Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- Who do you think makes up the narrative "We"? Why do you think Eugenides decided to narrate the story this way?
- What is the effect of beginning with the final suicide, Mary's, rather than telling the story in chronological order?
- How would the novel be different if it took place in the fifties, or the nineteenth century? How does the era influence the story?
- Why do you think that Eugenides set the story in an affluent neighborhood? How would it be different if it had taken place in inner city Detroit?
- Why do you think the Lisbon sisters killed themselves?
- How does the novel claim credibility? Why should we, the readers, believe the narrators?
- What is the effect of the long, expository paragraphs? Why isn't there very much dialogue in the novel?
- Why do you think that Lux is so obsessed with sex? Why don't her sisters behave the way that she does?
- How would the novel be different if the Lisbon sisters were the Lisbon brothers? Or if they were the narrators?
- How does the novel's structure stem from the author's stated belief that suicide is essentially an unknowable act?