V is for Vicissitudes.

So, this will be brief. I’ve been at jury duty all day.

This will also be brief because there are very few novel titles, let alone young adult novel titles, that begin with the letter V. I found one:

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

I’ll admit I haven’t read this though I have read another of this author’s works–Middlesex, which I found quite interesting. True confessions: I’m a little creeped out by the concept of The Virgin Suicides–five daughters of one house all commit suicide within the span of one year. Some have said this novel is darkly comic. Another critic compared The Virgin Suicides to Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” as a sort of modern Gothic in which “a family decays from the inside out.” This particular reviewer recommended this novel to any lover of great literature.

There you have it. Whether you want your teen to read this novel is a matter for discussion. It would depend on that teen’s personality and mental makeup.

Have you read The Virgin Suicides? Then tell me, how can this novel be comic?

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