Rating: 
Summary: Trappings and revelations of love......
Review: THE FEAST OF LOVE lives up to it's name. This is a discovery of love in all it's many trappings and it's glorious revelations. The story begins with a conversation between two insomniacs, a conversation centering on love. The novel proceeds with stories told by several different people whose lives become slowly intertwined throughout the novel. The people are married couples, ex-couples, father and son, teenagers, and single people. They come from such a variety of backgrounds, financially, racially, and religiously, that it seems impossible to gather them all into one tale. Charles Baxter does it and does it well. Love, being the central theme, is villified, nullified, admired, defiled, wished for, lost, found and sought after. This is an interesting look at love in all it's facets. This novel will surprise you with it's unusual approach and easy going style.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining, if a bit light.
Review: I found this book to be entertaining, if not particularly deep. It held my interest and was a fairly quick read, but after reading it I can't say that there were particularly memorable moments or scenes. It was more of a "guilty pleasure" read.
Rating:
Summary: very good book
Review: I really enjoyed this book. i thought that it was well written and also very lighthearted. I would recommend this book to anyone, especially those who have ever loved and lost.
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Summary: Charming Story, Beautifully Written
Review: My husband, who usually only reads murder mysteries, brought this book home. I still don't know what inspired him to buy it (although I think the word "sexy" can be found somewhere on the cover...), and he never did read it. It lingered in our bedroom for months before I picked it up, and the moment I began reading I regretted not opening it sooner.
This is a lovely, charming story, beautifully written and well told.
I consider myself lucky that my husband brought it home, and I urge anyone considering it to stop looking and just read it. You will be well rewarded.
Rating:
Summary: Feast your mind on this wonderful book
Review: Charles Baxter's masterpiece, "The Feast of Love" is a powerful piece of writing. The story is told through the eyes of several people whose lives become entwined with each other's. Everybody I have recommended this book to has loved it, and it got an ASTONINGSLY high marks (a 5 out of 5) by my book group. The book is very entertaining and deftly written and totally gets the reader into the minds of several interesting characters. It is one of those books that I could have read forever, and I bemoan the fact that it is only about 300 pages, whereas I easily could have read 1,000 pages of this wonderful, heart-breaking story.I do not wish to give away any part of the story, but let's just say that some of the most well-written intriguing characters live in this book, and I continually think of them as if I was part of their family. All I can say is drop everything you are doing and let yourself read this amazing work of fiction.
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Summary: feast of love: a thoroughly enjoyable...
Review: feast of love: a thoroughly enjoyable book. i really liked the storyline and how the stories were woven together. i also liked how the characters were brought to life for me. basically, a great read.
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Summary: A COLLEGE PROFESSOR TRIES TO BE CLEVER
Review: As another reviewer wrote, I also cannot understand why this book got such good reviews. Baxter is a college professor, and the book has the feeling of someone "looking down" on the people seen from the window of his ivory tower and trying to write something clever about them. It's condescending, big time, especially towards the female and younger characters. ...
Rating:
Summary: Menagerie of weird people
Review: I picked up this book and started it once. The beginning was terribly boring and wasn't quite sure where it was going. So I put it down, read a different book and came back. I skipped much of the prelude, which was very self indulgent on the writer's part. And it got going well from there. I liked these characters and their stories of love. I enjoyed their plights, thoughts, and feelings. I liked how each one wanted love, and tried hard to get it/keep it/sustain it. Although each character could stand on it's own, each was intertwined in some way. The one character that I thought was the least believable was Chole, the young 16 year old. Her speach was immature, yet her insight profound. Perhaps this was done on purpose, but I just kept saying in the back of my head: "Is this girl believable?" Give this one a try. You will like the meat, just not the bread of this book.
Rating:
Summary: Didn't like it at all
Review: I read it as this was our bookclub choice for the month. 5 out of 6 of us disliked it. I actually had to force myself to finish it, as I try to finish all the books I start, and needed to for the club. The characters were flat, underdeveloped. We noted that Charles Baxter seems to have difficulty writing in a woman's voice. His 2 wives were potentially interesting, but were not
fleshed out enough to understand. The only characters that felt "real" were the Ginsbergs. After reading the glowing description of the book, I felt deceived.
Rating: 
Summary: Good story...Difficult to follow
Review: This was not a book that I looked foward to reading and finishing, but I did finish it. The first 3/4 of this novel was dry and very hard to follow, in my opinion. The last few chapters were real interesting and enjoyable to read, so instead of 1 star, I gave this book 2 stars.
This novel seemed like a survey, of sorts, about relationships, commitment, and love between different couples of different generations. That was interesting but I find it hard to enjoy a book that is so difficult to know which couple is narrating, since it switched back and forth alot.
This is not one of my favorites and it's not a book that I tell my friends "you just have to read this".
Based on the other reviewers, I'm in the minority with my review. I do admire authors that will step out on a limb and write a little bit differently. I liked the story but I wasn't fond of the way the book was written.
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