The degree of boredom in Molly Fox's Birthday is maddening. Superficially, this is a beautiful book (I own the copy displayed). Enjoyably, Deirdre Madden's knack for providing such depth and vivid details forced me feel myself in the narrator's shoes. I am curious about her other work if it happens to veer away from the perpetual blasé limbo.
I pushed myself constantly trying to get through this story, giving Madden the benefit of the doubt, hoping for that light at the end of the tunnel giving me reason for time I'll never get back in my life...to no avail. I kept on going to the most unsatisfying monotony I've selectively read in any book before. The characters all lacked any warmth or compassion leaving the lead character isolated and deceived into her supposed friendships. I tried, as always, to place myself in each character and had the unbelievably robotic reception of cold platitudes. I was very sad with that detestable homesick feeling for love, purpose, and people who genuinely care. The Irish melancholy from Madden is inadvertently present, but not in the poetically beautiful way.
In literature there is something for everybody. Although Madden is superb with her words, she lacks the depth of creating any objective to hold a reader from beginning to end...or even past the first few pages. I would highly not recommend. With an infinity of literature out there begging to be saturated around the globe, the time spent trying to read this should be invested elsewhere.
I love my literature, moreover my Irish heritage, but for that matter I'll reread Angela's Ashes where things felt less bleak.
Deirdre Madden is the author of Authenticity,
One by One in the Darkness, and other novels.
She teaches at Trinity College, Dublin.
This book was provided free for review by Library Thing and Picador
