The Virgin Suicides is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel written in 1993 by Jeffrey Eugenides. It was his first novel. It focuses on a group of anonymous neighborhood boys who are captivated by the five mysterious Lisbon sisters. The book received critical acclaim for its unique first-person plural narrative and received numerous awards. The book was originally published as a short story which won the Aga Khan Award for Fiction in 1991. The short story eventually became the first chapter of The Virgin Suicides. In 1999, the book was adapted into a film by the famous director Sofia Coppola. It has appeared on numerous "must read" lists, including one by actor James Franco and another by author Patrick Ness. In the novel, Eugenides explores the lives of the Lisbon family, the neighborhood boys, and Trip Fontaine. The Lisbon family has always been a source of fascination in their 1960s suburban neighborhood. Mr. Lisbon, a high school math teacher, has difficulty socializing with the other neighborhood fathers and Mrs. Lisbon, a religious fanatic, does not allow not for his daughters to wear makeup or anything deemed scandalous (Griffith). Kenneth Womack said: "Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon exercise a similar, if not more totalitarian, sense of parental control as their five daughters plunge into the unnerving throes of adolescence." Lisbon parents, driven by the fear of rampant promiscuity sometimes desired by pubescent girls on their way to sexual maturity, inhibit excessive social interactions between their daughters and other people in their age group of the opposite sex. After the suicide of the Lisbon girls, many blamed the parents, including themselves. This guilt ultimately led to their divorce years later; something that the cat...... middle of paper ......ides. " Mosaic [Winnipeg] 40.3 (2007): 157+. Gale Literary Resources. Web. January 16, 2014. McCloy, Kristin. "Highbrow Horror." Los Angeles Times Book Review (June 20, 1993): 2. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter Vol. 212. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Gale Literary Resources January 14, 2014. “A Story We Could Live With.” , the Reader and The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides.” Modern Fiction Studies 55.4 (Winter 2009): 808-832. January 14, 2014. Turrentine, Jeff. 2002): 3. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter Vol. 212. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Gale Web Literary Resources.. 2014.