Saul and Patsy

There is wonderful writing in SAUL AND PATSY. Here, for example, are two quick observations about Saul, which spill from Baxter with continuous and apparently effortless grace. "Cloud, mud, wind. Joy and woe, mad happiness and rue lived side by side in Saul with very few emotions in between. Even his gloom was thick with lyric intensity, like a brass band playing a funeral march all day and having a good time doing it." "His typical despairs were beginning to look like luxuries to him. He could be a despair junkie and a virtuoso of fretfulness but probably not anymore, not with a daughter around. Somehow he would have to discard his friends, the long-term discontents, those houses of metaphysical yearnings where he had once made his home." Such elegance and texture is ubiquitous in SAUL AND PATSY, making this book a pleasure to read and a fully involving journey of discovery, with Baxter finding new depth, complexity, and, usually, decency in all his characters, right up to the novel's end. The book, by the way, is about a young, loving, middle class couple in Michigan, surrounded by crazy people who are either isolated, delusional, or immature and violent. At the same time, I would say that SAUL AND PATSY is more true to life than it is a literary machine. You see, early in this novel, Baxter presents his characters and their relationships as subtle variations on each other. To name just two, the perfect and successful Howie is the antithesis of the weird Gordie; and Delia, a mother and affluent widow, contrasts with Brenda, an ugly waitress and single parent. But as the story evolves, Baxter drops such facile positioning and lets a humane messiness evolve in his story and enter his characters. Not everyone will agree. But this reader actually admired Baxter for his choices, with him capturing the messy connections of life in this novel, not just the symmetry of literary fiction. A final thought: In SAUL AND PATSY, Baxter gives Michael Chabon a run for the money and shows that he might be the metaphor champion of the Baby Boomers.

I recently finished the new Charles Baxter book and it is unbelievably brilliant. Baxter is back to his eloquent best. Feast of Love may not have been his best and unfortunately his publishers choose that book to introduce him to the UK. Every single page of this book I love, it makes me soar. You escape, you fly into the relationship of these two lovers and their awkward relationship in a small town in the american mid-west. If I could I would quote huge segments from each page but I can't. The character Saul is convinced that the world is losing the ability to think and he stops his high flying career to become a history teacher. He is not satisfied with the current atmosphere of fear and prejudice in the USA and notably criticises the current president. A lot of people make a big deal about this, it doesn't affect me. He is simply living his life, we experience his frustrations, his joys and it carries me away, I feel that I am living their lives in my dreams. The writing uplifts me, it gives me joy. Overall this is a great book, I could not stop reading it. I preferred the start and I did not like the way the plot suddenly changed close to the end but it is one of the best books I have read this year, maybe in the last few years and it definitely deserves five stars.

The number of reviewers who passionately disliked this book makes me wonder what they were expecting, or if they just weren't in the mood for this kind of book. "Saul and Patsy" is a very well-done novel that keeps your attention throughout, even though there's something a little, I don't know, uncomfortable about the couple's decision to relocate to a small town in rural Michigan. There's something a little off-putting about these two and their choices that is hard to put your finger on. "Saul and Patsy" does have the sense of having been worked up from short stories, notably because characters who have already been introduced get the full intro treatment several times, as if this were the first time you were meeting them. Besides this small annoyance, it is hard to pick out where the stories were knitted into the larger novel. I looked forward to "Saul and Patsy," which, after all, is what reading a good book should be all about.

Charles Baxter delivers yet again with a remarkably heartfelt and disturbing novel. Baxter easily crafts a blend of both the everyday and extraordinary into a witty exploration of the human condition. The detail is flawless, the dialogue is exceptional, the experience of Saul and Patsy almost unmatched by any other writer (with the exception of perhaps William Maxwell). Through twists and turns Saul and Patsy turns into a haunting ghost story that will resonate with readers of today's society. Another amazing achievement from one of our finest writers.

This book is so extraordinary -- I am a fan of Charles Baxter's and was waiting for it, but had no idea what a massive, exciting, heartrending, and gripping story it would be. This is much more than a family story, or a love story, or a beautiful, complex portrait of a marriage, though it's all those things. It's the story of our time and our embattled world. It's an examination, via the lives of a few small-town characters, of a world where terrorism and the spirits of mischief run wild. Love and destructiveness, the desire for happiness and the desire to do damage, the longing for the perfect lives we imagine others to have, and the harm we are willing to do them because of these imaginings...it's all in here. The characters are so human, the observations about them so wonderfully written and so full of depth and surprises. This novel is a masterpiece, a permanent work of literature. It makes demands on you, but is incredibly gripping. It also has a brilliant, inventive structure that reinforces the themes and events of the book. I was up very late with it, and finished it with such happiness that I had to tell someone (you, whoever you are, who are reading this!) I'm writing this because I long to discuss it with someone, but don't want to give away any of the intricate turns of plot and the great connections. Oh, lucky readers who get to experience this for the first time, lovers of great fiction, do yourself a favor and read this book!