The Feast of Love

I was probably half way through this novel before I was fully on board, but by the end I was quite smitten. It reminded me of the movie Love Actually with its cast of unforgettable characters whose lives intertwine in big or small ways, each representing some variety or stage of love. What Charles Baxter serves up is a rich, funny, sexy, heartbreaking, heartwarming "feast of love" -- really.

My one complaint is the first-person narration: sometimes the characters' voices didn't sound genuine to me -- too writerly or just not how real people talk (or think). That's a common criticism of mine, but it's something I find disruptive when I notice it. But it's a minor complaint, and not a hard one to get past. This is a terrific read.