Rating: 
Summary: A mediocre meal
Review: I think that portions of this book are very good and then others are not. The problem is, the parts I didn't like were so distracting that I think they took away from my overall enjoyment of what could be a very touching and inventive novel. Specifically, the voice of Chloe was so cloying I found myself skimming past them, but unfortunately, it is her voice that dominates the second half of the novel, and it becomes rather unavoidable. Her voice just didn't sound natural to me, like Baxter couldn't fully capture her immature scatteredness and make it read believably. I did really enjoy the voices of Diana and of Bradley, but they were too sparse to hold it all together for me.
Rating: 
Summary: The best book I read in over a year!
Review: I savored this book. Like many of you, I am a voracious reader who can devour a book in an evening. With "The Feast of Love" I took my time to linger over and reread certain chapters because they were so amazing (Chapter 6 comes to mind). Not only was the writing dazzling at times, the sentiments and the characters stayed with me long after I put this book down. In my mind, great fiction should not only tell a story you want to hear about, but it should also make you ponder. This book carried out a sentiment I particularly like: "When you write, you should not only provide illumination, but also a window that leads to new places." This book did that for me.
Rating: 
Summary: A real banquet of a book.
Review: The Feast of Love is a little like a multi-course meal, with a tongue-in-cheek appetizer to get you going immediately; some light, amusing scenes to work up your appetite for the main course; some real meat to the themes and major conflicts, which provide nourishment for the soul; and a sweet conclusion to make you satisfied and happy. I loved it.Baxter begins his novel as a character within the story, an insomniac writer named Charlie, who is walking late at night when he meets Bradley, another insomniac, on a park bench. When Bradley tells him how he should title his book, comments on a proposed opening sentence, and suggests the subject, "Charlie," amusingly, follows his advice. As we learn of Bradley's love troubles, along with those of a wide variety of other characters of different ages and backgrounds, we gain clear insight into their personalities and motivations. Ultimately, we know not only who they are but what love is, not only for them but for ourselves--love in its most universal definitions and dimensions. Baxter wears his significant literary talents lightly, presenting scenes that often perplex their participants while the reader looks on with ironic, sometimes amused, detachment. But the reader empathizes with the characters at the same time that s/he observes them. Chloe,a young, punkish teenager who loves Oscar, a skinny former junkie, is a particularly memorable character--so finely and sympathetically drawn that many parents (and other fogies) may see teenage romance in an entirely new way. An elderly couple longing for their son, who has disappeared, shows the depths of parental love and provides a perfect, complete foil to Chloe and Oscar. Bradley and his wives, along with the lovers for whom they leave him, further illuminate the complexities of love and relationships, a reason some have described this book as a modern retelling of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Though some reviewers have called this novel "hilarious," that term suggests a frivolity and superficiality that do not exist here. Instead, I found the book poignant, sometimes sad, and very moving--a view of love which communicates directly with the reader's heart. Wonderful!
Rating:
Summary: A literary feast?
Review: By now, The Feast of Love needs no introduction. It is a very good book. I would like to question, though, one aspect I found somewhat troubling. I thought the literary technique of switching voices by telling the stories (or listening to the stories) of various chcaracters was very useful because it allowed Baxter to expose and discuss hidden insights about love. We would all love to be able to have an opportunity to analyze failed relationships. We all want to understand what went wrong. We usually do not get a chance to do so. Baxter's novel is unique because it opens that desired window. What to one character is a love story for another is a bad encounter. Brilliant. And yet I did not think the technique was justified within the novel. Why would the different characters agree to open up to Baxter? A need to tell somebody, to share, is not enough. Some of the heros end up having someone to talk to. Why would they seek a public stage? Howcome nobody refuses to participate? Diana raises some reservations but she then decides to join the group. What makes her change her mind? This lack of credibility bothers me because it almost makes me feel that the author wanted to experiment with a particular techinique but did not do a good job of concealing it. The book then reads more like a "scholarly" paper about love than a fiction celebrating it.
Rating:
Summary: An Insomniac's Beautiful Dream
Review: I am always at a loss when readers/critics make the comment, "People just don't talk like that" or "That just wouldn't happen." Expecting fiction/literature or any art to only represent "reality" (as if anything like that could be determined or agreed upon) is to render it soul-less. How, for example, can you appreciate Toni Morrison's Beloved if you refuse to accept a ghost as a character of fiction? A novel is the writer's creation. He or she makes the rules and then succeeds when remaining true to the "reality" created. Charles Baxter does this most definitely. His characters may speak strangely and act strangely, because, as he often suggests, this Feast of Love is inspired by William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Nothing is what is seems and yet everything is exactly what it seems. How better to define love? There and here, a world lit by moonlight is marked by curious couplings and heartfelt poetry. The fact that Baxter could recreate such a magical and indeed inherited atmosphere with these modern and often hysterical characters is a triumph. His language is sharp and funny, lucidly confessing the one human experience which preoccupies us most. I adored every minute of this novel, every last word. Outrageously entertaining and surprisingly moving, it navigates a tricky narrative with assurance and grace. And then comes the last lovely pages . . . the quote, "Our life is no dream, but ought to be and perhaps will become so." I could almost hear Shakespeare's approval. This novel depicts Love as it is and as it will always be: strange, magical, glorious, devastating and always, inexplicably present in our dreams whether they come to us in the day or night.
Rating:
Summary: Stuffed by the Feast of Love
Review: When I randomly wondered into a book reading at my college campus, I was amazed at the literature that I was hearing. I sat captivated by the beauty in the words and the reality of the passages. I immediatley knew I must own and read The Feast of Love by Charles Baxter. This book captures the true essence of human emotions ranging from love, passion, longing, dissapointment, heartbreak and many others. The characters come alive in this work, and have qualities that make them lovingly universal. However, what makes them special are each individual characters quirks and oddities. I have yet to read another book that so accuratley portrays love in it's pure essence. Baxter really out does himself and his prior works with this book. I very highly reccomend it.
Rating:
Summary: Different Voices and Different Views
Review: Having stumbled across this book, I was amazed that I had not heard of it or its author before. The story unfolds as the characters tell their entwined stories to an insomniac author struggling with writer's block. What is remarkable is that each of the characters has a separate, distinct voice: Chloe, the coffee shop waitress expresses herself using the vocabulary of the street while Harry, the philosophy professor, resorts to Kierkegaard to express himself. Each of the characters and the situations that they find themselves in are plausible yet interesting. Although the stories all have love as an overarching theme, there are other themes that are explored as well. I had heard that this book was one of the nominees for the National Book Award. It richly deserves that kind of recognition.
Rating:
Summary: Deeply touched
Review: Extraordinary! This is a man who understands malesness, and understands so intuitively those profoundly secreted places where and when things get misspoken/misheard/miscommunicated between men and women. In the following rumination to have/have not a husband, Diana remembers: "As my mother once said to me, 'They're quite crazy, dear - men are. What you look for is one whose insanity is large enough, and calm and generous enough, to include you.'" Is there a couple, anywhere, who has not been jostled about and had to come to grips with 'my space', 'your space', 'our space'! Baxter's tenderness for our assets as well as our frailties touches deeply. I would like to know more about him and his family origins.
Rating: 
Summary: This is about infatuation and self-serving love.
Review: This book is badly titled. It is as if a gifted junior high or high school student had written it. Naturally, he deserves an A in English Composition, and naturally the other school students will think it's cool. But this book says nothing about love and responsibility as shared by adults. Amusing, yes. Profound, no.
Rating:
Summary: He understands love
Review: A wonderful book. The idiot who gave it one star has a problem and needs help. Charles Baxter really understands love. His writing is magical and has changed my life. I accidentally bumped into his short story "Incarnation" a few weeks ago. It left me stunned. Something changed inside me, I was in the presence of art. I decided to read everything Charles Baxter wrote, and this far I'm the lucky one. He's so far ahead of most other novelists..... in understanding the deep mystery of being human. Plus, he's funny as hell.
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