Customer Reviews

The Birthdays: A Novel

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I loved this. Got to say Ms Pitlor has real talent and depicts a setting so believable I thought I too had been in that Maine house. I felt like I knew the characters, as if they were my own family, and with the amount of supposedly good fiction I read that is quite a feat. I can't wait to read more from Heidi Pitlor, she's a rising star.

and I truly loved this book! I felt like I took a weekend vacation with the Millers, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Even though the characters made unlikeable choices at times, it was these moments that made it all the more relatable and real to me- their struggles and flaws are what sucked me in and made me believe in them and this story. I am always looking for a book to grab me and keep me interested until the end, and Ms. Pitlor does this with ease in The Birthdays. Well done!

This a fabulous book about family and all the lingering issues and resentments but also love and good feelings. Especially interesting if you're having children of your own since nearly all the women in the book are pregnant (all in different ways). I really liked the relationship between the sister and the older brother (who's in a wheelchair)--very real and funny--and the mother, who seems to have a healthy fantasy life.

The writing is really excellent, very much inside the heads of these characters. I noticed some of the other reviewers here said the characters seem unlikeable or self-absorbed. Well, I think they're supposed to be that way, right? I mean, it's their interior thoughts. That's the kind of book it is, the style of narration.

And the turtle is a perfect little detail...you'll see.

In THE BIRTHDAYS, Heidi Pitlor has constructed a powerful novel introducing in very human terms each member of the Miller family, and then convening them in a dramatic and electric meeting for father Joe's 75th birthday. That three out of three siblings are all expectant parents adds an important layer of drama and symbolism to the story. Pitlor describes the dynamics of family life to a "T"--each character's strengths, weaknesses, the unresolved family conflicts each carries over a lifetime, the childhood and parental roles each member slides into almost unconsciously, and the struggle of parents themselves to find their own way after their children leave the fold. As John Updyke has observed in so much of his work, it's fiercer in there--marriage and family--than anybody ever realizes. Pitlor nails this theme pitch-perfectly.

This book tells the story of how a family really is. Nothing is glossed over, there is no hidden meaning. For the time it took me to read this book, I was engulfed in the Miller family. I was saddened by all that they had to deal with, happy with the promise of a bright future and proud of thier love for one another even if they, at times, did not want to admit it to themselves. Heidi Pitlor has written one hell of a good first novel. She's obviously a talented writer and I look forward to more from her

In a family reunion filled with unexpected events and revelations, The Birthdays proves not only that you can't go home again, but that everyone carries their own interpretations of family history. It is Joe Miller's seventy-fifth birthday and his children, Daniel, Jake and Hilary and their spouses are meeting at Jake's vacation home in Great Salt, Maine, for the celebration, a real occasion for a family that has not seen each other for a while and will soon be changed by the pregnancies of two daughters-in-law, Brenda and Liz, wives of Daniel and Jake, respectively. By next year the family will have grown exponentially, a fact anticipated by all. Much to everyone's surprise, thirty-five-year old, unmarried Hilary is also pregnant, adding another dramatic layer to the story.

Following the travels of each married couple on the way to Great Salt, including Joe and his wife, Ellen, it is clear that married life is complicated at best, the recent pregnancies only adding to the issues. Daniels' life has undergone the most challenges: he became a paraplegic in an auto accident a year and a half earlier, their child a product scientific intervention. Still adapting to his drastically altered body, Daniel is plagued with self-doubts, thrown into ill-humor and confusion by Brenda's increasing hormonal discontents. Although the brothers don't agree on much, Jake is reacting as well to his wife's incipient motherhood, IVF the method that has finally given the couple their dream of parenthood. But Jake is excessively needy, emotionally sensitive and increasingly irritating to his perfectionist wife. In contrast, Hilary is the consummate rebel, refusing to name the child's father, her life plans changing as opportunities arise.

Regardless of the years that have passed, the three fractious siblings interact much the same as when they were children. Never having given much thought to their parents, Daniel, Jake and Hilary only now consider the nature of that relationship, Joe's ageing and Ellen's secrets. A dramatic turn forces the Millers to face uncomfortable truths about themselves, as well as the shock of life on life's terms. Gathered together for this celebration turned somber by events, children, spouses and parents realize that nothing can be controlled and that petty resentments are best laid to rest. While none of these characters is particularly appealing, each displays the familiar traits of family, the small agonies of competition, failures of communication and snap judgments that create distance. It is only through forgiveness and acceptance that the Millers are able to forge ahead, united against the world in support of one another. Luan Gaines/ 2006.

I found this book highly engaging.I will admit I was very surprised at how I was able to relate to the characters, being only seventeen years old and having never been pregnant or married. Pitlor describes every character without an ounce of bias, giving each character its fair representation no matter how they act or think. I have two older brothers, so it was very interesting to think that the three of us might be somewhat like the three siblings in this story in a couple decades. Today, everyone seems to be interested in autobiographies about unthinkable acts and excitement, but in the midst of this society Pitlor was able to create a story about the normal as well as what some might think of as the mundane trials of real life and family and was able to intrigue the character with her beautiful prose. I highly recommend this book and in fact have a waiting list of friends and family waiting to borrow my book as of now.

I have nothing really bad to say about the prose of the novel, I just didn't ever really become invested in the characters. At the start of the novel, Daniel just comes across as so stingy with his affection and so unable to really give Brenda anything she needs. I have no idea how it would affect someone to become paraplegic, and perhaps this was just an accurate representation, but I just disliked him from the start. I didn't need him to be a sunny optimist, but he was just so self-absorbed--everything was about him. Jake was also a somewhat irritating and smug character, and then by the time Hilary came into the picture, I kind of felt like, these people are all just caricatures. I just felt like we could have gotten a little deeper into the psychology of what was motivating the siblings. But then, perhaps this was what Pitlor wanted us to feel. Maybe the beauty of her novel is that she manages to portray these individuals who, while all fairly self-absorbed, are not really very self-aware. Which is kind of sad, and lonely really. I think this book was worth reading, and was an easy read, but left me feeling a little disappointed.

The Miller family is meeting on a Maine barrier island to spend time together while celebrating the seventy-fifth birthday of Joe, the patriarch. There is plenty of excitement as this gathering is the first in four years and the daughter and the two wives of the sons are pregnant each expecting their first child.

However, not all is great in Mudville. Daniel has been wheelchair bound since a cycling accident left him a paraplegic; he is unable to cope with the fact that his spouse had to be artificially inseminated with the sperm of some Midwestern hunk instead of by him. In spite of being the most successful of the siblings, at least financially, Jake feels inferior; his wife is carrying twins following fertility treatment and he has lost all interest in her as a person especially as his sex partner. Hilary has no idea who the father of the fetus she carries might be and does not care.

This is a terrific family drama starring a strong ensemble cast in which the seven key players bring differing personalities to the table as they each discuss parenthood, their trepidations, and their lives. The key to this powerful tale is that Heidi Pitlor insures each individual has a unique personality that remains consistent throughout the beguiling plot. Fans who enjoy a deep look at relationships including how children radically change the interactions of their parents will want to read Ms. Pitlor's strong novel.

Harriet Klausner

I love a good family drama, and this book delivers. Heidi Pitlor does an amazing job of illuminating, in simple, elegant prose, the complex web of relationships between the siblings and parents who reunite in this story. The three very different pregnancies of the women in the book force the characters to confront their fears and failings, their hopes, and their feelings about each other in a way that is poignant and very satisfying for the reader. I look forward to reading whatever Ms Pitlor writes next.