure volumes that make up a sort of lending library that only strange repeat customers want to look at. Clay doesn't question anything, not wanting to stir up trouble by being too suspicious, and wanting to keep the job he landed after being laid off as a web-designer. But curiosity gets the best of him and he begins wondering what exactly the strange customers are checking out. Although I am at the very beginning of this book, I have noticed Sloan's clever writing craft that uses loose metaphors to relate to the plot and what Clay's emotions. The examples I noticed had to do with Clay and the mysterious bookstore.

       Early on in the book, we are introduced to Mat, Clay's roommate who is a movie set designer and eccentric artist. His latest project is "Matropolis," a miniature city made out of boxes, cans, paper, foam, wire, packing peanuts, glass--anything you can think of. Clay admires Mat's work-in-progress, although it does take up almost all of the living room. I think this city of scraps relates a lot to Clay and the bookstore. For example, the strange combination of materials is like Clay's knowledge and understanding of what happens in the store, little bits of odd information, like the fact that the customers are always in a hurry and the volumes they look at aren't even English or any recognizable language whatsoever. Plus, Mr. Penumbra always makes Clay keep detailed notes of what the customers are like when they arrive, from their attitude to what they are wearing. None of this makes any sense, to either the readers or Clay. Mat's different mediums come together nicely as a piece of art, but we still have to unravel the bookstore's mystery.
       
       Another example of the use of metaphors also has to do with Mat's Matropolis. Clay picks up a remote he finds on the couch, and realizes that it controls a miniature helicopter that flies around the small city. He tries to get it to land on the roof of the mini Empire State Building, but he says, "I can only make it bump against the windows" (24). I interpreted this as Clay's desire to figure out what is happening at the bookstore, but it is difficult because he doesn't want to jeopardize his job. Another metaphor that I believe has the same message is when Clay is at a party through video chat while actually working his shift at the bookstore. At first it started out okay, but as the party continued, the person lugging around the computer put it down and started a conversation with another person, who she seemed to be quite interested in (which wouldn't have been so bad if Clay hadn't developed a crush on his computer-lugging, party-throwing friend). Clay had to mute them while helping a customer, and was shocked and hurt when he found that they had muted him also. I thought this showed yet another example of how Clay was denied access or more information to something, like the curious library in the back of the bookstore. 

       These subtle metaphors may not even be on purpose, but I believe that they are a clever way to provide insight on the story. I am looking foreword to reading the rest of this book, and finding more interesting writing crafts that Sloan uses.