Charles Baxter

[john h]

Someone just referenced Charles Baxter in the thread on betrayal and it gave me the idea to start a thread on him.

He's probably best known in the states for his work in the short story--leastwise as far as anyone who works in the short story can ever come to the attention of the general reader.

But what I want to mention here are his two novels "The Feast Of Love" and "The Soul Thief". "The Feast Of Love" was actually a minor bestseller. It sold in the vicinity of 100,000 copies. They made a movie of it with Morgan Freeman in the lead role but it wasn't very good. The book though is very, very good.

Baxter's most recent book "The Soul Thief" concerns identity theft. It's set back in the 70s before we even heard the term. I can think of few books to which I had a stronger reaction than I did to this one. I even e-mailed Baxter to tell him how much I enjoyed the book and he graciously answered me.