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Peter Sissen
Paul Baldino is one of the neighborhood boys who obsess over the Lisbon sisters. It’s known throughout the neighborhood that Paul’s father, Sammy “The Shark” Baldino, is a powerful mobster, and the size and splendor of his family’s house attests to this. Shortly before the events of the novel, Paul’s father has the tree in front of their house cut down. In its place, workers create a cement replica of a stump with an iron grate in it, and though Sammy “The Shark” Baldino claims it’s just a grill, everyone suspects that it’s actually the entrance to a network of tunnels he built beneath his property—tunnels he can use if he ever needs to escape the police. This, the neighborhood boys think, is how Paul Baldino manages to show up unexpectedly in basements all over their street, though Paul himself claims he just uses the local storm drains. After Peter Sissen regales the boys with stories of what he found in the Lisbon sisters’ bathroom, Paul boasts that he will make his way into the Lisbon house and see one of the girls showering. When he does so, however, he finds Cecilia lying in bloody bathwater after having slit her wrists. Paul screams and calls the police.
Paul Baldino Quotes in The Virgin Suicides
The The Virgin Suicides quotes below are all either spoken by Paul Baldino or refer to Paul Baldino . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1 Quotes
Paul Baldino said it was a barbecue, and we believed him. But, as time passed, we noticed that no one ever used it. The papers said the barbecue had cost $50,000 to install, but not one hamburger or hot dog was ever grilled upon it. Soon the rumor began to circulate that the tree trunk was an escape tunnel, that it led to a hideaway along the river where Sammy the Shark kept a speedboat, and that the workers had hung tarps to conceal the digging. Then, a few months after the rumors began, Paul Baldino began emerging in people’s basements, through the storm sewers.
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Paul Baldino Character Timeline in The Virgin Suicides
The timeline below shows where the character Paul Baldino appears in The Virgin Suicides. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
Hearing Peter Sissen’s stories about the Lisbon house, Paul Baldino announces he’s going to get into the house himself and see things even more...
(full context)
Rumor has it that Paul’s father built an underground network of tunnels beneath their house, making it easier for him...
(full context)
As rumors circulate about Sammy “the Shark” Baldino building an escape tunnel, Paul Baldino starts appearing in his neighbors’ basements, crawling up next to their boilers and through...
(full context)
...Cecilia’s suicide attempt, then, comes from hearsay, as everyone in town speculates about what happened. Paul Baldino, for his part, insists to his friends that Cecilia must have cut her wrists...
(full context)
Chapter 4
...with their belongings, though some of the items—like an iron doorstop—don’t make much sense. Nonetheless, Paul Baldino declares that the sisters are going to “make a break for it.” They will,...
(full context)
Chapter 5
...this time, Sammy “The Shark” Baldino is arrested. Without the looming presence of his father, Paul Baldino no longer seems intimidating to the boys. He’s just a normal kid. The entire...
(full context)
