Ein phantastisches Buch, was mich von der ersten bis weit hinter die letzte Seite nicht mehr losgelassen hat. Ich habe den gleichnamigen Film von Sofia Coppola noch nicht gesehen, muß das aber unbedingt nachholen – vor allem, weil mir doch "Lost in Translation" auch so gut gefallen hat.

Auf mehrfaches Betteln hin registrierte ich dieses etwas fragile Taschenbuchexemplar und schickte es auf eine Mini-BookRing-Reise. Die Liste der Teilnehmer(innen):

1. Klute
   (Ludwigsburg/Baden-Württemberg)
2. barnhelm
   (Fulda/Hessen)
3. mojitopt
   (Hamburg/Hamburg)
4. ihuru
   (Hamburg/Hamburg)
5. Zoe1971
   (Köln/Nordrhein-Westfalen)

Der BookRing machte sich am 13. 6. 2005 auf die Reise.


I was haunted by this masterpiece a long time after I finished reading it. I didn't see the movie by Sofia Coppola yet, which I'll have to – especially because I loved "Lost in Translation" so much.

Because some fellow BookCrossers coaxed me into doing so, I sent this rather fragile paperback copy on a journey as a MiniBookRing.

juhu! es ist angekommen! vielen dank nochmal an suzanne4books. ich werde damit pfleglich umgehen!

Hmm. What makes this book so exceptional unfortunately also made it kind of dull for me after a while. Although I really liked the unique premise of the book: Everything that happens is based on hearsay, the anonymous, amorphous voice of the narrator that seems to symbolize the whole community, and the extremely subjective viewpoint of that narrator all give the book a wonderfully ironic touch (a quality that by nature was completely lost in the film). Unfortunately it also prevents any kind of identification with the main characters of the book, the Lisbon sisters. Because their feelings and motivations remain so clouded in the dark, the unbelievably detailed descriptions of what they eat, read, wear, or how their breath smells (!) quickly became boring to me. Eugenides creates beautifully mythical characters, but for me every story needs some character that I can relate to.

I am now on page 197 and have decided to pass it on, instead of dragging myself through to the end.

ARGH! Why do I keep being logged out? This didn´t use to happen. The comment above is from me.

kam heute bei mir an.....sieht immer noch fast jungfräulich aus :o) (wie sollte es bei diesem titel auch anders sein) und ist als zweitnächstes dran! rätselsperre verlängert! *seufz*

macht sich jetzt endlich wieder auf den weg!

strange, haunting, odd! what a shallow life the boys had, even compared to the non-life of the Lisbon-sisters...and why didn't anybody save mary?

hat mir gut gefallen, war aber kein easy read - ich konnte mich bisher nicht dazu aufraffen, middlesex zu lesen, werde das aber jetzt nachholen, allerdings auf deutsch.

Arrived safely today. Thanks to Barnhelm for sending it, and to S4B for organizing this bookring.

A great, passionate book! Eugenidis has a subtle and compelling way of writing, the atmosphere felt like cotton candy: sweet, fluffy and somehow muting sounds and rapid movements (read the passage about Trip Fontaine smoking a joint in his car, you'll understand what I mean). The narrator is very close to the characters, but distant at the same time - a conflicting feeling that is conveyed to the reader. The retrospective view on the events turn it into a reminiscence of adolescence and its missed chances, rather than a story about death and suicide.

ihuru has her own copy by now, so the book travels on to Zoe1971

RELEASE NOTES:

On to Zoe1971 today, sorry for the delay!

Book arrived savely today. It's still in a good condition, you wouldn't guess that it has already been read by 3 readers...

I'm looking forward to reading it, but I think it'll have to be a little patient with me, because right now I'm currently reading two other novels (one english language, the other spanish), which are also travelling as bookrings or -rays.

Thank you so much, S4B for starting this bookring!

Well, I finally finished the book now. It kind of left me without the right words I could say or write. First of all: I loved it, although it didn't meet the high expectations I had set on it after having read Middlesex.

Most of all, I love Eugenides' style. How he builds up each and every sentence until it's perfect. And I mean it. You can't just stike off or add any word unless you get a different meaning or a slightly different sence in the sentence.

Usually, in the books I read I find certain passages that I love to cite in my reviews. With this one, it's different. There are only a few punch lines, one of those at the very beginning of the novel:
"Chucking her under her chin, he said, 'What are you doing here, honey? You're not even old enough to know how bad life gets.'
And it was then Cecilia gave orally what was to be her only form of suicide note, and a useless one at that, because she was going to live: 'Obviously, Doctor,' she said, 'you've never been a thirteen-year-old girl." (p. 7)

I loved the story of the Karafilis family with the old, fortune telling yia-yia from Asia Minor! You can see that Eugenides is familiar with this setting and I couldn't wait to read more and more about that family (p. 171 ff).
"We Greeks are a moody people. Suicide makes sense to us. Putting up Christmas lights after your own daughter does it - that makes no sense. What my yia-yia could never understand about America was why everyone pretended to be happy all the time." (p. 175)

And what I really found romantic was how sympathetically the boys try to discover how the Lisbon girls are living, thinking and feeling:
"We went outside with our hair wet in the hopes of catching the flu ourselves so that we might share their delirium." (p. 158).

A great read. I'm looking forward very much to more Eugenides' novels.

But for now again: thank you, S4B, for giving us the chance to get to know this one! The book is travelling home to Hamburg now!

RELEASE NOTES:

Sent by snail-mail...

Die selbstmörderischen Jungfrauen sind äußerst wohlbehalten in ihrem neuen Zuhause eingetroffen – vorbildlich in Packpapier gewandet und mit einer genialen Lesezeichenidee versehen, die möglicherweise auch wertvolle BookRing-Bücher u-bahnfähig machen könnte...

... vielen herzlichen Dank!


The suicidal virgins reached their new home in excellent condition – carefully wrapped and with a bookmark inside which might be very useful when it comes to reading precious BookRing books on my way to work and back...

... so thank you very much!