The Birthdays: A Novel (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: tapestry room, Heidi Pitlor, The Birthdays, San Francisco (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It would be hard to find a more self-absorbed group of people than the Miller family, gathered on an island off the coast of Maine to celebrate the father's 75th birthday. He is the only person in The Birthdays who consistently reaches out--to his wife, his children, and even to his box turtle. His birthday becomes an afterthought amid all the familial angst the siblings and their spouses--and one conspicuous lack of a spouse--bring to the table.

Heidi Pitlor has portrayed her characters perfectly. She has limned them so well that we know about where they will be on Joe's 76th birthday--at least emotionally. Daniel, the eldest, is a recent paraplegic, still coming to terms with his personal tragedy. His wife, Brenda, is pregnant through the services of a sperm donor, and Daniel is obsessed about who he is, what he looks like, and any detail he can imagine about him. He feels unmanned enough by his accident; now he is going to be the putative father of his wife's child with this stranger. Jake, the middle child, at whose home the festivities take place, is a roaring success in the world's eyes: great houses, lots of money, good job, the respect of his peers--but his wife needed in vitro fertilization to conceive and now she is pregnant with twins. His childhood neediness has never disappeared, despite his accomplishments. He is prescriptive, critical, petulant, and his wife has lost interest in sex. He is not exactly a charming host, though he tries. Hilary, the youngest, still a flower child at 35, is six months pregnant and has no clue who the father is. Her brothers are not unaware of how easy it was for the irresponsible, non-planner, barely able to care for herself, to conceive a child. Fecundity abounds, however arrived at.

As everyone straggles in, Joe's wife, Ellen, is filling her time fantasizing about their friend, MacNeil, over whom she has created such a personal and intimate scenario that she goes to the telephone and calls him, much to his confusion. It is a telling moment, one of several "epiphanies" showing the reader the way to each character's interior landscape.

An event takes place which saddens everyone and changes the dynamic of the event and of all the people involved. Arrangements are made that were unthought of at the beginning of the birthday celebration, most of which are more authentic than the roles they brought with them. There are big themes examined here: aging, parenthood, letting go, fertility, illness, and one's place in the universe of the family. Heidi Pitlor does a terrific job of making us care about a group of people who seem, at first blush, to be only selfish and solipsistic. --Valerie Ryan

From Publishers Weekly

On a rainy summer weekend, the Miller clan gathers, for the first time in four years, at their summer house on an island off the coast of Maine to celebrate patriarch Joe's 75th birthday. Oldest son Daniel is in a wheelchair following a cycling accident; his wife, Brenda, is pregnant after having used a sperm donor, about whom Daniel is now obsessed. Younger son Jake, who spent his whole childhood feeling insecure and inferior to his siblings, is now more financially successful than either of them; his wife, Liz, is pregnant with twins following fertility treatments and has no interest in sex. The irresponsible youngest, Hilary, returns from the West Coast, also pregnant—and with no idea who the father is. As their children stand on the verge of becoming parents themselves, Ellen and Joe reflect on the daily heartbreak, tragedies and joys of parenthood, on the impossibility of ever keeping one's children safe. Rich in symbolism and a strong sense of place, Pitlor's debut novel, with its overlapping narrative perspectives, creates a multilayered portrait of family in all its fragility and its strength. (June)
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton; 1 edition (June 5, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393061272
• ISBN-13: 978-0393061277
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #933,622 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Realistic family drama, July 12, 2006

By	Sam Spade (Lexington, KY) - See all my reviews

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.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm no literary critic, but I know what I like...., July 19, 2006

By	Sara J (Colorado) - See all my reviews

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!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great family drama...and a turtle!, July 4, 2006

By	Andy T. (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews

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.