Bel Canto (P.S.) | Ann Patchett | Stunning and Emotional

Bel Canto (P.S.) | Ann Patchett | simply wonderful

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Bel Canto (P.S.)

	Bel Canto (P.S.) Ann Patchett Harper Perennial, 2005 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 580 reviews view larger image
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Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of the powerful businessman Mr. Hosokawa. Roxanne Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerized the international guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening -- until a band of gunwielding terrorists takes the entire party hostage. But what begins as a panicked, life-threatening scenario slowly evolves into something quite different, a moment of great beauty, as terrorists and hostages forge unexpected bonds and people from different continents become compatriots, intimate friends, and lovers.

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Stunning and Emotional

This book sat on my shelf for years before I finally picked it up. Once I started I couldn't stop. The story is beautifully written and despite the entire book taking place in one house it is engaging and entertaining. It takes some stretch of the imagination to think this story could be real but I don't think it was ever intended that way, being in a small country in South America that's never actually named.

When I finished the book I was taken by how Patchett had been able to match my emotions to those in the book - I felt nervous in the beginning for the hostages, then took up the fantasy of terrorist and hostage living together after the whole ordeal was over. I couldn't wait for a happy epilogue checking into Gen and Carmen, Mr. Hokosawa and Roxane, Cesar, Beatriz... Now I'm reeling and dejected.

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simply wonderful

Technically, I LISTENED to this book, narrated by Anna Fields, who did an amazing, amazing job. It got so that I could tell which character was speking before she finished a sentance; she was that good.
The story itself was moving -- happy, sad, terrifying, ridiculous -- the way any period of your life is; it isn't all one thing or the other. Patchett did a wonderful job developing the characters. I am going to miss Mr. Hosakawa.

Patchett Delivers Again

Wow. I don't think I've ever had an afterglow after reading a book. Just like an awesome love-making session, I just sat there afterwards, basking in the feelings that Bel Canto arose in me. "Bel Canto" literally means good singing, and Patchett certainly delivered a good read about good singing and the transformative power of art, even in settings where, on the face of things, no beauty should be found at all.

This book is a tragicomedy about a 4-month hostage experience that turns into something extraordinary. It centers around the presence of the world's most famous soprano, but other characters are far more gripping. Some characters, like the red-cross negotiator, wither under the trying circumstances. Other characters, like Gen, come into their own and continue to amaze us with his development. Patchett's strength is for developing nuanced characters.

Her other strength is carrying readers to the rhythm of the book (or should I say, the music?) I was tense in the beginning when the crisis ensued, got lulled into the same hypnotic complacency that the hostages and terrorists did in the middle of the book, then tensed up again as the plot thickens at the end. Good reads are supposed to do that, but Patchett does it exceptionally well, really tying the readers' complacency to the characters'.

Just read it. You'll be glad you did.

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Bel Canto

Beautifully written, this book reminded me of reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The "unreality" of it all. Not meant to be taken literally. Loved the way the narrator was upfront about what happened later in the story because then our concentration is on how it all unfolds. Great use of the omniscient point of view. The narrator puts his spin and interpretation of events as they are unfolding. People coming together and crossing the artificial boundaries that we put up to separate ourselves. The characters are able to find themselves as they are being held hostage. Their needs and wants, and also those of the hostage takers, are reduced yet intensified with their limitations as hostages. (I'm sure there is a better word for hostage takers, but I can't think of one now. Captors?)

It was interesting to hear another friend's perspective on this book. I had heard before reading it that it was either hated or loved. After talking with my friend who hated it, I better understand the polarization. Suspension of disbelief is necessary to enjoy this book. Her main reason for not being able to enjoy the book was predicated on her belief that that people in a hostage situation wouldn't behave in this way, and she has a point, they wouldn't. However for me, it wasn't so far from the realms of possibility. In horrific situations people do amazing things to adapt, and will often identify with their captors. I was willing to suspend disbelief because I was caught up in the greater beauty of the connections the characters starting making with themselves and with each other.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys beautiful and lyrical prose in a tale that leans heavily on the fantastical.

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