Want a NOOK? Explore Now
A multilayered, beautifully textured novel about family and self, self-indulgence and generosity, against the vivid backdrop of contemporary Miami.
In the tropical paradise that is Miami, Avis and Brian Muir are still haunted by the disappearance of their ineffably beautiful daughter, Felice, who ran away when she was thirteen. Now, after five years of modeling tattoos, skateboarding, clubbing, and sleeping in a squat house or on the beach, Felice is about to turn eighteen. Her family—Avis, an exquisitely talented pastry chef; Brian, a corporate real estate attorney; and her brother, Stanley, the proprietor of Freshly Grown, a trendy food market—will each be forced to confront their anguish, loss, and sense of betrayal. Meanwhile, Felice must reckon with the guilty secret that drove her away, and must face her fear of losing her family and her sense of self forever.
This multilayered novel about a family that comes apart at the seams—and finds its way together again—is totally involving and deeply satisfying, a glorious feast of a book.
Abu-Jaber (Origin, 2007, etc.) uses a plot staple of standard-issue domestic melodrama—a family dealing with a runaway daughter—to develop a meticulous, deeply moving portrayal of imperfect human beings struggling to do right.
Miami, churning with money, steamy energy and clashing cultures shortly before the recent real-estate crash, is the evocative setting. Elite pastry chef Avis Muir and her husband Brian, a corporate lawyer for a big developer, remain in crisis five years after their stunningly beautiful daughter Felice ran away. Still in Miami, Felice has met briefly with her mother a handful of times, but neither her father nor older brother Stanley, whom Avis always neglected in her obsession with Felice, has seen her since she was 13. As a hurricane approaches, the characters are buffeted by their own internal storms. Increasingly brittle and withdrawn, Avis finds herself drawn to a mysterious Haitian neighbor with her own terrible family secrets. Passive Brian, overwhelmed with his sense of failure as husband and father, is tempted both to have an affair and to invest in a cockamamie real estate deal. Stanley, always underrated by his parents, is now the charismatic proprietor of a wildly popular organic market he fears he may lose to encroaching development. About to turn 18, Felice is outgrowing her life as a street kid but believes she must stay away from home to punish herself for past acts. Glorious descriptions, both of nature and Avis's mouthwatering pastry, offset yet intensify the jagged emotions of the Muirs.
In this provocative exploration of the fault lines of loyalty and guilt, Abu-Jaber's searing perceptions, particularly about parents and children, more than make up for a less than convincing ending or an occasional lapse into overlabored prose.
TAMARA MARSTON has been an actor, singer and director for over 30 years. A career performer / musician, Tami has toured nationally with several groups and appeared on The Arsenio Hall Show and A&E’s Goodtime Café. Dividing her time between acting and singing gigs, choral conducting, music and stage directing, jingle and voiceover work, private and public teaching—and family—Tami feels very fortunate to make her living working in the arts.
There are books you read for the enjoyment of the story and ones you read for the language of the author. Diana Abu-Jaber has written a book that includes both. You can not help but be swept up in both the riveting story of a young run-away girl on the streets af Miami and the lyrical language of life for her family who struggles to come to terms with her absence.
This book is flavored with the language of food. With the disappearance of Felice, both mother and son turn to their love of food and baking to see their way through the years.
Birds of Paradise follows closely behind Diana's previous works in its food-driven descriptions and themes.
I have loved every one of Abu-Jaber's books and feel that this is her best yet. As a chef, I can not help but be envious of Diana's obvious command of pastries and cooking and her ability to describe the flavors and techniques of cuisine.
This is a wonderfully haunting and gripping novel. You will not be disappointed.
Victoria Allman
author of: SEAsoned: A Chef's Journey with Her Captain
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.imnoeinstein
Posted January 9, 2012
I found this book very boring. Hard to imagine allowing your 13 year old to run away and live on the streets of Miami.16, maybe, but 13 is a child. Why not call the police, call social services, call child welfare, do something.
Did not care for this book at all, would never recommend.
LeisureReader
Posted January 4, 2012
Each member of the family gets a turn to interpret their reactions to daughter's leaving home. That makes for a well rounded perspective of the crisis and it's aftermath and conclusions. Sometimes though the multiple narrators were just frustrating to an ongoing plot line, but I guess that was the beat way to get the entire picture of the problems.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted November 14, 2011
Well-written story about a Florida family whose teenage daughter runs away from home at the age of 13 and how it affects the family psychologically. I'm still trying to figure out why she ran away...not sure it was a good enough reason. I was alittle disappointed in that I was expecting a story about Arab-American culture since the author is Arab-American herself, but it was just a story about an all-American family with no references to Arab culture at all. Of course ethnic writers should be able to write about more than their ethnic culture.
0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Debbie-V
Posted October 24, 2011
this book was hard to get into, and never got any better. Put it away mid-way. Did not like.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted October 19, 2011
Birds of Paradise takes a little getting used to. Each chapter is from the viewpoint of a different character, so the timelines get confusing.
The characters are all doing their best to survive the story they know, and all are in pain. So, this is definitely a drama and any resolution is good.
1471179
Posted October 5, 2011
Realy liked this book. Intense and very heart breaking.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted June 4, 2012
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted January 12, 2013
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted February 15, 2012
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted March 2, 2013
No text was provided for this review.
Overview
A multilayered, beautifully textured novel about family and self, self-indulgence and generosity, against the vivid backdrop of contemporary Miami.
In the tropical paradise that is Miami, Avis and Brian Muir are still haunted by the disappearance of their ineffably beautiful daughter, Felice, who ran away when she was thirteen. Now, after five years of modeling tattoos, skateboarding, clubbing, and sleeping in a squat house or on the beach, Felice is about to turn eighteen. Her ...