Product Description
"Captivating, moving, painfully funny, and so very, very true."—Julia Glass

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 twins after many trying years of fertility treatments. Hilary—the free-spirited youngest daughter—arrives in Maine five months pregnant with no identifiable father in sight. As the family gathers, something shattering happens from which no one will emerge the same. The Birthdays deftly explores the myriad ways of seeking sustenance after disappointment or loss. Reading group guide included.

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

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 15 reviews)

Disappointing and Dull

I almost put it down after the first two chapters. I tried to like it--several other women had recommended it to me, and I didn't want to go back to them and say that I hadn't finished it. I won't recommend it to anyone else.

Has this writer never heard of the most famous adage in fiction, "show, don't tell"? If you have to belabor a point, or constantly tell the reader the backstory in lengthy paragraphs that go nowhere, then you aren't doing your job as a writer.

The reader should be able to infer from a well-crafted work what you haven't told them.

The dialogue is stilted and the "epiphanies" aren't.

Many book clubs have chosen this one for their members, and its reputation appears to be growing. I don't quite understand how.

This reads like a first effort, from someone who was published well before they were ready. It's not horrible, but it's not praiseworthy in my opinion, either.

October 22, 2008

A little disappointing

I purchased this book to read for a book club that I am in. Another member had chosen it, and I was willing to give it a try. I am a mystery reader and I guess I was disappointed when there was no big event that happened to drag me into the story and keep me interested. Nice family dynamics, but a little slow.
September 29, 2008

Amazing, Immersing Read!

Heidi is a personal friend of mine, and when she gave me her book, she was so modest about it that I didn't think it would be that good. In fact, I thought from her description that it would be boring. Boy, was I wrong!

This novel totally amazed me. I read it when I was on a trip, and it was so immersed in it, that I looked up and was actually startled to realize I was on a plane. Heidi's characterization is amazing. It's like they are real people!

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys general fiction and "a weekend in the life of a family" type books.
August 01, 2008

Amateur Writing...and Boring!

Sorry, but more than 80 pages into this book, nothing was happening. I could not get past the wooden dialogue that nobody would actually speak in real life! The dialogue, by turns, was laughable and thoroughly groan-inducing. I kept checking the spine of this book to see if it was designated "junior fiction" by my local library, but no, it was considered to be adult fiction, despite vocabularly and sentence structure suited for most grade-schoolers. I found this book too simplistic and dull to continue.
September 11, 2007

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
March 19, 2007

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