The Feast of Love by Charles Baxter

I finished The Feast of Love, and yep, the book is as good as the movie, which I mentioned in the previous post that I loved. The hard part for me was that the book used a story-collector, who happened to be called Charles Baxter, JUST LIKE THE AUTHOR! Well, when I emailed him, I asked the author if this was autobiographical and he said no. But in the movie, one of the characters takes on the role of the narrator/story-collector, which for the movie just made it easier, I suppose. But otherwise, not too many variations. A few, but not too many.

The Feast of Love is a somber book for the most part, but I caught myself laughing out loud a few times while reading it. The following passage was my favorite of those. A little background:  Bradley, the human, is sitting at Jackson Cascades, a waterfall attraction in Jackson, Michigan. He is feeling forlorn after his second wife, Diana, leaves him and he drives from Ann Arbor to Jackson to sit with others and get bit by mosquitoes and watch the waterfall light show while they played Neil Diamond music:

"Down below me were some families, likewise sitting, likewise watching this spectacle but perkier than I was. One child wearing Oshkosh overalls was running in widening circles. He was yelling, 'I'm gonna explode!' I nodded at him. Okay with me, kid. You just explode right there. I'm watching, and I've got the good view."

So, if you want a real treat, read The Feast of Love then watch The Feast of Love. 

Book Read:  The Feast of Love
Author:  Charles Baxter
ISBN: 0-375-41019-8

Don't listen to me. What do I know? Unless I do know...

Well, Barbara Kingsolver won the Orange Prize for The Lacuna. You know, the book that just didn't flip my switch. But what do I know? Not much evidently!

I did start reading The Feast of Love though, which I do love! I'd read one other of Charles Baxter's books, First Light, many years ago, and it was so original in the format and well written to boot. I have had The Feast of Love sitting on my nightstand for a long time, have meant to read, have tried to read it, but I did it bassackwards:  I watched the movie first, which I totally love, instead of reading the book first.

And so, I got a wild hair the other night and looked up Mr. Baxter on the internet, which I usually do after I read a book but I felt like this was a special circumstance since I've seen the movie (many times) and know what's going to happen. So, as I was tooling around his Web site, I saw the "email the author" button and I did! And he emailed me back! And we've exchanged a couple of emails, while I'm reading his book. How cool is that? I'll tell you how cool. For a word nerd, wanna be author, it's the best.