The Birthdays

by Heidi Pitlor

Book Overview

On an island off the coast of Maine, the Miller family reunites to celebrate the father's seventy-fifth birthday. Each of the adult children is expecting a first child, and at the same time each is at a major crossroads in life. The eldest, Daniel, still reeling from a car accident that has left him a paraplegic, is also grappling with the fact that his wife had to be artificially inseminated. Jake, the middle child, discovers that his wife is carrying...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393329933
• ISBN13: 9780393329933
• Release Date: June 2007
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 370 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.6" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

A very good book from a gifted new writer

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

I'm no literary critic, but I know what I like....

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!

Realistic family drama

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.

POWERFUL, DRAMATIC STORY OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY

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.

Great family drama...and a turtle!

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.