Synopses & Reviews
A Finalist for the Orange Prize
It is the height of summer, and celebrated actor Molly Fox has loaned her house in Dublin to a friend while she is away performing in New York. Alone among all of Molly's possessions, struggling to finish her latest play, she looks back on the many years and many phases of her friendship with Molly and their college friend Andrew, and comes to wonder whether they really knew each other at all. She revisits the intense closeness of their early days, the transformations they each made in the name of success and security, the lies they told each other, and betrayals they never acknowledged. Set over a single midsummer's day, Molly Fox's Birthday is a mischievous, insightful novel about a turning point--a moment when past and future suddenly appear in a new light.
Review
“Deirdre Madden's prose is crystalline, understated, apparently effortless yet artfully suitable. She really does not remind me of anybody I've read before. And yet, like other formidable writers—Mavis Gallant, Margaret Atwood and Elizabeth Bowen come to mind—she is after something intrinsic and riddling but essential in us all, something that probably doesn't exist until we've read every word this book contains. It is ambitious work. Madden is a first-rate novelist.”—Richard Ford
“A novel of great subtlety, beauty and strength. Madden is one of our finest writers.”—Anne Enright
“It is almost impossible not to be moved.”—The Scotsman
“Equipped with an almost celestial compassion. Madden is the constant genius of Irish Letters.”—Sebastian Barry
“Written with skill, sympathy, and flair, establishes Madden further as one of the most important Irish novelists.”—Colm Toibin, Best Books of the Year, Sunday Business Post (Ireland)
“Resembles a box in which keepsakes have been carefully packed away: over the course of a day, the significant memories of three lives are taken out and examined, giving rise to a satisfying tension between the deceptive simplicity of the setup and the subtle impacts of each successive 'reveal'. . . .[an] elegant novel of contained power.”—The Guardian (UK)
“This is a novel about identity and it poses meaningful questions about the presentation of self and perhaps, the necessity of falsehood. . . . Zestful and lyrical writing.”—Penny Perrick, The Times (London)
Review
"Deirdre Madden's prose is crystalline, understated, apparently effortless yet artfully suitable. She really does not remind me of anybody I've read before. And yet, like other formidable writers--Mavis Gallant, Margaret Atwood and Elizabeth Bowen come to mind--she is after something intrinsic and riddling but essential in us all, something that probably doesn't exist until we've read every word this book contains. It is ambitious work. Madden is a first-rate novelist."--Richard Ford “A novel of great subtlety, beauty and strength. Madden is one of our finest writers.”Anne Enright
Review
"Deirdre Madden's prose is crystalline, understated, apparently effortless yet artfully suitable. She really does not remind me of anybody I've read before. And yet, like other formidable writers--Mavis Gallant, Margaret Atwood and Elizabeth Bowen come to mind--she is after something intrinsic and riddling but essential in us all, something that probably doesn't exist until we've read every word this book contains. It is ambitious work. Madden is a first-rate novelist."--Richard Ford “A novel of great subtlety, beauty and strength. Madden is one of our finest writers.”Anne Enright Oline H. Cogdill - Kristine Huntley - Daniel Mallory - David Pitt - Charles Bracelen Flood - Ramsey Campbell - Maggie Shayne - L.A. Banks - Kelley Armstrong - Katherine Ramsland - Joe R. Lansdale - Heather Graham - Cory Doctorow - C.J. 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Synopsis
Finalist for the Orange Prize
MOLLY FOX'S BIRTHDAY begins in the still, shadowy apartment of Molly Fox, a well-known stage actress. The unnamed narrator, an old friend of Mollys whos staying there in her absence, is immersed in strange revelations and memories about their long friendship. Over the course of one day, the narrator revisits their relationship to a third friend, Andrew, and discovers how little she has really understood about any of themherself included. The novel evokes the experience of a turning pointa moment when everything before and after is transformed, and life changes directions in a single day.
Synopsis
A Finalist for the Orange Prize
It is the height of summer, and celebrated actor Molly Fox has loaned her house in Dublin to a friend while she is away performing in New York. Alone among all of Molly's possessions, struggling to finish her latest play, she looks back on the many years and many phases of her friendship with Molly and their college friend Andrew, and comes to wonder whether they really knew each other at all. She revisits the intense closeness of their early days, the transformations they each made in the name of success and security, the lies they told each other, and betrayals they never acknowledged. Set over a single midsummer's day, Molly Fox's Birthday is a mischievous, insightful novel about a turning point--a moment when past and future suddenly appear in a new light.
Synopsis
Finalist for the Orange Prize, "Molly Fox's Birthday" evokes the experience of a turning point in one woman's life--a moment when everything before and after is transformed, and life changes directions in a single day.
Synopsis
A Picador trade paperback original: a mischievous, lyrically written novel about discovering the little fictions and compounded mysteries that lie between ourselves and the people we love. MOLLY FOX'S BIRTHDAY was on the shortlist for the Orange Prize.
About the Author
Deirdre Madden teaches at Trinity College Dublin and is a member of the Irish arts academy Aosdána.
Reading Group Guide
1. How do the narrators feelings about Molly change over the course of the novel? Do you think
the she sees Molly clearly at the end?
2. “One of the strange things about really old friendships,” the narrator says, “is that the past is both important and not important.” (p. 32) How important is the past to Molly, Andrew and the narrator? How does each of them relate to their pasts and the places they came from?
3. The novel takes place over a single day. How does the author use this short time span to reveal the texture of the characters relationships and histories?
4. “I have always believed that I know who I am,” the narrator says (p. 58), “no small thing in the shifting dream that is contemporary life.” How well do you think the narrator really understands herself? Do you agree that its harder for people to understand themselves now, in “contemporary life”, than it was in earlier generations?
5. Several characters in the novel note a connection between methods of theater and those of religion. What do you think they mean? Do you agree?
6. Look at Mollys description of the moment she realizes she wants to be an actor (p. 71-72). Is it a contradiction that she answered the question “Who am I?” by realizing that she wanted be other people for a living? Do you think Molly is an honest person?
7. The narrator describes David as a happy man, as opposed to someone, like Molly, “whose whole life was an effort to understand this failure to connect.” What does this comparison between David and Molly say about how the narrator views Mollys talents?
8. Each of the three main characters in the story has a very important relationship with one of their siblings: Molly has Fergus, Andrew has Billy, and the narrator has Tom. Do you see any similarities between the three relationships? How do these siblings represent the worlds that the main characters have left behind?
9. As Andrew is leaving at the end of the book the narrator has a very acute memory of the night they spent together. What are her real feelings for him? Did you see any evidence of these feelings earlier in the story? Why do you think she never told Molly about the night she spent with Andrew?
10. “Is the self really such a fluid thing,” the narrator asks, “something we invent as we go along, almost as a social reflex?” How does this idea play out for the three main characters in the story? Do you think the self is a fluid, ever-changing thing, or does each person have a core self that remains constant?
11. What can you learn about Molly Fox through the way shes decorated her home? How do the narrators observations of Mollys house change the way she sees her?
12. What do you think is the significance of the dream that opens the book, and which the narrator remembers at several points throughout the day?