Books

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 fellow insomniac, who convinces Charlie to listen to the first of many tales that will become a luminous narrative of love in its sublime, agonizing, and eternal complexity.

We meet Kathryn, Bradley's first wife, who leaves her husband for another woman, and Diana, Bradley's second wife, whose cold, secretive nature makes her more suitable as a mistress than as a spouse. We meet Chloe and Oscar, whose dreams for their future together are more traditional than their multiple body piercings and wild public displays of affection might suggest. We meet Esther and Harry Ginsberg, Bradley's neighbors, whose love for their lost son persists despite his hatred of them. And we follow Bradley, ex-husband, employer, and friend, on his journey toward conjugal happiness. The community of souls found in The Feast of Love is unforgettable -- as is the perfect symphony their harmonized voices create.

An author takes a walk one night to combat his insomnia and he bumps into a neighbor who becomes his muse for a new book. This neighbor promises new perspective on the oft discussed topic of love. Many stories follow that cover various contexts for the often illusive thing; there is husband-wife love, wife-lover love, boy-girl love, parent-child love, boss-employee love, lonely man-mysterious girl love and more.

I will admit that I let my expectations get the better of me as I began to read. I allowed myself to (I feel) be lead to believe that the two men who could not sleep would share and discuss a selection of anecdotes on the subject. There would be third-person retelling of a story about love and two men, romantic or skeptic, would give it depth.

In place of that the book was first-person retelling of the stories from characters who were too ordinary to be entertaining. The Feast of Love was very Jerry Seinfeld, very quick to emphasize themes that occur in almost all of our lives. I have never developed an appreciation for this.

Charles Baxter was a surprisingly talented writer. He sprinkled the book with some wonderful literary gems, but the story as a whole lacked in substance. I think that anyone who reads The Feast of Love would highlight/underline/jot down/post on the web many snippets, or gems, and no two people would necessarily be moved by the same ones. From that angle, I liked that there was a broad mix.

Without the occasional silver-lining excerpt, The Feast of Love was an unremarkable book. The story was intended to be full of ordinary people, but I'm not sure they were supposed to seem so...plain. Admittedly I thought the book was headed in a different direction and my disappointment and bias is on record. I liked parts of The Feast of Love, but not the book in its entirety.

| Amazon | Discuss it |