The Feast of Fools - Softcover

Morley, John David

3.47

19 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312134932 ISBN 13: 9780312134938

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1995

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In a contemporary love story set in Munich that echoes the Greek myth of Persephone, a woman abandons her husband for six months to be with her lover, creating chaos that is only resolved with her return

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From Publishers Weekly:

Morley's extended rumination on the ways and mores of modern Munich is a broad, ambitious book that shoots for literary greatness throughout and occasionally hits the mark. Freely blending references to myth, astrology and literature, the author's fourth novel (after The Case of Thomas N.) explores the city through a sampling of its cultural elite as they plow through the seasonal ceremonies that sustain the good burghers during a tempestuous winter. While both characters and subplots abound, the central conflict revolves around a split between an artist named Brum and his wife, Stefanie, who briefly leaves him to conduct an affair with a rich, androgynous undertaker with a penchant for ladies' underwear. In addition to various other members of Stefanie's family, the roster also includes several entertaining figures connected to the Munich Evening Herald, the best of whom is Johnny Ploog, a typically cynical critic and columnist. Morley uses his characters as vehicles to offer his thoughts on culture, love, death and other weighty issues. Plot is a secondary concern for much of the novel; the narrative is divided into numerous chapters of varying styles and lengths. Some are stunningly literate and brilliant, while others are tedious or self-indulgently experimental. But as inconsistent as this novel often is, few modern novelists take the risks inherent in Morley's effort, and when he succeeds the literary sparks fly.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

Using six months in Munich as background and a family of women as primary subjects, Morley (Pictures from the Water Trade, LJ 4/15/85) has created an impressive, multifaceted literary landscape. Between the autumnal and vernal equinoxes, the lives of three sisters change irrevocably: Stephanie vanishes on her wedding day, Martha's pregnancy reaches full term, and Dotty finds herself truly adored. The story is told in short pieces-dream sequences, diary entries, newspaper col-umns, mannered word play, straight narrative-in different voices and styles, overlaid with myth and influenced by astrology, astronomy, and religion. The surrealism of his earlier fiction is apparent, but here Morley is more an impressionist, illuminating eternal verities with his skilled, sometimes elegant prose. Challenging and rewarding; for serious fiction collections.
Michele Leber, Fairfax Cty. P.L., Va.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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