On This Day [Hardcover]

Nathaniel Bellows (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 4, 2003

Warren is eighteen. His sister, Joan, is twenty. Their father has died of cancer, and their mother has committed suicide -- they're on their own, in a small coastal town in Maine, under desperate emotional circumstances, with the holidays approaching.

Their situation worsens as their father's partner ruthlessly strips them of financial interest in the plant nursery they had owned together and a ghoulish uncle and aunt try to exploit them. Things grow even more complicated as Warren becomes increasingly puzzled by his attraction to a beautiful young single mother who used to work for his father.

Told from Warren's point of view, On This Day is not only a moving story of two young people's struggle to make a place and a home for themselves, but a consideration of memory -- the necessity to face the secrets of a family's dark past in order to exorcise them.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Nathaniel Bellows's first novel, On This Day, follows a pair of orphans through a few painful months of grief. Warren and Joan are twentysomething siblings whose parents have recently died--their father had cancer and their mother committed suicide. Warren narrates this tale, which is built from small events: he fights with his best friend; he and his sister are besieged by their aunt and uncle with addled kindness; he talks with his boss at the library about maybe going to college. What's surprising is the lightness and cleanliness with which Bellows delivers this sad story. Joan and Warren are well-defined and believable--their dialogue, especially, is deftly written and darkly funny. Bellows beautifully captures the subterranean currents of humor and hatred that inform sibling conversation. In the end, the novel takes on an almost metaphorical size. Making Joan and Warren orphans gives them greater definition as siblings: they are no longer a daughter and son; they are only a sister and brother. This promising first novel limns that relationship with grace. --Claire Dederer

From Publishers Weekly

Bellows brings grace and grit to this debut novel about two siblings trying to keep their lives afloat during a tumultuous year in which both of their parents die. Narrator Warren is 18 and his sister Joan is 20 when their father dies of cancer and their mother falls apart and eventually commits suicide. Soon afterward, their father's business partner seizes the opportunity to take over their nursery business and cut Joan and Warren off. Focusing on small family moments, the eloquent yet down-to-earth narrative balances gut-wrenching scenes of grief with some funny, ironic passages in which Warren and Joan fend off dubious offers of help from a meddlesome, unbalanced aunt and uncle. Meanwhile, Joan copes with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Mike, while Warren is seduced by his best friend's sister. Warren's real interest, however, is in an older woman, Valerie, a single mother who used to work for his father. When Warren learns that his father had fired Valerie after having an affair with her and getting her pregnant, he has to face some unpleasant truths about their family life. Confronting one disaster after another, the two siblings are sustained by their prickly, contentious but ultimately loving relationship. The dark material never seems sensational or maudlin, and the vulnerable yet gutsy Warren is a believable, beguiling voice. Bellows breaks little new ground, but he shows great assurance in this promising first novel.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; 1st edition (February 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060512113
• ISBN-13: 978-0060512118
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 4.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,907,747 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am the author of the novel, ON THIS DAY (HarperCollins 2003/2004; Harmon Blunt 2006) and a collection of poems, WHY SPEAK? (W.W. Norton 2007/2008). My short fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, Guernica, Post Road, Redivider, and The Best American Short Stories 2005, edited by Michael Chabon. I am currently working on a new novel--a contemporary ghost story set in coastal Maine--and a collection of linked stories that focus around a central character: a young woman named Nan who moves from rural Vermont to go to college in New York City in the wake of her brother's death. Three of the stories have been published so far, and one has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. You can find the published stories here: http://www.fictionaut.com/users/nathaniel-bellows

More about my writing, visual art, and music at my website: www.nathanielbellows.com.

Thank you for stopping by.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Honest, Elegant and Compelling First Novel by Bellows, May 29, 2003

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: On This Day (Hardcover)

Warning: ON THIS DAY will not blow your mind with its complex plot, excessively self- indulgent characters or snazzy, newfangled prose. You will not need to re-read chapters or passages to figure out what the author is saying. If this sounds refreshing then read on, because ON THIS DAY is an honest, elegant and compelling first novel by Nathaniel Bellows.

In 265 pages of simple, descriptive prose, 18-year-old Warren and his 20-year-old sister Joan flounder through a year of life after the quick successive deaths of their parents: their father from cancer and their mother by suicide. Brother and sister are left with the family home and "enough money to live on comfortably" in a small coastal Maine town. But they are not comfortable. Their physical world, while vibrant and full of detail, wears desperately thin.

Wallpaper collapses without warning. Curtains fade and unsavory smells fester and waft from sources unknown. The siblings cling and bond together in their helplessness. They screen phone calls obsessively to avoid "the enemies": alcoholic "Auntie E." and con artist uncle Steve, who surely are out to exploit them. Everyone, they imagine, is out to exploit them. In a touching exchange the two muse about getting a guard dog or building a moat: "protection from people in general".

Well-meaning townsfolk genuinely do want to connect with them, and their bumbling attempts are comical and strike painfully close to the heart. The real enemy attacks when Warren and Joan are looking the other way. Their father's former business partner Richard, using Joan and Warren's hermetic inaccessibility to his advantage, legally swindles the siblings out of their financial stake in the family-owned plant nursery. A heated standoff ensues. In a businessman versus brother and sister blowout, our heroes rise up in a powerful and united front. The dialogue here is spectacular, one of Bellows's real strengths.

The author demonstrates a profound grasp of the humor, hatred and intimate bond between brother and sister. He has keen insight into the workings and ambitions, or lack thereof, typically found in small-town Maine life. The prose is simple and honest. We instinctively trust Bellows; he seems to be taking us toward the light.

But we squirm midway through when the pacing slows to an exasperating crawl. Occasional nouns sag under the weight of one too many adjectives. Some scenes are repeated and we can't help but wonder if the author whiffed and is going in for another attempt. Warren is the narrator; this choice contributes to the drift.

Warren is an intelligent yet unambitious high school grad who passes his days cataloging microfiche at the local library and obsessing over household chores like retrieving mail. Together with his sister, he is able to create a protective shield. But he is incapable of reaching beyond it and opening his heart to the kind of help he desperately needs. Big sister is too distracted by her doltish and unreliable boyfriend to help.

But we like Warren. His pain is poignant and real. We might miss this gift of intimacy with him if he were a more dynamic character or, rather, if the author was less honest about the true nature of a shell-shocked teenage introvert. As Warren fumbles painfully to find the words "I need help" and a person to whom he can express them, we rally around him.

Ultimately, it is this honest treatment of our hero that keeps us flipping pages clear through to the end. The author speaks to us bravely through a challenging story without the use of gimmicks. And, in the end, we thank him. ON THIS DAY is a nice escape, and an honest and rewarding read.

--- Reviewed by Tanya Corrin

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A captivating, beautiful novel, February 21, 2003

By 

Denise Ferry (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: On This Day (Hardcover)

This book caught me by surprise - I saw it in a neighborhood bookstore, but didn't recognize the author's name. The lucid, elegant writing and evocative imagery immediately drew me in, then I couldn't put the book down. Bellows has accomplished an amazing feat in turning a novel about such weighty, impenetrable subjects - grief, memory, human frailty - into a compelling, and utterly readable, story. The characters are rich and varied, and you wind up caring deeply about the two main characters, Warren and Joan. And the book is often darkly funny, too. It's hard to believe this is a first novel. One of the best books I've read for some time.

0 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disconnected and unrealistic., December 2, 2004

By 

R. Kaplan (Chicago, Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: On This Day (Hardcover)

As a young person myself, I found the conversation in this novel between the main characters unrealistic. There are several moments during reading when I frequently have to put down the book and think to myself, "Would I EVER say that?" The plot seems disconnected at times, and the characters of the book lack characteristics of young people.