I've just learned they've made a movie from one of the books that moved me most in the last few years: The Feast of Love by Charles Baxter. The novel is a daisy chain of first-person voices and love stories: Bradley for Kathryn, Kathryn for Jenny, Chloe for Oscar, Oscar for Chloe, Bradley for Diana, Harry Ginsberg for his son . . . To name too many more names would give the novel's surprises and pleasures away; and like its stated subject, the novel is a full feast of surprise and pleasure, loss and peace, heat and pain. From its trailers, the film does not look like a travesty of the novel, but I very much doubt it will get all its richness and depth, most especially the amazing range and honesty of those first-person voices. So read the book now to have it pure for yourself, and see the movie later if you like.
Friday, September 21, 2007
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Oh, yeah. I heard part of the trailer for this last night while painting walls and listening to Grey's Anatomy.
ReplyDeleteoh, I know!
ReplyDeleteThe first three times I saw the trailer, it took me a moment to realize what I was watching.
Also - it took me probably over a year between your giving me a copy & my reading it, but thank you for introducing me to this novel. It's one of the books that moved me most in the last few years as well!
Great advice, read the book! But I'm also going to see the movie, tomorrow probably.
ReplyDeleteCharlie Baxter's "Feast of Love" is very dear to me, and I'm preparing to be disappointed, yet I couldn't stay away.
You should blog your reaction to the film. I will too, at my blog.
Great to stumble upon your blog tonight. I was Googling about "Feast".
Brina
(who's having blogger issues, so my screen name may not take you to my blog, which is mermaidinmn.blogspot.com)
The film doesn't much interest me, but Baxter is wonderful, one of the few fiction writers whose criticism I also enjoy. Have you seen his relatively new The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot?
ReplyDelete