Rating: 
Summary: A Response
Review: Do you know what we talk about when we talk abot when we talk about love? Raymond Carver. Because he wrote a story called, "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love." You big stupid.
Rating: 
Summary: An Exquisite Book
Review: After reading this novel, I felt rich. Charles Baxter just does everything so precisely right and is a master of balancing humor of the laugh-out-loud variety with piercing, though not brutal, tragedy. His characters, particularly Chloe and Bradley, feel real as they unfold their stories of love, their voices alternately--or simultaneously--stammering and lyrical, baffled and shot through with clear, shining wisdom. You'll find yourself rooting for them. It strikes me as a singular achievement to write a modern novel about love that is so unabashedly generous, so wholly lacking bitterness or cynicism. I can't imagine anyone not loving this book.
Rating:
Summary: eat this book
Review: One savvy NY publicist-the first groupie I met, got a just-ate-the bird look on her face when discussing this book. She was rendered speechless simply by me pointing and saying "Do you like that book?" "Ommmm," she replied happily. A man goes on a walk, searching under rocks and pebbles for the topic of his Great Novel. Finding his friend Bradley in a gigantic moonlit football field, he learns (at Bradley's strong recommendation) that said Great Novel is to be about Bradley. As in Zelig, the film by Woody Allen, Bradley then becomes The Man, EveryMan, Wonderman, as we are treated to everyone's take on his life. Our narrator interviews everyone from the unwilling, verbally unhinged ex-wife, "My life is not in the public domain ... I'm not an osteopath, you know," to the punk-rock nymphomaniac employee. Bradley's dog, also named Bradley, would most likely garner an interview if at all possible. This is a sweet kaleidoscope of one man's life in modern, whitebread America. Baxter's talent lies in delineative precision, the little things; his suburbia, too familiar, raises the hairs on your neck. His love fairytales make you choke on your tea.
Rating: 
Summary: Clever, like marshmallow fluff.
Review: Let me begin by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was an awful lot of fun to read, and I usually hate books about something unquantifiable, like the nature of love. They usually ring so hollow. But this book wasn't like that. It was good. So, why the middling three stars? Well, because it wasn't great, in the sense of A Truly Great Book. Even this style of fiction has better novels in it's canon than Baxter. But on its own, this book has much to offer. The book is essentially a series of interrelated short stories related to the author, who has placed himself snug at home in his Ann Arbor neighborhood full of Cupid's playthings. While the narrative voice shift -- as each of the characters tell their story about transforming love, the tale is told in a distinctly different tone -- is clever, it's really parlor tricks. (Admittedly, very good parlor tricks.) I admired the structure of the language used throughout the different narratives, how each one seemed to use different construction and vocabulary, just the way a real person would. In the details, the craft of the book is extremely precise. The stories are all variations on the way that love changes lives and makes you do things you'd never have done without it. It's a good, though unoriginal, topic. Each of the tales is heartfelt enough, I suppose, and they all deal with that "everday wonder" thing that being truly in love will do to you. The narrators are all compelling, particularly that of the coffee shop-owning Bradley, whose misadventures in love lead him through a lot of different kinds of transcendence. Nonetheless, the stories were sort of like comfortable old jeans -- nothing new, but appreciated nonetheless after a hard day. I would recommend this book to the savvy reader looking for a little escapism and a vacation for the brain (to Cape Cod, not to Daytona Beach, mind you). The amazing simple craftmanship of this book will be a pleasant piece of heavy fluff. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A Novel As Charming As It's Subject
Review: Charles Baxter has written an inventive, charming, multi-facited and heartbreaking novel about love and it's many manifestations. The stories are engrossing, complex and often stunningly wise. He weaves several love stories, many the same story from different perspectives, together and slowly unveils the truth and essence of love. A wonderful, sweet and satisfying book.
Rating:
Summary: capturing ann arbor life
Review: living twenty minutes from ann arbor, the scene of charles baxter's newest novel "the feast of love" made me appreciate it like one does after reading a review of a wine you know and love. i believe the setting could be boulder, madison, or maybe even oxford,ms. baxter is truly a weaver of lives in this wonderful book. his characters be come your friends and acquaintances as the do in truly good reads. i am reccomending this book to everyone who gets pleasure from books.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, Moving Novel
Review: I just finished this book last night and found it to be the most moving book I have read in a long time. Charles Baxter has a beautiful handle on the true simpleness of life.
Rating: 
Summary: An ornament, glossy but hollow
Review: This book, though at times artfully constructed, failed to deliver the promised Feast. Not all characters in novels need be sympathetic. Some of the best characters in writing are not.
But when a writer wants a character to be so, the writer must give us something to root for. Chloe is filthy, flighty, without foundation. Her character and the author's obvious approval of her cripple this work. Chloe's value's are basically these: Love is a big party, you do what you want when you attend. Why else go?
Baxter should know better. Remember that categorical imperative his professor alludes to? Real love requires the young to become adults and in return, it makes adults young again, only better ones. Love is never about Beavis and Butthead jokes, making porno flicks to pay the rent, oral sex on a football field. And while at times the Chloe voice sounds believably pierced and groovy, it also strays from punkette to somewhat lucid to nearly normal in ways that don't convince.
On the kudos side, Bradley and his neighbors seem real. Their voices don't change radically. Baxter should also be praised for careening from the tattooed ramblings of Chloe to the voice of the dragging artist to the introverted daydreaming of the philosopher. And, the portrayal of Diana is much more complex and interesting than that of Chloe: She is selfish, yes. But the author sees Diana in three dimensions, he portrays the weaknesses that drive her to steely impulsiveness. There is analysis and there is a lesson. Diana is cruel but also troubled by it, and therefore forgivable. Chloe is a loving caricature of a crass and lost girl.
This book is well done on a polish level, but misunderstands that which it is trying to describe. Love is a sacrifice of self, favoring instead the goodness and needs of another. The truest love gives; the lover receives much in return but only because the person's like-minded partner gives just as freely. Love is not the fast-food drive-thru of the emotions. Those following Baxter's recipes will dine only on a Feast of Emptiness.
Rating:
Summary: A dream of a novel
Review: I am surprised at some of the negative reaction to this book. I was captivated most of the way, even by the characters I didn't care for. I do think the novel errs near the end with an unbelievable moment of violence. The novel should have ended with Bradley's voice. I also don't think the book needed the frame of the narrator at the beginning and end. But there is much to admire in the writing, and I've recommended the book to several of my friends. I've tried to read Baxter's other books and while I saw that he obviously knows how to tell a good story, this is the one book of his that has grabbed me emotionally.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful pleasure
Review: What a pleasure it is to read a book as well-written as The Feast of Love. Charles Baxter is truly a master. Feast is a highly enjoyable book, a wonderful read. The novel develops in an interesting manner. Instead of having an omniscient narrator, or first person narrative, we have a collection of people telling their story to the writer Charles Baxter who is trying to work through his writer's block. If the real Charles Baxter ever had any kind of writer's block, he certainly got over it with Feast of Love. The novel revolves around Bradley Smith, a youngish man who's been married and divorced several times. He tells his story to Baxter, as do Bradley's friends, neighbors and ex-wives. The novel is indeed a feast of love, as well as a feast of life. Baxter gives us a wonderful slice of life in America in the current day. The story is a funny rumination on the nature of love, how it develops, how it ends, how it grows. The characters' observations are witty without seeming to obvious, or trying too hard. The writing is fantastic. This is one to enjoy. Highly recommended.
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