The Bookhive List: 'The Virgin Suicides' by Jeffrey Eugenides

The Virgin Suicides is extra special to me, even among the other titles on The Bookhive List. I remember really distinctly reading it on an 8th grade trip to Washington D.C., which is so completely random, but it was the best possible escape during loud bus rides. The novel came into my life when I was a very angsty teen, and that was enough of a reason to love it, but as an adult I moved to Grosse Pointe, where it takes place (although I'll clarify even though no one cares -- I live in the cooler, WASPier part of GP, not the part where Catholic girls gets sad and kill themselves and everything is a metaphor for white flight and mid-60s suburban culture and lost innocence). Now when the weather turns warm and the fish flies descend on every possible surface I start listening to the band Air again in the car and I usually pull out The Virgin Suicides for a little revisit. I never get tired of reading about my hometown, especially when the prose is so beautiful and the novel so incredibly structured. Obviously the best place to read it is poolside at the Little Club with a Bloody Mary in hand, but if that isn't possible it's acceptable to read it in a very green suburban park or in the rumpus room of a split-level ranch built in the 1950s.

The Bookhive List is a weekly recommendation of my all-time favorite, must-read books

Summer Reading...

"Summer reading" isn't really a thing for me because I read all year long and don't make much of a distinction between seasons -- I just read what I'm in the mood to read. But I will happily acknowledge that there are definitely certain books that are just more pleasurable to read at certain times of year, and I have a well-documented history of reading more Southern and L.A.-oriented authors when it's hot outside. I have no specific titles in mind this summer, but I am looking forward to reading some Faulkner this year, and he is both a Southern writer and a man (something I was not allowed to read last summer). Here are some of my recommendations for your summer reading, if you're into that kind of thing:

-The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides: There is a Bookhive List post on this forthcoming, but it's good enough to warrant multiple mentions. An especially relevant novel if your summer will involve any proximity to fish flies or dying trees.

-Anything by Joan Didion (except A Year of Magical Thinking): Her essays on the American West and late 20th century counterculture are spare, essential and sizzling. I recommend her constantly for every occasion and will continue to do so, unapologetically.

-Any of the major contemporary women writers who are writing excellent literary fiction that is often mis-characterized as women's/genre fiction: Megan Abbott, Meg Wolitzer, Sarah Waters, and Tana French, for a start.

-Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee: Not because it will be good, but because it will be the literary event of the year.

-Re:Jane by Patricia Park; I have Roxane Gay's recommendation to thank for this, but Park's debut novel is a contemporary retelling of Jane Eyre, with the protagonist as a Korean-American woman. I already got a copy of this, so expect a longer review soon.

-The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins; I haven't read this yet but it's definitely on my list, as it was recently endorsed by NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, which has never steered me wrong. It's been described as Gone Girl-esque, and it has already made a big splash this year.

-Missoula by Jon Krakauer; I love to read Krakauer in the summer, because it's very intelligent non-fiction that is actually quite easy and quick to read. Granted, this one is about rape at colleges, so not exactly light, but I also read his book on murder in the Mormon community during the summer, perched in a patio chair, so take that as you will...

-Loving Day by Mat Johnson; This was one of 2015 most anticipated works of literary fiction, and while I haven't read any of Mat Johnson's novels yet, I religiously follow him on Twitter and I try to read his essays and nonfiction online whenever I can. He is smart and funny and works issues of race and identity into his writing so seamlessly and effectively.

What I'm Reading: 'The Interestings' by Meg Wolitzer

Meg Wolitzer should be a bigger deal. She is a great example, along with Clare Messud, of a contemporary woman writer who consistently churns out excellent work but is just never put on a pedestal the way her contemporaries tend to be...and by "contemporaries" I mostly mean her male contemporaries. You might notice a lovely and kind quote from Eugenides on the front cover of The Interestings, and that was an very pointed choice for a blurb, because Eugenides is often cited as an example of a writer who would not achieve the same kind of critical acclaim if he were a woman. I think that's not a good reason to hate on Eugenides, because he's an incredible write, but so is Meg Wolitzer, so please do yourself a favor and read her books as well.

The Interestings has been on my list for quite a long time now, and I'm ashamed to admit it's my first book by Wolitzer, but I'm really loving it. The first chapter introduces us to a group of adolescents who we'll then see come of age and devolve into middle-age over the course of the rest of the novel, and their introduction at summer camp in the early 1980s gave me such Wet, Hot American Summer vibes. I'm truly enjoying the experience and I'm excited to read more of her work.

The Bookhive List: 'Middlesex' by Jeffrey Eugenides

There have been many posts on The Bookhive List, and there will be many more, but if I had to narrow it down to a top-five type situation, Middlesex would sit comfortably on that list.  It is the essential novel in my life. The prose is lyrical and beautiful, the structure is complex and rewarding, and the characters are so alive.

As if that weren't enough of a good reason to love and admire it, the bulk of the novel takes place in Detroit and Grosse Pointe, my hometown. I live only a few blocks from Middlesex (the street), I was married in the chapel at the girls' school attended by Cal, and perhaps most importantly and most ephemerally, I understand Eugenides' obsession with the place. To outsiders, it's a wealthy suburb of Detroit (a totally shallow mis-characterization, by the way); to me, and apparently to Eugenides as well, it's an incredibly magical place that is utterly haunted by its own history. It's a place that demands narrative -- I always joke that someday I'll write my "Grosse Pointe novel," if only because there are so many incredible stories and characters in this place.

Eugenides has unfairly been the focus of feminist criticism of the publishing industry -- critics have argued that if his books were written by women, they wouldn't get the same positive/academic attention, and that's possibly true. But even so, I'm not going to begrudge a male author for writing the female perspective so skillfully -- I will take Eugenides over John Updike, Philip Roth, or Jonathon Franzen any day. His ability to play with gender and to write simultaneously gendered and ambiguous perspectives is masterful, and the obvious influence of Jane Austen on his writing is endearing.

The Bookhive List is a weekly recommendation of my all-time favorite, must-read books.