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The Feast of Love

3.7 of 5 stars 3.70 · rating details · 5,472 ratings · 675 reviews

Late one night, Charlie Baxter wakes with a start from a bad dream and decides to take a walk through his Ann Arbor neighborhood. After catching sight of two lovers entangled together on the fifty-yard line of the football field, he comes upon Bradley W. Smith, a friend and a fellow insomniac, who convinces Charlie to listen to the first of many tales that will become a lu...more

Paperback, 320 pages

Published May 1st 2001 by Vintage (first published 2000)

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Nov 09, 2007 Emily rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: no one

Uh, no. Boring. Charles Baxter has an anoying writing style that got on my nerves, Charles does. The dialog was written horribly, not at all like actual people conversing. And I am not just talking about the two youth characters. All of the characters. They were unnecassarily repetitive. The two youth were the worst though. I know that he was trying emulate the way immature 20-year-olds would actually talk, but . . . gag! I could barely plow through one particular passage were the two idiots wer...more

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Mar 21, 2008 Matthew rated it 3 of 5 stars

I almost "really liked" this book, but something kept me from getting up and over that slope. It's a really large-hearted novel - and very, very well-written - but its scope was a little small for my tastes.

In terms of the characters (which, in the end, is all this novel is), I loved reading the Ginsburgs and their careworn intelligence and parental heartbreak, and I enjoyed Diana's immediately recognizable, warfaring vanity; but I couldn't stand reading Chloe and Oscar and their impoverished,...more I almost "really liked" this book, but something kept me from getting up and over that slope. It's a really large-hearted novel - and very, very well-written - but its scope was a little small for my tastes.

In terms of the characters (which, in the end, is all this novel is), I loved reading the Ginsburgs and their careworn intelligence and parental heartbreak, and I enjoyed Diana's immediately recognizable, warfaring vanity; but I couldn't stand reading Chloe and Oscar and their impoverished, unwashed amour fou. Baxter doesn't let this issue slide entirely, to his credit, but in which atlas are these proletariat sensualists within a day's drive of the bourgeois professionals that inhabit the rest of the novel? I grew up in the Midwest: you may be surprised to learn that, as elsewhere, class divisions exist there. I also couldn't really place Bradley, who was supposedly at the center of this story. It seemed to me that he was a different character entirely to every other character (the narrator included). Maybe that's the point but, well, if that's the point... make that the point.

I did like the the construction of the narrative, and I found that there were some wonderful writerly gems ("America, of course, is a country vast enough to lose a child in" really stuck out for me; as did the image of the Dragon with the Rubber Nose; I also really liked "Ginsburg's" understanding of child sacrifice vis-a-vis the Kierkegaardian Abraham, but that may just be because that's all I recall of the time I spent with Fear and Trembling).

I guess I struggle, systematically, with renderings of human experience so focused on love, or sex, as the prime mover of identity. I suppose you might ask a waiting room of thoughtful people which description of human life's value they'd pin their name to, if pressed; I suppose a percentage of them might say love, some, even, without having to think about it first. This book is written for them. It's well-written and has moments of brilliant perceptiveness - I almost "really liked" it - but, for my tastes, its scope is a little small (as I mentioned).(less)

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Oct 22, 2007 Empress rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: insomniacs, love-fools & Shakey Jake allumni.

A seemingly disoriented post-midnight walk through several lives and loves. People clumsily come together, and come apart, shifting narrators and tones--all thick with the theme of love (and loss) in its' many, many forms.

I loved this books and had a hard time putting it down, literally. (Which rarely happens to me.) At times, however, I was worried it was too cute a novel, given the occasional all-too-precious line, but before my skepticism could fully take hold, Baxter quickly won me back wit...more A seemingly disoriented post-midnight walk through several lives and loves. People clumsily come together, and come apart, shifting narrators and tones--all thick with the theme of love (and loss) in its' many, many forms.

I loved this books and had a hard time putting it down, literally. (Which rarely happens to me.) At times, however, I was worried it was too cute a novel, given the occasional all-too-precious line, but before my skepticism could fully take hold, Baxter quickly won me back with a succinct, beautifully eloquent line: More than enough to effectivly counteract his unfourtunate lapsess of syrupyness. As such, I found myself underlining often, and it is safe to say I am a big fan of his writing.

I would have given it five stars, were it not for the too-cutesy bits and the fact that, towards the end, the novel shifts heavily onto Chole's character--far from my favorite.

Having previosly been a teenage girl myself, I am not sure if I found her character unbelievable, or simply annoying. Of course, I empathized with, and could relate to some defining aspects of her story, but overall, I found her language tiresome and her development somewhat shallow.
Besides Chole and her lover; Oscar, I was totally engrossed in all the characters and their stories.

Particularly, the less prominent: Harry, an aging Jewish man, who constantly ruminates on Kierkegaardian theory, and the dissapearence of his adult son.

All in all, a great book about the trouble, complexity and wonder of love.

***Oh, and appraently this has just been made into a movie. The movie takes place in Oregon, and well, last time I checked, Ann Arbor ain't in Oregon. Their failure to get this primary detail correct, gives me little faith that the film will do ANY sort of justice to the book. (Though I do so love Morgan Freeman! XOXO!!!)

And shit--look at what the silver screen did to Girl, Interrupted!--I am still grumbling about that one.

So please read before you watch, and don't judge a book by it's movie!!!(less)

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Jun 28, 2007 gwen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Oh, did I love this book. Clever, but not for the sake of being clever; self-aware, but not self-absorbed. And so beautiful. Charles Baxter himself is the narrator, visible only periodically, and his neighbor Bradley is telling his own story intertwined with those of people he knows.

I turned down about 15 different pages that had passages I liked... here are two:

The upshot of it was, I kept Bradley. I fed him and petted him and I built him a doghouse and called his name when I came home, and in...more

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Jan 27, 2013 Erin rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was not expecting to like this book when I picked it up. A used bookstore had clearance books on sale 7 for 5 dollars and I needed a seventh book, so I just threw this one on top of my stack. I'd heard of Baxter, but wasn't too familiar with his writing. I was kind of put off at the beginning by the meta-narrative style of the novel, but once I got into the stories of these characters, I was engrossed in their lives. Each chapter in this book is a vignette that sketches each character's love l...more

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Feb 12, 2009 Sally rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: library-book, beautiful

Baxter's novel unfolds like an origami swan. The entire concept is beautiful and intricate. Upon first inspection it wows. How complex! Amazing! What an original narrative, layering individual perspectives within, among, alongside one overarching meta-narrative. The whole novel is deeply hyper-conscious of its own creation from page one.

The characters, residents of the same Michinan town are all comfortably familiar, sketched as someone recognizable. Baxter illuminates Ann Arbor's sedate Midwes...more Baxter's novel unfolds like an origami swan. The entire concept is beautiful and intricate. Upon first inspection it wows. How complex! Amazing! What an original narrative, layering individual perspectives within, among, alongside one overarching meta-narrative. The whole novel is deeply hyper-conscious of its own creation from page one.

The characters, residents of the same Michinan town are all comfortably familiar, sketched as someone recognizable. Baxter illuminates Ann Arbor's sedate Midwesterness, the residents are familiar with one another before their intermingling.

The book reads as a series of character portraits, told in the first person. The individuals appear at first resistant, and then yielding participants in the story. Each a work of art not unlike the basemented art of our "protagonist" Bradley. A solitary man, the owner of a mall coffee shop, Bradley's lovers describe him as both downtrodden and yet optimistic. One particularly mean lover, Diana, takes to calling him "toad" before dismissing him altogether after 2 months of marriage. We follow all of the people Bradley encounters, in a series of almost-interviews these people tell Bradley their story in first-hand accounts. At times initially unwilling participants in his novel, the characters are unrealistically verbose in describing minutiae of their daily existence to this man. We hear from his former and future lovers, past lovers' future partners, his employees and their lovers, his next door neighbors' relationship.

Each one of these stories in inextricably linked to the others - yet reads as its own narrative. What does this tell the reader about Baxter's view of the world? I can't help but imagine the place he imagines he holds - the as silent observer - noticing more about those around them than they know he does.

When the plot begins jettisoning forward and back through time I grow weary. Why do I honestly care about Bradley the coffee shop owner and his dog Bradley? What about his ill-starred home and overly-friendly workplace draw such curious characters into his life? Is anyone really that interesting when you get down to the nitty-gritty of their daily existence?

Baxter has 42 more pages to show me. I hope he delivers.

Update: I have only one chapter left and I'm a little bit afraid to pick it up one last time. I don't want the story to conclude! Baxter does reveal the connections between all the threads. Like a masterwork of macrame. (less)

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Jul 07, 2009 York rated it 4 of 5 stars

Este libro tiene rato que lo terminé y ahí tantos tonos que me evoca, no sé por dónde empezar, mucho menos qué veredicto darle.

El inicio es enorme y cálido, las intenciones de Baxter son impresionantes y no estoy seguro que lo logre a grado técnico, pero en todo lo demás lo logra con honores... hay pasajes muy bellos, otros bastante intensos...

La pasión de los amantes, el absurdo de las coincidencias, y que sin embargo marcan el rumbo de nuestros sentidos, la idea de pasar el resto de tus días...more

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julieta que buenooooo! es precioso! que nervio, ojalá que te guste! jeje
Mar 19, 2009 10:36am

York Va enorme!

Lo vi en tu lista de updates y me llamó la atención el título, me recordó a esa novela ficticia que escribió el personaje de James Lear en W...more
Mar 19, 2009 10:47am

Jan 09, 2009 Crystal rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009, book-club

A dear friend told me about this book several years ago. I bought it, like I always do, and there it sat on my shelf for years - waiting to be read. When asked for a book club suggestion, I gazed at my shelf and it screamed at me "pick me! pick me!" So, it won the suggestion and became the early January pick for book club.

It was beautiful. Well written, heartfelt, and just an overall good read. It was a terrific portrayal of how, despite our good intentions, some things just don't work out the...more A dear friend told me about this book several years ago. I bought it, like I always do, and there it sat on my shelf for years - waiting to be read. When asked for a book club suggestion, I gazed at my shelf and it screamed at me "pick me! pick me!" So, it won the suggestion and became the early January pick for book club.

It was beautiful. Well written, heartfelt, and just an overall good read. It was a terrific portrayal of how, despite our good intentions, some things just don't work out the way we plan. There are about 9 major characters throughout the book - all of whom are somehow interwoven with the others. It's a novel ... but written much like a memoir. The characters tell their own stories, which makes the book way more profound than had the author been a narrator. I am all about learning from books I read (yes, eve novels) so here's what I learned:

When we tell our stories to someone else, we illuminate those parts of the stories that most affect us.  By telling our story, we become more aware of the power of our thought.  Telling someone else helps us to see the things we need to celebrate as well as the things we need to mourn and move past.

No matter how hard we try, we can't always choose who or when we fall in love.  We can work really hard to love someone with all that we are, but if we are not in love with that person, we will never be able to love them the way they love us.

When we hide our fears from other people, we really make them worse.  People around us end up picking at those fears like scabs, whether they realize it or not.  Unless we claim the fear as our own and work towards healing it, the scabs get opened and our fears become scars.

Well written books not only help us escape from our own lives, but also allow us to use that escape to look on our own lives from an outside perspective.  This book did just that.  It took me outside of my own world - to the world of 9 beautiful, wonderfully messed up people.  In each character, I found a glimpse of me.  I discovered something else about myself.  Sometimes good, sometimes bad.  Well-written books become a part of us.  The characters become our friends.  Charles Baxter did a wonderful job at making these 9 characters a part of my life.

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Mar 15, 2009 Caitlin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: ma

There are few books that have possessed me -- taken ahold of me, owned me, inhabited me -- like Feast of Love has. I have been dreaming about the characters. I have been dreaming about reading the book, which is also like living inside the book. I will be thinking about Nude Descending a Staircase, as a painting and as a metaphor, and the next chapter I pick up will mention the painting. I will read a chapter that uses votive candles as a reality and as a metaphor and I will close the book and o...more

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Aug 22, 2008 melissa/missy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Charles Baxter's prose is lyrical and lovely in Feast of Love, and I felt like I learned a lot about about voice and POV as I read, but... well, I suppose it's just not the kind of book that really speaks to me. A whole book about love affairs and sex (unrealistic sex at that)? What about everything else in these characters' lives? And philosophically: Isn't there just MORE to life, more that deserves our attention? Maybe some people would argue that there isn't --after all, there's an entire GE...more

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Jul 11, 2008 Richard rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: so-glad-i-read

Charles Baxter may have started out as a short story writer, but his latest efforts of note have been his novels. _The Feast of Love_ was a finalist for the National Book Award, and I can see why (though I have still to compare it to that year's winner). The idea is somewhat Kundera-esque--the novel begins with writer 'Charlie Baxter' waking in the middle of the night from a dream of asynchronous gears and finds that he is suffering from temporary amnesia. Once recovered, he decides to take a wa...more Charles Baxter may have started out as a short story writer, but his latest efforts of note have been his novels. _The Feast of Love_ was a finalist for the National Book Award, and I can see why (though I have still to compare it to that year's winner). The idea is somewhat Kundera-esque--the novel begins with writer 'Charlie Baxter' waking in the middle of the night from a dream of asynchronous gears and finds that he is suffering from temporary amnesia. Once recovered, he decides to take a walk to calm his nerves, and while doing so runs into a neighbor, Bradley, who has a dog of the same name. As they talk, the subject of love comes up, and 'Charlie Baxter' decides to make Bradley the first subject in his new project--a novel about love.

From there, the narrative is taken over by the characters the writer talks to for their stories and reflections on love. Aside from Bradley, we meet his two ex-wives, and a young couple, Oscar and Chloe, who work at Bradley's coffee shop. There is also Harry Ginsberg and his wife, Esther, who live next door to Bradley. Quite quickly, three generations are established to offer different perspectives of love. The interest Baxter sustains here is that the stories are all quite difficult--Bradley has definitely run a string of bad luck when it comes to choosing wives. One is very confused about her sexuality, another is not sure if she wants to relinquish the lover she has when she meets Bradley. Oscar and Chloe fall under the temptations of quick money to allow them to get away together from their bad home situations, and with the allure of quick money comes contact with less than scrupulous people. Even Harry and Esther have a troublesome son, Aaron, who likes to call in the middle of the night to extort money out of his folks.

Baxter's fiction is sometimes a little too distancing, when his characters too freely discuss philosophy or obscure ancient music, playing up the element of quirkiness, but making the characters themselves more representative than sympathetic. _The Feast of Love_ does have moments of quirky conversation, but Baxter sustains it all quite well in this book. Most all of the characters feel very substantial, possibly because Baxter has found a format that permits introspection and philosophy very naturally.

I was quite impressed with this novel and read it quite thoroughly. I found all of the characters engaging and the hints of danger palpable and possible. Baxter is out to paint the Midwest as a solace for the introspective and quietly conflicted. Possibly this is the Midwest Baxter has known all of his life, or perhaps it is a fictive world that he hopes will find a niche in American literature. Either way, this novel has definitely broken solid ground in literary tradition.
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Jan 09, 2008 Tung rated it 4 of 5 stars

My favorite writer is Robert Olen Butler because of his gifted prose. I haven’t read many authors that can match up to Butler on a technical level, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that Baxter does a great Butler imitation. What Butler does best is tell stories from the main character’s perspective, using internal thought processes and streams of consciousness to make you identify with the characters. Baxter does a similar thing here. Feast of Love is about love (obviously), told through fo...more

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Jan 07, 2008 Jamie rated it 5 of 5 stars

The reason I loved this novel so much was because of its portrayal of love. The novel, the story, its images all were imperfect and all had something not quite right with them. We had the abiliy to see the words and red flags the characters would let slip through between the lines. Just like Bradley's painting, a veritable image of the feeling of love set in a table setting of a feast of light yet remember there wasn't something quite right with it? There were no people. No one to share it with,...more

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Jan 10, 2008 Lisa Findley rated it 4 of 5 stars

I fell instantly for this book -- the writing is lovely and clear, and Baxter's images and metaphors are startling and precise.

But then he moves away from these vignettes of people's love lives and their deep but funny meditations on them. He narrows the novel to a fairly dramatic ending, and even though this brings several of the previously unrelated characters together, it felt as though we were losing voices instead of gaining or synthesizing them. I still very much enjoyed the book as a who...more

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Nov 28, 2008 Katherine Malmo rated it 5 of 5 stars

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this book. It has become an all time favorite (for teh moment :). I can't quite articulate what about it I love so much. It's a good story told in an interesting way. The dialogue is perfect. I just find it so inspiring as a writer. He breaks the rules and he tells a good story.

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Feb 06, 2013 Ann rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013

This was a National Book Award finalist in 2000. Must have been a "down" year. Ick.

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Feb 10, 2013 Rachel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2013

I bought The Feast of Love by Charlie Baxter a while ago from McKay’s Used Book Store, and it took a long time for me to finally read it. When I bought it I was intrigued by the premise—after a bout of insomnia the fictionalized Charlie Baxter runs into his neighbor, Bradley W Smith, and listens to his tale of love. The book was also a National Book Award finalist, which typically implies a good story (though not always, e.g. The Echo Maker). It took me slightly more than one day to read the nov...more I bought The Feast of Love by Charlie Baxter a while ago from McKay’s Used Book Store, and it took a long time for me to finally read it. When I bought it I was intrigued by the premise—after a bout of insomnia the fictionalized Charlie Baxter runs into his neighbor, Bradley W Smith, and listens to his tale of love. The book was also a National Book Award finalist, which typically implies a good story (though not always, e.g. The Echo Maker). It took me slightly more than one day to read the novel, and I was quickly catapulted and intrigued by the characters and their almost fake personas and lives.

The story centers around two main characters—Bradley W. Smith and Chloe, one of his coffee shop employees. Smith’s love story is happy, sad, pitiful, and all the in-betweens. He talks about his first two marriages, his love of his dog, and about his ideas of love. Bradley painted a beautiful picture entitled “Feast of Love”, but Bradley did not want people in the painting because people always mess up and complicate “love”. Bradley says there are no people because “You can see it but you can’t reach it.” Love is never perfect and idyllic when people enter the picture because they complicate it with other emotions and factors.

While Bradley is pessimistic about love, Chloe is completely consumed by it. Chloe and Oscar are young, poor, and from broken families, but their relationship seems to work. They talk a lot about sex, but Chloe also says, “I keep talking about all the sex we had, but what I forgot to mention is what else we did together. We danced and listened to music and played cards and went to movies and we talked all the time, complete with our opinions about things.” There is something about their relationship that really draws the reader in and you feel sympathy and love for them.

I really enjoyed each of the character’s story lines, and while none of the characters or their relationships fit the storybook version of “love”, you get glimpses of all its manifestations in real life.
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Jan 07, 2013 Dana rated it 3 of 5 stars

I am not sure how I feel about "The Feast of Love," by Charles Baxter. I have had the book on my shelf for a decade, but had not read it. Now that I have finally read it, I will allow myself to watch the DVD of the movie by the same name, though I know there were changes made to many aspects of the story.
The concept behind the story is a good one: a writer suffering from insomnia, bumps into his neighbor, Bradley, sitting on a bench at 4 a.m, where both have come because sleep escapes them. They...more

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Oct 05, 2012 Molly rated it 3 of 5 stars

There are many likeable aspects of this novel: there wasn't a great deal of waste, of chapters or plot points I felt should be cut away to get to the heart of the book. But I just wasn't so certain the heart of this particular book was for me. One might interpret The Feast of Love as a kind of celebration of love, of honest and good love, but there was very little of that in this book--the young couple is so sex-driven, I wonder how often an honest conversation went on between them; the characte...more

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Jan 20, 2012 Maria rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-drama, romance-or-stand-alone-love-story

I read this book a few years ago, and, if I had rated it right after I finished it, I would have given it perhaps two or three stars, since The Feast of Love isn't typically the type of book I enjoy reading. However, over the years, I would catch myself remembering the characters in this book when I come upon certain situations in real life. There's just something about each character's situation that makes me consider other people's life instead of just being enmeshed in mine.

Being a rather stu...more

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Dec 26, 2011 Katherine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Something about the cover art and the back blurb always led me to assume that The Feast of Love was yet another tiresome novel about a couple of suburban white people whose marriage slowly collapsed. And, okay, that's one of the intertwining plots, but DAMN, did I ever misjudge this one.

The Feast of Love is really about a group of people whose otherwise ordinary lives are suffused and driven by transcendence and love. It's got a continuously shifting point of view (each chapter is narrated by an...more

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Oct 04, 2011 Whitney rated it 5 of 5 stars

Charles Baxter’s The Feast of Love is described as a sumptuous work of fiction about the thing that most distracts and delights us (Chicago Tribune). Compared to Midsummer Night’s Dream, this novel explores the lives of individuals when love becomes a complicated factor.
Beginning the novel Charlie Baxter leaves his house for a midnight walk through his Ann Arbor neighborhood. Passing two love stricken individuals on the fifty-yard line of a football field Baxter eventually encounters a friend o...more Charles Baxter’s The Feast of Love is described as a sumptuous work of fiction about the thing that most distracts and delights us (Chicago Tribune). Compared to Midsummer Night’s Dream, this novel explores the lives of individuals when love becomes a complicated factor.
Beginning the novel Charlie Baxter leaves his house for a midnight walk through his Ann Arbor neighborhood. Passing two love stricken individuals on the fifty-yard line of a football field Baxter eventually encounters a friend on a bench, Bradley Smith.
Smith recommends Baxter write about him and title the book, “The Feast of Love.” In spite of Baxter’s opposition, Smith begins his story of love—beginning with that of him and his first wife Kathryn. After speaking with Smith, Baxter calls Kathryn and the audience hears her story of a lesbian affair.
The essential factor in this novel is Baxter’s jump from Smith’s point of view and his wife’s.
To summarize the novel: Kathryn, Smith’s ex-wife, left him for another woman. Diana, Smith’s second wife, is a cold and vicious sexual lawyer. Chloe and Oscar are a young couple in love and often imagines their future together. Esther and Harry Ginsberg are Smith’s neighbors, are the parents of a mentally deranged son whom they love despite his hatred toward them.
There are many themes and analogies throughout the novel.
The moonlight themed taster in the beginning of the novel and a verse in ending of the novel put forward a correlation between The Feast of Love and Midsummer Night’s Dream. The novel is set in various places and times; however one can see the link between the two.
Passing a mirror at the bottom of the stairs, he says it is glimmer less. This is a reoccurring theme throughout the beginning novel as Baxter describes himself as glimmer less on page four. One wonders what the author means when he uses this adjective. He does not clarify what this means, however at the end of the fiction he addresses it by writing, “All the voices have died out in my head. I've been emptied out. . . . My glimmerlessness has abated; it seems, at least for the moment."
The theme of love, I believe, is most apparent with Chloe and Oscar. A nontraditional young couple covered in piercings and tattoos with dreams of a traditional lifestyle together. Oscar, a former drug addict, imagines coming home to a house and Chloe imagines three kids in Oshkosh overalls. The two love each other and often show public displays of affection. Later in the novel Chloe becomes pregnant but is becomes a single mother when Oscar dies.
The Feast of Love is a romantic novel with excerpts of sex, drama and the overall pursuit of happiness.
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Aug 27, 2011 Erik rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: literary

Even when the staunchest romantics are told how a particular book contains the perfect ruminations on love, life, and happiness it can surely produce that groan-inducing, finger-down-the-throat heaving effect. Well, The Feast of Love is a book that is strongly based on these themes, but I assure you, it will not make you sick by any means. Here you will find a book that encompasses all the elements that delight the romantics, engage the literary readers, or captivate those who simply want a good...more Even when the staunchest romantics are told how a particular book contains the perfect ruminations on love, life, and happiness it can surely produce that groan-inducing, finger-down-the-throat heaving effect. Well, The Feast of Love is a book that is strongly based on these themes, but I assure you, it will not make you sick by any means. Here you will find a book that encompasses all the elements that delight the romantics, engage the literary readers, or captivate those who simply want a good read. Charles Baxter’s, The Feast of Love, is perhaps the essential choice for bridging the ever-widening gaps between genres. It is uniquely lyrical, tender and sweet without being saccharine, sad without being overtly depressing, and it perfectly captures all the complexities of love and relationships in a way that’s relatable for all.

The story takes place in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Charles Baxter, in a bold move that seldom works in fiction, injects himself into the novel’s opening passage. He wakes in the middle of the night and decides that a late night stroll would be the best thing for his insomnia. He comes across his neighbor Bradley, who is out walking his dog, (the dog, though a minor presence in the story, serves as a humorous foil for Bradley, even sharing his name). Charles tells his neighbor that he is attempting to write a new novel, but is not having much luck. Bradley suggests that Charles call his novel, The Feast of Love. He then proposes that Charles meet several people so he can learn from their stories and use them for his book. These people become the living embodiment of The Feast of Love, all of them coming from drastically different walks of life with their own chapters devoted to their unique experiences.

Each character shares their confusion, pain, and wisdom. We meet Bradley’s former wives and learn of their new found loves. We are introduced to Oscar and Chloe, a young couple whose wild, and occasionally reckless, passion for one another is limitless and free. We also meet a retired professor, Harry Ginsberg, who is reeling from the sadness of not knowing the whereabouts of his clinically insane son. Everyone’s story contains equal parts sorrow and enchantment, leaving us with a sense of delight, dismay, and inevitable growth. As Bradley says, “Every relationship has at least one really good day. What I mean is, no matter how sour things go, there’s always that day. That day is always in your possession. That’s the day you remember. You get old and you think: well, at least I had that day.”(less)

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Apr 05, 2011 George Sekas rated it 4 of 5 stars

“The Feast of Love”
By: Charles Baxter
Pantheon Books
New York, 2000

Enriching, poignant, heart breaking, and bold are all words that are now synonymous of the work of the American author Charles Baxter in his novel entitled “The Feast of Love.” This third, and possibly best, novel from Baxter is about a character (also named Charles Baxter) as he sorts through the lives of a few people who tend to intermingle throughout the story. The novel begins with Baxter learning about the failed relationship...more “The Feast of Love”
By: Charles Baxter
Pantheon Books
New York, 2000

Enriching, poignant, heart breaking, and bold are all words that are now synonymous of the work of the American author Charles Baxter in his novel entitled “The Feast of Love.” This third, and possibly best, novel from Baxter is about a character (also named Charles Baxter) as he sorts through the lives of a few people who tend to intermingle throughout the story. The novel begins with Baxter learning about the failed relationship between a friend, Bradley, and his ex-wife, Kathryn, before moving back and forth between them and four or five other characters, including the teenager Chloe. “The Feast of Love” (2000) was published after his first two novels, “First Light” (1987) and “Shadow Play” (1993). Baxter also published a few collections of short stories before “The Feast of Love,” “Harmony of the World” (1984) being the most acclaimed. He also went on to write “Saul and Patsy” (2003) and “The Soul Thief” (2008) afterward.

One thing about Baxter’s work that draws in the reader, in “The Feast of Love” in particular, is the great sense of wit and humor that he seems to incorporate in his stories. For instance, when writing about football games at the University of Michigan he says, “The crowd at the game is loudly traditional and antiphonal: one side of the stadium roars GO and the other side roars BLUE. The sounds rise to the sky, also blue, but nonpartisan.” That last little sentence encapsulates the bits of humor that Baxter likes to inject into the story, making it lively and fun to read, while still being able to drive home the main theme of the story, that being the bond that all humanity shares and how it makes all of us the same, essentially. Baxter seems to comment, however, on how most people in their day to day lives don’t take the time to see how they relate to other people and how all of our struggles as individuals are the same struggles that our fellow man is going through all over the world, in one form or another. I feel this quote from the novel, concerning an old, non-reflective mirror in his house, best captures that feeling: “This mirror gives back nothing and makes no productive claim upon anyone. The mirror has been so completely worn away that you have to learn to live with what it refuses to do. That’s its beauty.” I take this quote to mirror (pardon the pun) how Baxter views people and how they seem to usually only care about themselves, and by doing so have caused that to be the accepted norm, which, in turn, has caused people’s priorities to shift farther and farther away from a single, realized human brotherhood.

Something about Baxter’s work in “The Feast of Love” that I enjoyed was his use of the speaker of the story, who was basically himself. I liked and understood how that “character” was used and was necessary to holding a well-structured story, but I found myself wondering why he did not perhaps try some experimentation with the other characters taking hold of the voice of the story. I know you’re supposed to stick with one character throughout a story so as to keep the foundations of story in place, but I wondered if he should have moved the voice of the story around because I feel that would be something that promotes the theme of the human bond in a new, interesting way.
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Apr 05, 2011 Jared Kidder rated it 4 of 5 stars

Book: The Feast of Love
Author: Charles Baxter
Publishing info: Pantheon Books, New York, 2000

“The Feast of Love” by Charles Baxter is a book about just that, love. It takes the first person view of various people seemingly known to the author, from the sadness of a manager of a coffee shop and his wives to a teenager bright with new love. Taking place in Michigan and at various times, it starts with the author – Charlie, as he is called in the book – taking a walk late at night because of his ins...more Book: The Feast of Love
Author: Charles Baxter
Publishing info: Pantheon Books, New York, 2000

“The Feast of Love” by Charles Baxter is a book about just that, love. It takes the first person view of various people seemingly known to the author, from the sadness of a manager of a coffee shop and his wives to a teenager bright with new love. Taking place in Michigan and at various times, it starts with the author – Charlie, as he is called in the book – taking a walk late at night because of his insomnia. While walking, he runs into a friend, Bradley, who gives him an idea for a book, and names it – The Feast of Love – about people’s love lives told from their own perspective.
The Feast of Love truly begins with Bradley, and is centered mainly around him – telling his story and the story of various people in his life. The book Is also broken up into three sections – beginnings, middles, and endings – which detail those separate stags of people’s relationships. This goes very in depth, as each person has their own chapters, told from their own point of view, giving an automatic bias to each story and making the reader focus on actions as they appear to each individual and not on how they would appear to others. This is perhaps the most engaging aspect of the book as a whole – it has the feel of a story being told to you by a friend, and not a random character that the author is trying to force on you. It creates an extremely engaging atmosphere, to the point that it is very hard to take any one side wholeheartedly, as is so often the case with fiction novels. It gets the point across that, like in real life, no one is ever truly blameless in anything, and that everyone shares responsibility – some if not all – for actions of those around them.
When I picked this book, I honestly picked it because I would never have chosen to read it otherwise, and expected not to like it. In that way The Feast of Love truly surprised me, in a good way. I am not usually one for romanticism being the main focus of novels, as I tend to find the topic extremely boring and, most of the time, cheesy and unimaginative. However, I was unexpectedly taken in by this book, and am very happy that I decided to read it. Despite its’ odd and somewhat slow beginning, it quickly becomes very interesting and I found myself enthralled by the storytelling involved. While in some cases I knew the ultimate outcome, hearing it from both perspectives lent more credence to what actually happened than the generic blame and lack of responsibility usually associated with one-sided stories. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys either love stories or who enjoy trying to grasp at the psyche of others.
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Feb 16, 2011 Shelley rated it 3 of 5 stars

"The Feast of Love"
By: Charles Baxter
Pantheon Books
New York, 2000

Love inspires, hinders, strengthens, and consumes the imagination in Charles Baxter’s riveting tale The Feast of Love. In 2001, the novel placed as a finalist for the National Book Award and shortly after was transformed into film. Blending together numerous short stories, Baxter develops a community falling under love’s tantalizing spell. Whether it breaks the heart or fuses its pieces back together, love unites six very differen...more "The Feast of Love"
By: Charles Baxter
Pantheon Books
New York, 2000

Love inspires, hinders, strengthens, and consumes the imagination in Charles Baxter’s riveting tale The Feast of Love. In 2001, the novel placed as a finalist for the National Book Award and shortly after was transformed into film. Blending together numerous short stories, Baxter develops a community falling under love’s tantalizing spell. Whether it breaks the heart or fuses its pieces back together, love unites six very different people so that they may share their own personal experiences. As the novel reveals, such deep affection disguises itself in a variety of forms. Scandalous affairs, along with love between married, dating, lesbian, and divorced couples, provide the reader with a succulent new snack in each chapter.

Paralleling A Midsummer Night's Dream, the novel captures love’s difficulties and humorous complexities in modern day Ann Arbor, Michigan. The dewy, dreamlike quality the novel begins with adds to the similarity between Baxter’s work and the Shakespearian play. As the story begins, the narrator, sharing an uncanny resemblance to the author, wakes disoriented. In a dreamlike state, he confuses an audio system’s music with the moon, commenting how the “Earth’s mad companion is belting out show tunes.” Crossing paths with an old acquaintance named Bradley; the two absorb themselves into conversation. Egging on Baxter, Bradley molds the entire books structure by recommending that he write about “real people,” even offering himself as a character for the book. Inevitably, this foreshadowing infused with dreamlike humor is only a mere taste of Baxter’s exquisitely mastered craft.

The chapters harmoniously complement one another as Baxter overlaps the character’s stories; yet, the characters vary in their own interpretation of love. Increasing his novel’s realistic quality, the author emphasizes how love yields different truths behind each gaze. Just as an individual describes a painting differently, Baxter’s characters recall events with obvious contrasts. A humorous depiction of this is when Bradley and his ex- wife, Kathryn, describe their own versions of the same day. Bradley describes it very fondly, as “the day you remember;” however, Kathryn describes her connection with Bradley as “empty and absent,” commenting how “he hummed while he was doing it, as if he were changing a light bulb.” Baxter’s writing style is more than enough to satisfy the reader. With his effortless talent, he nourishes diverse voices which wish to be heard. Although the execution is brilliant in that the stories masterfully flow between different perspectives, some characters lack adequate development to fully satisfy the reader. Perhaps, Baxter knowledgeably limits character development in The Feast of Love, to accentuate the novel’s major theme. With skillful diction, Baxter allows his novel’s main message rumble like static in the background—love takes many forms.

The Feast of Love brings many voices to the table and is a pleasant, enjoyable read for a wide ranging audience. Filled with a smorgasbord of romance, passion, hurt, and humor, something is left for every age to chew over. Remarkably clever, Baxter achieves what authors aspire to do. He gives others a chance to be heard. (less)

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Jul 19, 2010 Judy rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone

I read this because I was planning to watch the movie. The book was full of surprises. I knew that Charles Baxter taught at the University of Michigan, a school I once attended, but was delighted to find The Feast of Love set in Ann Arbor, MI, where I lived for many years. I often read just for the pleasure and experience of being taken to places I will probably never go to myself, but there is a unique pleasure to recognizing the details of weather, types of people, buildings and streets, while...more

I read this because I was planning to watch the movie. The book was full of surprises. I knew that Charles Baxter taught at the University of Michigan, a school I once attended, but was delighted to find The Feast of Love set in Ann Arbor, MI, where I lived for many years. I often read just for the pleasure and experience of being taken to places I will probably never go to myself, but there is a unique pleasure to recognizing the details of weather, types of people, buildings and streets, while reading a work of fiction.

The novel opens with a writer named Charles Baxter who, suffering from insomnia, goes out for a midnight walk. He wanders into the U of M football stadium (one of those places I know well) and then on to a nearby park where he encounters a neighbor. They strike up a conversation and soon the neighbor, not a writer, starts to give Charles advice about writing a book, including a title and a plan: to talk to various people about love.

At this point, sixteen pages about a man taking a walk and describing what he sees followed by some clunky dialogue with his neighbor have me worried. I am definitely not hooked except by the fact that I know exactly where these two men are sitting. I decide to give both Charles Baxters one more chapter. (An odd point is that Bradley, the neighbor, has a dog named Bradley.)

By the end of Chapter Two I am intrigued. A story about Bradley and his first failed marriage has unfolded. I had a first failed marriage in Ann Arbor. So I keep going and more characters show up, who are all connected to Bradley in one way or another, who all have relationships of varying success. By the time Oscar and Chloe show up, a pair of quintessential Ann Arbor love children, I find myself completely involved in a feast of love that I hope will never end.

Chloe is my favorite character: she is young, reckless, intrepid and believes totally in love. There are several other female characters of different types and Baxter's writing chops are good enough that not one of them comes off as a type. Each is a fully realized personality. He is just as good with the male characters but especially with Harry Ginsberg, a professor of philosophy with a secret sorrow.

Bradley continues to be a clunky guy. It was his "bad dialogue" that I objected to, but that turns out to be a product of his personality and in fact, I know a guy from Ann Arbor who is amazingly like Bradley. Every once in a while though, Bradley comes up with a zinger, delivered in his clunky manner: "This song, 'My Funny Valentine,' as sung by Ella Fitzgerald, was going through my head as I walked. I always liked her; I liked it that she sang jazz while wearing glasses."

The Feast of Love, which is the name of Bradley's best painting (yes, he is a secret painter though he manages a franchise coffee place in the mall, the one I shopped in for years) turned out to be a little masterpiece of a book, celebrating people, life and love, with all the amazing moments of transcendence and many of the sorrowful depths of loss that most of us experience.

The very evening of the day I finished the book, I watched the movie. My advice is just read the book. Morgan Freeman as the Jewish philosophy professor? Please, skip the movie which does not begin to capture the magic of the book. Anyway, it is set in Portland, OR.(less)

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Mar 26, 2010 Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Feast of Love is a collection of stories with love as the overarching theme. The author, Charles Baxter, is in the book and relays the tales of five or six people who end up crossing paths, brought together through tragedy and love, showing how we’re all interconnected. Although it is written from the male author’s point of view, the stories are told in an interview style through the eyes of several different people. The book takes an interesting look at love in all its facets, how love changes...more Feast of Love is a collection of stories with love as the overarching theme. The author, Charles Baxter, is in the book and relays the tales of five or six people who end up crossing paths, brought together through tragedy and love, showing how we’re all interconnected. Although it is written from the male author’s point of view, the stories are told in an interview style through the eyes of several different people. The book takes an interesting look at love in all its facets, how love changes lives and how life can be sad and funny and full of missteps.

I thought the book was beautifully written, although it was also very strange. The book meanders without a clear destination, kind of like love. You don’t ever feel like you know one character that well, and I didn’t really connect personally with any of them, and yet the book always kept me thinking. Feast of Love is a good book for people who like to ponder. I believe the best books are those that continue the discussion, rather than those that wrap up all the loose ends.

Pros: My favorite part of the book was when Kathryn and Bradley visited the dog pound and Kathryn names all the dogs. The imagery was great, and I loved the quote about how every relationship has a perfect moment. This was Bradley’s favorite moment, and Kathryn barely remembered the day at all! This showed how everyone has a story to tell and everyone has a different perspective. I also loved Chloe’s character. I felt she was the strongest character in the book and had a unique voice and I found myself rooting for her and Oscar.

Cons: You could tell the book was written from the male perspective. I thought there was probably too much gratuitous sex and I would’ve enjoyed a more believable point of view from the female characters. The ending wasn’t satisfying for me, and I found it confusing.

Once I read the book, I immediately rented the movie, and it’s a really interesting experience reading and watching Feast of Love back to back! I think the movie might be better than the book, but they complemented each other. The book improved parts of the movie and the movie improved parts of the book. The movie had bad casting, in my opinion – I never imagined the characters looking the way they do in the movie, right down to Bradley the dog! But, I thought the movie enhanced some of the storylines and had a much better ending.(less)

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Apr 27, 2009 Corina rated it 1 of 5 stars

If an older, male author is seized by the urge to speak through the mouth of a pierced, teenage nymphette, he'd better do it convincingly. The parts of this book narrated by the earnestly vapid Chloe read a little like how old men impersonating young girls in chat rooms must come off. She intersperses slang with a few ten-cent words like "mellifluous" (and then reassures us she looked the word up somewhere so we won't suspect she's really an aging academic) and, at one point refers to her "girl-...more

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Apr 11, 2009 Nancy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club, fiction

January’s book club selection, chosen by me. As it turned out, I, and absent Helen, were the only ones of the group who liked the book. Helen wrote, “ I rather like this book- like the author’s style….Couldn’t help feeling sorry for someone who could envision a Feast of Love and paint it, while not believing it exists. How empty a soul!” I enjoyed, though didn’t necessarily like, all the characters. I could empathize and understand each character’s story. I liked how they were all connected. “Ev...more

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About Charles Baxter

Charles Baxter was born in Minneapolis and graduated from Macalester College, in Saint Paul. After completing graduate work in English at the State University of New York at Buffalo, he taught for several years at Wayne State University in Detroit. In 1989, he moved to the Department of English at the University of Michigan--Ann Arbor and its MFA program. He now teaches at the University of Minnes...more

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“In truth, there are only two realities: the one for people who are in love or love each other, and the one for people who are standing outside all that.” — 62 people liked it

“Every relationship has at least one really good day. What I mean is, no matter how sour things go, there's always that day. That day is always in your possession. That's the day you remember. You get old and you think: well, at least I had that day. It happened once. You think all the variables might just line up again. But they don't. Not always. I once talked to a woman who said, "Yeah, that's the day we had an angel around.” — 48 people liked it

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