Rating: 
Summary: A remarkable feast
Review: Charles Baxter has written a clever, insightful, funny and heartbreaking novel.The Feast of Love opens with writer/insomniac Charlie Baxter walking through his Ann Arbour, Michigan neighborhood in the dark, early hours of the morning. During his journey he encounters Bradley, a fellow insominiac, walking his dog who also happens to be named Bradley. After greeting, the topic turns to Charlie's new book of which has no title and is only in the beginning stages. "You should call it The Feast of Love," says Bradley, "I am the expert on that. Actually, I should write that book. You should put me into your novel. I'm an expert on love. I've just broken up with my second wife, after all." And so begins the foray into The Feast of Love, a novel capturing love's great and painful moments told by the residents of Charlie's neighborhood. There's Bradley, the coffee shop owner, his two ex wives and their lovers; Chloe and Oscar the adventurous gen-xers with an uncontainable love; and Harry and Esther, Bradley's neighbors who mourn the son that has walked out of their lives. This cast of characters is insightful, yet unknowing, and is always learning, hopeful and searching for the tables from which they can consume their feast. While not all the characters are successful in this endeavor, the novel leaves you content and feeling fortunate for the glimpse into the lives of these individuals and the chance to hear their stories in their own words. Lara H. Smith
Rating: 
Summary: Wait until it comes out in paperback...
Review: Mildly entertaining but there is not enough substance to engage the reader. The one interesting character was a young employee of the protagonist. The character of the protagonist was not fleshed out at all.
Rating: 
Summary: Well-written but deeply flawed
Review: Positives: It is wonderfully written. The plot is continually surprising. Baxter notices and makes interesting many small details of life. His prose is lucid and rich. He is a wonderful teller of stories. It could have been a great book. Negatives: The beauty of the novel appears to touch several universal chords related to love and relationships -- that is until it falls flat when Baxter clumsly introduces a black character near the end of the book. (We cannot miss the fact that the character is black since Baxter mentions it explicitly or implicitly each time the character becomes involved in the plot). Unlike his other character, this character rings hollow. She is suppose to be an African who was educated in this country as a doctor and decides to stay. She becomes involved in the plot when the main character (who is presumtively white, but never idetified as such) shows up in her Emergency Room after intentionally cutting off the tip of his finger after his latest romance failed. Most doctors would avoid this potentially crazed patient, particularly if he mutilates himself in the name of love, yet somehow she begins dating him. Unbelievable. Moreover, she does not seem African, but African-American. From what little we know of her, she seems to be imbued with much of mainstream African-American culture, including going to a black Baptist church. (While not impossible, this is about as likely as finding a French man at a white Baptist church). And of course she can dance and her bumbling (racially unidentified, but presumptively white) paramour cannot. Baxter is playing to stereotypes and it is very disconserting. It is equally disconserting that we know nothing about the race of any other character (although at least one character is jewish). Yet we are constantly being reminded that she is black. Perhaps Baxter made the character "black" to show that love is universal. If so, he failed. Perhaps if the character had been given a voice to explain herself, the contradictions would have been explained. But unlike the many (racially unidentified, but presumptively) white characters, she does not get to tell her story. The novel does not fail because Baxter cannot draw this black character. Sadly, the novel fails because when we realize that Baxter cannot draw a black character, the novel no longer hits the universal chords of love and romance. To our loss, it suddenly becomes very small and whitebread.
Rating:
Summary: The Feast of Love
Review: Warning: if you are hooked on literary realism, you'll have to look elsewhere for your fix. With this outstanding book, Baxter extends the long line of literary fabulism that stretches back through Ovid, Spenser, Shakespeare, and Italo Calvino, to name a few. Part dream, part philosophical meditation, part incantation, part love song to the world, this book is shaped by a lingering and enlightened naivety summed up in the quotation of (the 18th century German Romanticist) Novalis that follows its final chapter: "Our life is no dream, but ought to be and perhaps will be so."
Rating:
Summary: Recycled and Masticated
Review: Some books are truly repugnant to deserve a well-written review. But this book is just plain boring. I can't believe people like this book because it's just one cliched situation after another. Charles Baxter betrays his gender by writing such a melodramatic womanhood-embracing .... I wished I could've spent the time reading this book ....
Rating: 
Summary: A feast for the brain.
Review: This is a beautifully written, funny, touching story about love and it's many faces. Passion, longing, lust, and the unconditional love of a parent for a child are all weaved together in a creative and innovative style. This is a highly enjoyable book.
Rating:
Summary: Love Affair
Review: This is a fantastic book filled with stories of love from many different people's lives...if your looking for a book to divuldge yourself into this summer I highly recommend this one.
Rating:
Summary: If this were a bathtub, you couldn't drown in it...
Review: Vraiment! On beyond light or even lite. I had hopes, because there is an interesting idea or two, but ultimately greatly disappointing. Wait 'til you find it at a tag sale or something...
Rating:
Summary: comfort reading at its best
Review: There's such a thing as comfort-eating. Food you turn to when feeling sad or lonely. Food that is familiar & yet delicious, & can help get your spirits up each time you turn to it. Well, I believe there is also such a thing as comfort reading. "The feast of love" is one of the best novels that I read last year. After reading it for the first time, I've found myself returning to it again & again, turning to favourite pieces, or simply reading it from cover to cover, on long, rainy, lonely weekends. It's the kind of novel that makes you step out of your everyday-world, forget all that's on your mind, & live through the characters inhabiting the book. I've been a fan of Charles Baxter for ages, he's definitely one of the best american short-story writers, & my personal second favourite, after Lorrie Moore. "The feast of love" came as a surprise, because it's different from other works by Baxter. It's a novel, but it's also a collection of stories, so in this way Charles Baxter doesn't move far from his usual style of writing. One of the surprises is the fact that the author appears as a character in the book. This "trick" could work or could not, & then would be considered just a party-trick & thus, tacky. Here, it works. "Charlie" (aka Charles Baxter) is a blocked writer who suffers from insomnia & wonders the streets of Ann Arbour, Michigan during long nights, looking for ideas but finding none. On one of his nightly walks he meets his neighbour Bradley, who's walking his dog, also named Bradley. "Why not name your new novel Feast of love"? Bradley suggests. I could tell you stories about myself & people around me, & you could talk to some of them yourself. This is the basic idea of the book, & the stories start unfolding, one more enchanting than the next. This book vaguely reminded me of "things we talk about when we talk about love" by Raymond Carver, & also other books by R.Carver. It's one of the best collections of love stories I've ever read, & for me getting such a strong emotional response from a book is reason enough to love it. There's no point in getting into details about the actual love stories. Just read this book, read it when you're in the right frame of mind, enjoy it & pass it on to a friend.
Rating:
Summary: Fast food, not a "Feast"
Review: After reading the book as a book club selection, and giving it an enthusiastic "thumbs down," I thought I'd check the star rating and was astonished at the high rating! I found all but the older couple, unlikable as characters. They were aimless, shallow people who I felt sorry for, but in no way expressed to me the depth and meaning of Love. Erotic love can certainly be compared to a feast, but love without an enduring compassionate depth, will leave you with heartburn and indigestion!
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