Rating: 
Summary: for people who really know something about love
Review: It is obvious that the author knows a few things about love; it is just that simple. Cleverly structured and a pleasure to read, this is a fast read, based on the author's style. It will touch you at some point if you can feel.
Rating: 
Summary: in a cabin in the woods
Review: i had the pleasure of listening to c. baxter reading chapters from this book at a writing seminar for young creative writers.there is not one chapter that is not beautiful and touching in a very organic way. read this and understand love and loss and rebirth in new ways.
Rating:
Summary: Too clever and literary
Review: It's a collection of interlinked love stories set in the author's home town and using the author as a character and telling the same stories from different characters' points of view - like La Ronde and Roshomon and like a lot of novels about novelists writing novels. All those clever literary devices got in the way of the story (or stories) but it is enjoyable and well written. You'll probably find your own favorite character or couple. I loved Oscar's father - more believable than Oacar. The climactic rapprochement between Chloe and Harry and Esther was gooey and sentimental but heartwarmingly effective - I was reminded of the death of Little Nell and what Oscar Wilde said about it.
Rating:
Summary: Deadly Secrets
Review: Deadly Secrets, by Putsata Reang, is a true crime novel based on the murder of an adolescent girl and her family. Their lives were brutally taken by what she thought were her friends. This novel leaves you breathless because of the excessive amount of cliffhangers. The suspense is thrilling and really reaches one's soul. This novel is recommended for people who enjoy books based on murders and revenge.
Rating:
Summary: A sleep and a forgetting......
Review: The funny thing is, I read about six pages of THE FEAST OF LOVE and put it back on the shelf because I did not like what I read. Then, I almost gave it away without reading it. Then, as these things go, I picked it up again, having forgotten that I had read the prelude, but this time something compelled me to read on...and on. This is a wonderful, wise, sad, funny, profound, and mystical book. Baxter frames FEAST with his nightly perambulations associated with insommnia. He can't sleep. He says Shakespeare wrote two plays about sleeplessness, 'Macbeth' and 'Midsummernight's Dream'. The first is associated with death and the second with love. He says death and love are first cousins. Baxter dedicated FEAST to his brother who died two years ago. Baxter's nightly wanderings lead him to encounter others who are up and about at night. First he meets his neighbor Bradley who is walking his dog Bradley whom he acquired at the Humane Society Animal Shelter. Bradley took his wife Katheryn to the Animal Shelter (against her will) to help her overcome her fear of dogs. Katheryn has left Bradley for Jenny, but Bradley has the dog Bradley from his visit to the animal shelter. Bradley's second wife Diana (troubled with agoraphobia) leaves him after a less than sucessful honeymoon trip to the woods of upper Michigan fails to cure her of her fear of open spaces. Bradley is the manager of a coffee shop called Jitters where two young lovers named Chloe and Oscar work for Bradley. As Chloe says, she and Oscar are at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder. But, Oscar and Chloe have found true love. And, they make lots of love, once on the 50-yard line of the stadium at Ann Arbor. Bradley's neighbors Harry and Ester Ginsberg keep two little fish named Ethel and Julius. Harry is a philosophy teacher whose interests are Soren Kierkegaard who (according to Harry) has said "nearly everyone intuits the sublety of God, but no one knows how to speak to him." Sometimes Harry thinks about Wittgenstein who picked the lint off the suit and lost the suit, or Kaftka and his castles. Harry and Ester wait for the return of their prodigal son Aron. One cold snowy night they get Chloe instead. Other characters, all associated with each other whirl around this amazing book. Baxter has alluded to the Escher hand drawing the hand (on a tee shirt) which was probably what put me off the book to begin with as it seemed a bit trite, but Baxter is far more subtle than this initial allusion led me to believe. This book touches the most profound mysteries and truths in a way only really good literature can. I laughed out loud and I cried. "Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, Hath elsewhere had it's setting..." As Chloe says, this book is about recycled souls.
Rating: 
Summary: Lovely, fluffy, occasionally perfect
Review: After reading the reviews for the hardcover edition of this book, I bought it, thinking that it would be a light-handed quick read that I would perhaps enjoy, but at least not regret reading. I got just what I thought I would, except that not only do I not regret reading it, but I appreciate having read it for some of the lovely imagery that I am left with. I was completely impressed by the strength of the characters, which pulls the reader through the sometimes tedious book, and quickly makes one forget the bad parts for the good. It is, indeed, a sentimental book. With a title like the Feast of Love, how could you think it would not be? But that's a part of its charm. It's a love letter, an optimistic piece of fluff with some beautiful writing and startling insights into relationships.
Rating:
Summary: Deserves our Attention and Affection
Review: This well-deserved award-winner is a testament to the power of strong writing to bring characters right into the reader's life. Each of the characters is compelling and unique, including the eponymous Charles Baxter, wandering the University of Michigan at midnight in search of he knows not what. In essence, this book is not about love as much as it is about the loss of love. We each one day will live it; this terrific novel will be the perfect balm that day. It is elegantly crafted and it addresses real relationships that remind me of the lives I know. This book also reminds me of a great new novel called Love Songs of the Tone-Deaf, a kind of comic gem about relationships gained and lost. Charles Baxter -- the author, not the character -- deserves all the accolades he is receiving.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: I had been planning to read Charles Baxter's A Feast of Love for quite some time, and now that I have finally done so, I must say that I am thrilled that I did. A Feast of Love is an amazing novel from start to finish. It is a book that is a bit hard to catagorize as being one certian type, because through it's brilliantly constructed characters you come to realize that life in general is what is being disected through their 'stories', yet, and how love affects every little detail of what goes on the world around us. Touching bases with almost every form of love, and every possible outcome of haveing love in your life, this book is one the better ones that I have read by far. It is both, beautifully written and thought provoking, I couldn't of asked for more.
Rating:
Summary: It's just OK / mixed feelings
Review: I "accidentally" acquired this book from a book club, if you know what I mean, and I was bored by it and wasn't particularly enjoying it. But as I slogged on through, I did come to recognize that Charles Baxter is in fact a talented writer and at times I found myself saying "wow, that's so perfectly stated." I'm not rating this book higher than 3 stars because, in all honesty, Charles Baxter is just not my type of writer. I inellectually, I recognize his skill and art, but it just doesn't strike a chord with me. To me, his characterizations of the young couple, Chloe and Oscar, didn't ring true. Somehow they seemed as an "older guy's idea of a hot young couple." Other readers might disagree with me, but I just felt the characterization was either a little lacking or too forced. But maybe that's just me.
Rating:
Summary: It makes you wonder...
Review: The book's point is that we all deal with our problems and loves in very different ways... This book was amazing and demonstrated how Baxter can write from the perspective of an 18 year old to a 65 year old. It is the difference in style combined with the different experiences that make this book alive. Baxter has some very deep insights about how we deal with life and love, and he has pretty good points. I recommend this book for anyone who has been or is into a relationship.
| 
