“we” and the Lisbon girls

"On the morning the last Lisbon daughter too her turn at suicide - it was Mary this time, and sleeping pills, like Therese - the two paramedics arrived at the house knowing exactly where the knife drawer was, and the gas oven, and the beam in the basement from which it was possible to tie a rope. "

Five girls. The first of the sisters was the youngest at the age of thirteen, the rest four at the same day, all taking their own lives, that is horrible, once you think of it yet still this was quite an easy read. Maybe because there is only outsider ´s view, wonderings and guessing and nothing from the girls.

What went wrong? How did they all came to the same conclusion, how did all five of them taking their own lives?

Why didn ´t anyone prevent this? Was there any help for the girls? What did the parents do???

All the reading this, these were the questions going round and round in my head.

But, about the book -

I kind of liked the structure, the "we"- narrator even though for the first part of the book, I wondered who this "we" was.

I liked but still wondered - how come these boys (these "we") were sooo intrigued by these five girls - but them being teenage boys, nothing else to do in a small town, the unattainable ? Maybe something like that. So, understandable like that.

I liked the book even though there were a lot of sideplots which all were not that essential to the story (in my opinion). In the middle of the book I was about to get a little bored but went on reading and the book, the story thickened nicely to the end.

Yet - the questions, until the last page:

how was this all possible? All the five Lisbon daughters… What was wrong in the family? Why didn ´t anyone do anything?

The girls stayed in their house, the parent stayed in their house and yet, no one did anything.

Bizarre.

Well, the outcome was always there, hanging in the air yet still this book was quite an easy read. Of course would have been beneficial to hear the girls side of the story but there was none, of course not, but yes, reading from the outsiders point of view, it was a good book.

I have had this on my bookshelf for a long time. I do not understand why I haven ´t read this before.

(And I have not seen the movie - the Sofia Coppola - based on this book). 

next - Middlesex?