The Birthday Party: A Memoir of Survival

by Stanley N. Alpert

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Bibliodidact | May 21, 2012 |

A very interesting memoir about the 26 hours Stan Alpert spent as a kidnapping victim and the investigation and aftermath. He was incredibly fortunate that they did not murder him. Certainly Alpert had substantially better survival skills than I do (and, I suspect, better than most of us). For me, the weakest part of the book was the final 1/3, which followed the investigation, probably because I worked as a legal assistant in a criminal defense firm for 14 years and it was all very familiar to me. Otherwise, I enjoyed Stanley's story. (

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whymaggiemay | Sep 14, 2011 |

Very interesting account of Mr. Alpert's kidnapping off the streets of New York City. Nowhere in the book does the author mention being targeted by the kidnappers specifically because he is Jewish. Despite this fact the author felt the need to pepper his book with stereotypical references about Jewish culture and his own Jewish upbringing. They occur so often I found them to be a bit distracting and a little out of place in this book. (

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Paulslibrary | Jan 1, 2010 |

Stanley Alpert describes, in detail, his ordeal of being kidnapped near his apartment in Greenwich Village by a group who set out to only steal his ATM card and PIN number.

Stanley's story is one that I never want to experience and he does a great job of explaining the details of all that happened to him. However, maybe I have a distorted view because I read a lot of suspense novels, but I found it to be lacking in oomph. Just the thought of being kidnapped arouses anxiety in me and I didn't feel any major fear from him throughout the whole episode. Yes, thankfully for his sake, he remained calm, which contributed to his survival, but for a written memoir I would have thought he would have chosen words that would instill a sense of fear or make it more suspenseful. He literally just wrote what happened. By no means am I suggesting that he embellish his story, but I think the manner in which it was told could have been more exciting. (3.75/5)

Originally posted on: Thoughts of Joy (

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ThoughtsofJoyLibrary | Sep 7, 2009 |

Stanley Alpert's *The Birthday Party* is a remarkably well done account of an extraordinary story. Of the thousands of books I've read in my life, this one is unique in that the presence of the author's photo is one of the most compelling aspects of the book. Without ruining anything, that Mr. Alpert survived to tell this story borders on the unimaginable. Yet the narrative is so very compelling that *The Birthday Party* remains a page-turner, even though the narrator's voice should make the unlikely but life-affirming conclusion self-evident. In this way, the book resembles the award winning film documentary "Touching the Void" (though I liked *The Birthday Party* much better). I can't understand any issues with the writing style -- I found the story compelling, fast-moving and well-crafted. I highly recommend it. (

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trickbooks | May 29, 2009 |

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Brooklyn, New York, USA

Manhattan, New York, New York, USA

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Awards and honors

Edgar Award Nominee (Fact Crime, 2008)

Epigraph

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my parents, Arlene and Ben, who taught me that helping those less fortunate than us was more important than amassing wealth, and to my grandparents Leon and Flora, who gave me comfort and strength when I needed it.

First words

In New York City, 1998, crime was down, but not out, as I was to learn the night before my thirty-eighth birthday.

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Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0399154027, Hardcover)

On January 21, 1998, the night before his thirty-eighth birthday, federal prosecutor Stanley Alpert was kidnapped off the streets of Manhattan. This is the story of what happened next. . . . Alpert was taken by a carful of gun-toting thugs looking to use his ATM card, but when they learned his bank balance the plan changed. They took him, blindfolded with his own scarf, to a Brooklyn apartment, with the idea of going to a bank the next day and withdrawing most of his money. But the later it got, the more the plan changed again . . . and again . . . as his captors alternately held guns to his head, threatened his family, engaged him in discussions of "gangsta" philosophy, sought his legal advice, and, once they learned it was his birthday, offered him sexual favors from their prostitute girlfriends as a "birthday present." All the while, Alpert, still blindfolded, talked with them, played on their attitudes and fears, tried to figure out where their mood swings would take them next, and memorized every detail he could in the event that he ever managed to get out of there alive. In the meantime, his friends and law enforcement colleagues, worried that they hadn't heard from him, launched a major police and FBI investigation. It, too, would take many twists and turns before it was done-and some of them would be very strange indeed. Filled with immediacy, drama, and extraordinary characters, told not only from Alpert's memory and notes but from police reports, interviews with NYPD detectives, FBI agents, and witnesses, videotaped confessions, and court records, The Birthday Party reads like a thriller-but every word is true.

(retrieved from Amazon Wed, 20 Apr 2011 04:42:59 -0400)

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▾Library descriptions

On January 21, 1998, federal prosecutor Stanley Alpert was kidnapped off the streets of Manhattan by a carful of thugs looking to use his ATM card, but when they learned his bank balance, the plan changed. They took him, blindfolded, to a Brooklyn apartment. But the later it got, the more the plan changed, as his captors held guns to his head, threatened his family, engaged him in discussions of gangsta philosophy, or sought his legal advice. All the while, Alpert, still blindfolded, played on their attitudes and fears, tried to figure out where their mood swings would take them next, and memorized every detail he could in the event he ever managed to get out of there alive. Meanwhile, his friends and law enforcement colleagues launched a major investigation. It, too, would take many twists and turns before it was done--and some of them would be strange indeed.--From publisher description.… (more)