Jeffrey Eugenides 'The Virgin Suicides'

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Recommended: Women in literature

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides is a novel set in suburban America in the 1970’s. It is told in a retrospective by a group of men who are obsessed with five sisters who killed themselves, that they lived near when they were teenagers. The narrators collect different pictures and objects that once belonged to the sisters, and even 20 years after the last Lisbon girl took her life, they are still infatuated with the idea of these teenaged sisters. The Virgin Suicides brings to the surface statements and ideas pertinent to women and how they are treated in society. These ideas are timeless, as many of the issues women faced decades ago are still important today.
This raises the question: to what extent does Jeffrey Eugenides critique

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