From Publishers Weekly
Sillitoe returns to the scene of his initial literary success in his latest effort, a nostalgic follow-up to his '50s debut novel, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. The protagonist of that tale, Arthur Seaton, still has some of his old fire, as grief intrudes on his life when he learns that his wife, Avril, is about to die of cancer. Arthur's troubles become a subplot this time around, though, as Sillitoe revisits the romance between Arthur's brother, Brian, and his old flame, Jenny Tuxford, whose disabled husband has finally died after an industrial accident forced him to spend the second half of his life in a wheelchair. The event that brings them together is Jenny's birthday party, where to the surprise of neither, sparks fly instantly despite the passage of the years. But Sillitoe's literary agenda consists of more than geriatric romance as he jumps back and forth in time, exploring Arthur's frustration with the lawlessness that has overtaken his community and Brian's dissatisfactions as a would-be novelist who wound up making excellent money as a TV sitcom writer. Brian and Jenny's eventual date is somewhat anticlimactic, although Sillitoe does provide some intriguing thoughts on how the passage of time has changed their perception of the affair, as the two characters consider reuniting. Sillitoe is no longer the aggressive, take-no-prisoners writer who brought these characters to life so provocatively half a century ago, but his craftsmanship remains high and his insights are always sharp. He does meander some, but in this novel, the literary journey more than justifies the occasional side trip. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Four decades on from the widely praised Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, we rediscover the Seaton brothers. Older: certainly. Wiser: perhaps not. Arthur and Brian, one with an ailing wife, the other with an emotional knapsack of failure and success, are on their way to Jenny's 70th birthday party. Brian and Jenny had years ago experimented with sex—semi-clothed, stealthy, with the added bonus of fear. Arthur, on the other hand, had cut a libidinous swathe through the female population of Nottinghamshire. Life has changed. So have the brothers, but not so much that they aren't still recognizable from their old anarchic, authority-hating, idiosyncratic selves. A beautifully crafted novel by the author of The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner.

SYNOPSIS

Alan Sillitoe's compelling sequel to Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, a novel hailed by The New Yorker as "Brilliant!"

FROM THE CRITICS

Scotsman

Birthday stands justifiably with Sillitoe's solid body of forceful fictions. It is warm,compassionate,and full of the sap of lives lived truthfully and well.

Publishers Weekly