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Bel Canto

3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 · rating details · 106,866 ratings · 7,829 reviews

In an unnamed South American country, a world-renowned soprano sings at a birthday party in honor of a visiting Japanese industrial titan. His hosts hope that Mr. Hosokawa can be persuaded to build a factory in their Third World backwater. Alas, in the opening sequence, just as the accompanist kisses the soprano, a ragtag band of 18 terrorists enters the vice-presidential...more In an unnamed South American country, a world-renowned soprano sings at a birthday party in honor of a visiting Japanese industrial titan. His hosts hope that Mr. Hosokawa can be persuaded to build a factory in their Third World backwater. Alas, in the opening sequence, just as the accompanist kisses the soprano, a ragtag band of 18 terrorists enters the vice-presidential mansion through the air conditioning ducts. Their quarry is the president, who has unfortunately stayed home to watch a favorite soap opera. And thus, from the beginning, things go awry.

Among the hostages are not only Hosokawa and Roxane Coss, the American soprano, but an assortment of Russian, Italian, and French diplomatic types. Reuben Iglesias, the diminutive and gracious vice president, quickly gets sideways of the kidnappers, who have no interest in him whatsoever. Meanwhile, a Swiss Red Cross negotiator named Joachim Messner is roped into service while vacationing. He comes and goes, wrangling over terms and demands, and the days stretch into weeks, the weeks into months.

With the omniscience of magic realism, Ann Patchett flits in and out of the hearts and psyches of hostage and terrorist alike, and in doing so reveals a profound, shared humanity. Her voice is suitably lyrical, melodic, full of warmth and compassion. Hearing opera sung live for the first time, a young priest reflects:

Never had he thought, never once, that such a woman existed, one who stood so close to God that God's own voice poured from her. How far she must have gone inside herself to call up that voice. It was as if the voice came from the center part of the earth and by the sheer effort and diligence of her will she had pulled it up through the dirt and rock and through the floorboards of the house, up into her feet, where it pulled through her, reaching, lifting, warmed by her, and then out of the white lily of her throat and straight to God in heaven.

Joined by no common language except music, the 58 international hostages and their captors forge unexpected bonds. Time stands still, priorities rearrange themselves. Ultimately, of course, something has to give, even in a novel so imbued with the rich imaginative potential of magic realism. But in a fractious world, Bel Canto remains a gentle reminder of the transcendence of beauty and love. --Victoria Jenkins(less)

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Published (first published January 1st 2001)

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Mar 23, 2009 Lucy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book came highly recommended, and once I started reading, I kept thinking I had already but couldn't, for the life of me, remember how it ended. Turns out, it only seemed familiar to me because it is based on a real life experience. In 1995, the president of Peru and many of his guests were taken hostage and held for months. Bel Canto is a fictitious story based loosely on those events.

I only liked Bel Canto. I understand its appeal - the coming together of hostages and terrorists alike, bu...more This book came highly recommended, and once I started reading, I kept thinking I had already but couldn't, for the life of me, remember how it ended. Turns out, it only seemed familiar to me because it is based on a real life experience. In 1995, the president of Peru and many of his guests were taken hostage and held for months. Bel Canto is a fictitious story based loosely on those events.

I only liked Bel Canto. I understand its appeal - the coming together of hostages and terrorists alike, but the writing was a bit too ethereal and romantic for me. SO much emphasis placed on opera, as if it's the universal band-aid. I know a lot of people that don't enjoy opera at all. In fact, a music lover myself, I'd have to admit that most of opera is an acquired taste. The hugeness of the voice, the strong vibrato and foreign languages take some getting used to. However, according to the author, there is no politician, businessman, servant or gunman that doesn't fall into a deep state of hypnosis when a soprano begins her song. I tend to think that perhaps the terrorist from a South American country, where musical tastes are a bit different, might not have been so cast under her spell, but I could be wrong. I've never thought of it as the only offered solace to a terrifying situation.

Which leads me to the other thing that I find a hard time believing. Terrorists...with guns....coming through air vents into a vice presidential palace and no one seems particularly petrified throughout it all. Again, I think this was the author's way of romanticizing the event by leaving out the crapping of pants and desperate pleas for loved ones, but everyone was annoyingly contrite and calm, even the terrorists themselves, who seemed awfully nice and understanding.

The end was appropriately tragic. I read a few reviews that described this as an example of magical realism, a genre I try and avoid so this labeling surprised me. Maybe all the lack of fear, suspended time and happy hostage household was part of it. The ending, while sad and tragic, satisfied my need for logic and realism. This event seemed to have a larger psychological effect on the survivors then the original hostage takeover. Whether or not that is realistic or not, I have no idea.

I wish she hadn't written her epilogue. It was unnecessary and unbelievable. Sort of like how all doctors on a hospital television show end up as couples, as if there were no one else in the world to date or socialize with. (view spoiler).

The book as a whole, however, is not void of greatness. The Russian cabinet member and his story of the box was poetic. Cesar's natural talent and love of performing made me cheer. And the inward look at most regarding their professions and priorities was very appropriate.

All combined, it makes for an enjoyable, flawed book.

(less)

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May 29, 2010 Annalisa rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, psychology

Let me preface this review by saying that I know this a disproportionately emotional review, but it's my review and my emotions and it is what it is.

In 1996, the home of the Japanese ambassador to Peru was taken hostage by guerillas during a party and held for 126 days until the home was raided by military force killing all the insurgents, many executed after they surrendered. At a time when Peru suffered an undercurrent of terrorist activity, president Fujimori was praised for his handling of t...more Let me preface this review by saying that I know this a disproportionately emotional review, but it's my review and my emotions and it is what it is.

In 1996, the home of the Japanese ambassador to Peru was taken hostage by guerillas during a party and held for 126 days until the home was raided by military force killing all the insurgents, many executed after they surrendered. At a time when Peru suffered an undercurrent of terrorist activity, president Fujimori was praised for his handling of the crisis and his approval rating soared. Since then, the commanders in the Peruvian army have been on trial for homicide but granted amnesty because they were praised as national heros. President Fujimori himself is in prison for human rights violations, not from this incidence, but still an interesting side note since those loss of rights are linked to his low tolerance for terrorist activity. A very interesting story that happened in Peru, a country with a name and a history more interesting than opera, but this I'm afraid was not that story.

It upset me to realize that Patchett was using a piece of Peruvian history with no intention of telling a story of Peru or its political unrest or even including a proper description of the country. She only refers to "the host country" or "this godforsaken country" in a vague brush of one of those South American countries that aren't very important or distinct. Did she neglect to put Peru in the story because it defames the country or really is it that they just aren't interesting enough to her? I know I shouldn't be offended that she dedicated this whole book to an opera singer who wasn't even part of the crisis and even gave it an Italian name, but a little bit I am. Even the "about the book" section is dedicated all to loving opera without a mention to the actual crisis that inspired the events.

There is a passage in the book about Roxane, the opera singer, singing a Czech piece and Gen, the translator, notes the distinction between knowing the words and speaking the language and only someone who spoke the language would see the lack of understanding. Maybe my reading this book was a little like that. I felt like I was reading two books simultaneously. The one about opera with vague, inaccurate concepts of an unnamed Peru where, if I had let Patchett guide my visual picture of the book I would have imagined the Von Trapp house stuck in the middle of the Amazon jungle. And the other of what I know about Peru and the crisis situation, trying to meld that visual to this story.

I realize that this is a piece of fiction and Patchett has the artistic license to write a fictional description of the crisis anyway she wishes, but I didn't like the story she chose to tell. A hostage situation is intense, but even the takeover she stretches through wanderings of the love of opera and manages to dull it so that not even the hostages seem anything other than mildly putout. Maybe it's because I'm not a opera lover (there are opera pieces I enjoy, but as a whole it's not something I seek out), but I found it unbelievable that all these people (most of them men) would be so mesmerized by an opera singer and all of them fall in love with her and her music. I felt as though Patchett was using this story as a vehicle to force me to love opera and me on the other side of the pages resists for nothing more than the force of her request.

It took me over 200 pages to get into this 300-page story and the only thing that eventually drew me in and saved it was the relationships between the hostages and their captors. In a normal setting I may not have believed it, but I did of the generally humble Peruvians, which is why the country should have been vital to the story. It took Patchett awhile to get there, but eventually I did like the characters. Even though I knew how it would end, I was anxious for the conclusion, to avoid inevitable tragedy. I could have done without the epilogue that was unnecessary and cheap. If Patchett wanted to include an epilogue, maybe she should have included one about the actual events. Or maybe it's all too appropriate that Peru was ignored. Okay, I'm done with my Peruvian inferiority complex over here. Feel free to talk about the actual story in your review or in the comments section.

1.5 stars, somewhere between a book prevented from being a great story and a book that upset me according to my own star ratings. I did find some merit in the book by the end, but it wasn't enough to overcome Patchett's inability to research her setting.(less)

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Aug 26, 2009 Danielle rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Opera fans, linguists, and anyone who doesn't need a book to end happily to feel fulfilled

Recommended to Danielle by: Paul VanDenBerghe

Shelves: fiction, my-favorites, danielle-recommends

This is one of my top five favorite books. Bel Canto made me a devoted Patchett fan, although her other work hasn't quite stood up to the high expectations this one set for her. Just to set the scene, I read this book while on a three week trip through Europe. Travelling by train, I had plenty of time to read, but missed a lot of the beautiful countryside (especially of France and Switzerland) because I simply couldn't tear myself away from this book, it was that good. My husband woke up on the...more This is one of my top five favorite books. Bel Canto made me a devoted Patchett fan, although her other work hasn't quite stood up to the high expectations this one set for her. Just to set the scene, I read this book while on a three week trip through Europe. Travelling by train, I had plenty of time to read, but missed a lot of the beautiful countryside (especially of France and Switzerland) because I simply couldn't tear myself away from this book, it was that good. My husband woke up on the train at one point (the ending of the book) to my sobs. I was so overcome I couldn't even tell him what was the matter (he was really worried for a minute there...then he thought I was crazy). I should clarify that I'm not an especially emotional person. I had just formed such a strong attachment to the characters in this book that the ending hit me almost as hard as losing a friend. Plus, it was just so beautifully done that the loss was almost bittersweet.
This book gave me so much to think about that I wanted to grab someone--anyone!--who had read this book and talk it all out with them. Well, that was almost two years ago, so my furor has died down. I need to read it again to write a fair review.
For the time being, though, first I loved the writing. I admire any author who can tell a great story with the words ushering me along rather than tripping me up. Another reviewer referred to the book as "lyrical" and I heartily agree. It was just beautifully done.
Second, such richly imagined characters were a delight to spend time with. I thought each character was fully developed and interesting. Even the minor characters, about whom I received limited information, still felt real. And I got the sense that there was so much more to know about them lurking just below the surface.
Finally, the story was heartbreakingly beautiful. As my waterworks attest, it was very moving, without feeling like my emotions were being made sport of. In the ending, it all just came together for me. "Bel Canto" referring to the beautiful song that was the idyllic life of the hostages and captives. But just like the opera singer's song had to end eventually, their peaceful suspension from reality could not endure. To me, what made the story and the illusion so poignant was the knowledge they had all along that it WOULD end. An audience can't fool itself into thinking a performance will last indefinitely, but perhaps the awareness of the end in sight makes the beauty of the moment all the more valuable. That reference made this story even more meaningful to me. I just loved it.
I gave this book five stars, but it wasn't absolutely perfect. I actually strongly disliked the epilogue. I found it disheartening, somewhat contrived, and generally unecessary. The story would have been better off without it.
In spite of that, this book is everything a great book should be.
UPDATE: Reread in August 2009. I still loved it, and enjoyed the writing, but it wasn't the same experience it was the first time. I wasn't as impressed, as moved, or as eager to share this book with others as I was the first time around. It must have just been the way it hit me at that time in my life. Even without it being the earth-shatteringly awesome book I felt it was before, I still highly recommend it. (less)

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May 13, 2009 Kim rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary, gr-friend-recommendations

I was only 3 when Patty Hearst showed up on TV toting a semi automatic weapon looking bewildered and stylish in a ¾ length leather belted coat. Do I remember this? Hell no, I was three, but later… you know when I was like eight or nine and I would think it was so cool that she was brainwashed---what an interesting word--- and I’d have Barbie kidnap Skipper and force her to drop her frumpy ways and really live the lie…, I mean life. Sorry.

So, what does that have to do with this? Well, I guess you...more I was only 3 when Patty Hearst showed up on TV toting a semi automatic weapon looking bewildered and stylish in a ¾ length leather belted coat. Do I remember this? Hell no, I was three, but later… you know when I was like eight or nine and I would think it was so cool that she was brainwashed---what an interesting word--- and I’d have Barbie kidnap Skipper and force her to drop her frumpy ways and really live the lie…, I mean life. Sorry.

So, what does that have to do with this? Well, I guess you could say that I was intrigued with the whole idea of Stockholm Syndrome way before I knew it had a name. Just imagine becoming emotionally attached to people that held you hostage. Isn’t that a bit fucked up? Duh. (As my 4 year old would say)

So, Bel Canto, while the characters and events are mostly fictionalized, was based on an actual hostage situation in Peru in 1996. Where 72 people men were held up in the Japanese Ambassador’s home for 126 days. I must have been living under a rock, because I do not remember this… you think that something like this would have stuck, you know? I’m sure I was too wrapped up in my glee that Judge Judy was now being syndicated. Whoo.

Can you imagine living with terrorists for 4 and ½ months? My god, I can’t imagine that the same level of fear is maintained. I would think that you would start to develop a relationship with these kids (yes, they were basically children) and start to feel that this is what your life has become. And so it goes in Bel Canto , these characters, hostages and terrorists are introduced systematically throughout the beginning of the ordeal and Patchett does a good job of fleshing them out and getting us attached. To a point. I think that this is one of those books where your opinion of it will vary depending on where you are in your life. I can see this book leaving different impressions on someone who maybe has just found new love and someone who is jaded by relationships. Moreover, I think that this could determine just how much you liked this book. I’ve teetered between 2, 3 and 4 starts in just the few days since I’ve finished it.

This is most definitely a chick lit book. You’ve got the Soprano who has men falling at her feet (almost literally) every time she belts one out, you’ve got the young idealists who, of course, are beautiful and destined for a tragic outcome… and you’ve got the older, more elegant group of men, pining for love lost and all that. Something for every taste, I suppose.

The appeal of a good book is how long and hard it stays with you. When I finished this, I was eager to share the story with my friends and family but as the days wore on, the shine was lost and I started to see the faults and the hackneyed plot. I miss the first day when I was caught up in the story and lamenting the outcome.

Why can’t it always be like that?

(less)

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Jan 22, 2010 Bunga Mawar rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: translated-into-indonesian, it-s-mine, fiction

Sinopsis pada sampul belakang buku hijau berjudul asli Bel Canto ini begitu mengundang saya mengambilnya dari bak buku obralan di TM Bookstore Detos pada akhir tahun lalu. Sinopsis itu, bagian pertamanya saya ceritakan kembali seperti ini:

Pada suatu pesta makan malam para diplomat dan usahawan di sebuah negara miskin di Amerika Selatan, sekelompok tentara gerilya menyerbu. Mereka menyandera lebih dari 200 tamu karena tidak menemukan presiden negara itu - sasaran utama untuk diculik - di antara h...more

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Apr 15, 2008 Adam rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Adam by: liz

Shelves: pen-faulkner-award-for-fiction, fiction

I read this book because my girlfriend--who loved it--recommended it to me. She also implied that I could stand to girly up my reading list a little, which is probably fair. Man does not live by novelizations of '70s cop movies and '80s slasher movie tie-ins alone.

Anyway, I thought it was good. The characters were all likable and the story was engaging, if wholly improbable (Bel Canto could just as easily have been titled The Lighter Side of Stockholm Syndrome). My main problem with it was the w...more

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Jun 26, 2007 Michele rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Stay With This One. It's Worth It.

Bel Canto is one of those novels that is good on so many levels, it's taken me days after finishing it to put my thoughts about the story and the characters into words. This work is as lyrical and dramatic as any opera, and the word "brilliant" isn't excessive to describe the talent of author, Ann Patchett. I wondered how she came up with such a remarkable and unique story, but then learned she'd been influenced by actual events involving a hostage situation in...more

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Aug 07, 2007 Aaron rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: NPR listeners who secretly want to read a romance novel

A novel about a hostage crisis that goes wrong -- with very sexy results, Bel Canto might have been a better read if at some point Patchett did anything to acknowledge the plot's ridiculousness. Instead, she treats the readers to vague social commentary about South America, multiple nobel savage tropes, and a crisis situation where people do have sex, but only after first taking the time to fall in love. It's also somewhat about opera, so allow me the metaphor that Bel Canto hits all the obvious...more

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Jul 24, 2011 jo rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

i don't think i want to rate this book. in my opinion it's not a good book, but there is something very powerful about it and i don't think a rating can do justice to the combination of these two facts -- the fact that it isn't a good book and the fact that there is something powerful about it.

it isn't a good book for all the reasons everyone who gave it one star brings up. what is powerful about it is that the whole book is a tribute to womanhood. someone told me yesterday that everyone loves...more i don't think i want to rate this book. in my opinion it's not a good book, but there is something very powerful about it and i don't think a rating can do justice to the combination of these two facts -- the fact that it isn't a good book and the fact that there is something powerful about it.

it isn't a good book for all the reasons everyone who gave it one star brings up. what is powerful about it is that the whole book is a tribute to womanhood. someone told me yesterday that everyone loves women. it had never occurred to me, but of course it's true. womanhood is the locus of desirability. this book is a tribute to the desirability of women. this seems to me its great power. you can say that the desirability in the book revolves around music but that would be false; it revolves around women.

what is powerful, in my opinion, is that this point -- that women are the locus of desirability -- is made in a rather unself-conscious, unexamined way in what seems to me, all things considered, a rather superficial novel (sorry everyone). i wouldn't be surprised if ann patchett were not even aware that she wrote a book about the desirability of women (or she may know now because i can't possibly be the first person to notice this, but it wouldn't surprise me if she didn't know it when she wrote it).

the fantasy here is that there is a household of men and three women, two of whom are highly desirable, and nothing bad happens to these women. all the men fall in love with the women with a passion all of them find impossible to express, but the line into violation, abuse, violence, or even genderpower is never crossed. in fact, the line barely exists. it's mentioned two or three times in the book by the narrator, but it seems as if the characters, (view spoiler), cannot even conceive of it. all fifty-nine (or however many they are) men think and act as if they had made a solemn pact to forget that women are ever taken advantage of. no, that's not true, because then there would be some strain, some tension. so let me try again: it's as if the power of the music or the power of the captivity or the presence of the priest or something had inoculated these guys from the male drive to possession and control of women.

as i said, the novel does nothing to delve into the complexities of this, but it is still interesting to me to see how powerfully this fantasy of female desirability/safety is constructed. everything in the novel contributes to shoring it up.

the fantasy didn't tickle me (do i love my men and women locked in mortal combat?) but my guess is that what most people liked in this book, what drew them to it, is precisely this otherwordly, peaceful, tender scenario: two women worshiped by more than fifty guys who want nothing in return and would never dream of touching a hair on their heads. (less)

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Jan 23, 2008 Robert Beveridge rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: finished, owned-and-gave-away

Ann Patchett, Bel Canto (Harper, 2001)

I have spent quite a while mulling this over, and have finally come to the conclusion that, patterned after Greek tragic opera or not, I can't forgive Ann Patchett for the climax of this novel. Much of that has to do with the beginning of the novel; I'd have been inclined to be more forgiving had the first hundred pages not moved at a snail's pace. But the book finally picked up, everything was going along swimmingly, and then, suddenly, bam-the most predict...more Ann Patchett, Bel Canto (Harper, 2001)

I have spent quite a while mulling this over, and have finally come to the conclusion that, patterned after Greek tragic opera or not, I can't forgive Ann Patchett for the climax of this novel. Much of that has to do with the beginning of the novel; I'd have been inclined to be more forgiving had the first hundred pages not moved at a snail's pace. But the book finally picked up, everything was going along swimmingly, and then, suddenly, bam-the most predictable possible climax.

The story is based on accounts of the guerrilla takeover of the Peruvian embassy in 1992, but Patchett moves the action to another, unnamed, South American country and adds a few extra ingredients into the mix. In Patchett's story, opera singer Roxane Coss has been lured to the embassy for the birthday party of a wealthy Japanese industrialist whom the country hopes will build a factory there. During the festivities, the guerrillas invade, and a hostage situation begins. It drags on, and soon the strict militarism with which the siege begins evolves into a more relaxed system, where the line between terrorist and hostage begins to blur.

It's after that line begins to blur that the book really takes hold. The original three chapters, that describe the scene and introduce us to most of the main characters, are painfully slow. Patchett hits her stride, and the book takes off. For the middle two hundred pages, it's easy to see why the book won the Orange Prize and was shortlisted for so many others.

Then comes the climax. My initial reaction is that it was the biggest letdown I'd had in a novel in a number of years, and that's saying something. After some discussion, I tried to accept it as the pace and events of the book being modeled on Greek tragic opera (where such clichés as the climax of this novel were coined). I don't know enough about Greek tragic opera to really make a judgment one way or the other as to the accuracy of Patchett's patterning. I do know that in modern reinterpretations of older works (think Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres for an excellent example), what we often change is what has become clichéd in the years since the work was originally written. Such is not the case here, and it certainly kept me from enjoying the book as a whole as much as I otherwise would have.

Great middle. Mediocre beginning. Awful ending. Still, the hundred pages that are worth saving are remarkable, and worth the price of admission. ** ½ (less)

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Mar 01, 2009 Amanda rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009, better-than-chick-lit

There is nothing I can say. I don't even know how.

Instead, I will veil my head, lament the deaths of each person loved since the beginning of time, and cry tears of unsurpassed desolation in the hopes that tomorrow, the sun will shine on my face and god will see me standing there.

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Aug 28, 2009 Sandi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature, 2008

"Bel Canto" may be one of the top ten books I've read this year. It is absolutely beautifully written and very gripping. I really felt like I was there and that I was getting to know the characters as they got to know each other. I felt like one of them. Without giving anything away, I was totally surprised and shocked by the ending. However, in retrospect, I realized that it really couldn't have ended any other way. I recommend "Bel Canto" for everyone.

__________________________________________...more

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Jun 13, 2007 Sammy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: b-the-good

Ann Patchett truly did an amazing job with writing this book. She wrote in a style that made you feel like you were there being held hostage. Time played no factor in the story... just like the hostages lost their sense of time. After a while you no longer knew if it had been two weeks since the terrorists had crashed the party, or two months. And when you do find out it's been two months you're just as shocked as the hostages.

You grow weary along with the hostages when you read about some munda...more Ann Patchett truly did an amazing job with writing this book. She wrote in a style that made you feel like you were there being held hostage. Time played no factor in the story... just like the hostages lost their sense of time. After a while you no longer knew if it had been two weeks since the terrorists had crashed the party, or two months. And when you do find out it's been two months you're just as shocked as the hostages.

You grow weary along with the hostages when you read about some mundane thing taking place, but that's the point. You are just as bored as the hostages and even the most simple thing can be the highlight of the week. You are introduced to characters that you remember well, and then there are others that fade in and out of the background, just as the hostages see one another. You like some, you dislike others. It's just amazing how you become one of the hostages, yet it feels completely natural when you are pulled out slightly and become the all-knowing narrator.

The book was long and felt tidious at times, but I realized it made you feel what the characters were feeling. The writing was beautiful and the characters were well-developed. It seemed a little too convenient to have the Ultimate Translator handy for this event to take place, and you could easily see it as a tool Ann Patchett used to get her characters into easier communication, she turned him into such a key character, he no longer seemed like a convenient tool.

Overall the book was amazing, and I still can't get over how the writing reflected so much on the ordeal itself. The only major problem I had with the novel was the Epilogue just seemed tacked on as some sort of final closure. She could have just left the epilogue off and had a very shocking and abrupt ending. I think that would have been befitting and followed the style of the rest of the book. The ending we do have just... I don't know. It didn't seem necessary, didn't explain all that much about other characters, and seemed a little odd with the two major characters it addressed.

Other then the ending... epilogue... the book was fantastic and a definite must-read this summer.

Oh, and don't think this stereo-types South Americans as gun-toting terrorists. While some of it does seem a little stereotypical, the terrorists in this are really humanized and you actually grow to like some of them.(less)

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Jun 12, 2007 Susie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Maybe

I did enjoy Bel Canto. I found it to be a very pretty book in writing and plot. The characters each had something about them that appealed to me as a reader and made me associate with them. I enjoyed the idea that music (more specifcally opera) was the one thing that they all understood no matter what country they were from nor which side they were on. Though I do not know opera, it was easy to associate the devotion these people had to music to other things in my life which made relating to the...more

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May 28, 2008 theduckthief rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Good:
In an unnamed South American country, a birthday party is being celebrated for a Mr. Hosokawa, one of the most wealthy men in the world. He's a workaholic and only agreed to attend after hearing his favourite opera singer, Roxanne Coss, would be there. The party is going well until interrupted by a group of terrorists. Their plan, to hold the President hostage and make demands upon the government. When they discover the leaders absence, the terrorists are forced to rethink their plan.

Th...more The Good:
In an unnamed South American country, a birthday party is being celebrated for a Mr. Hosokawa, one of the most wealthy men in the world. He's a workaholic and only agreed to attend after hearing his favourite opera singer, Roxanne Coss, would be there. The party is going well until interrupted by a group of terrorists. Their plan, to hold the President hostage and make demands upon the government. When they discover the leaders absence, the terrorists are forced to rethink their plan.

This is one of the most lyrical and poetic books I've read. The way I can best describe it is an easy read, soft and quiet like a lullaby. It's fitting though as the title translates as "Beautiful Song" and the party is attended by one of the world's top opera singers. Music is what serves to connect everyone in this book and I loved the fact you didn't have to know anything about music to appreciate the story. Music, like math, is a universal language.

There are lots of characters in the book that could have ended up being stereotypes but Patchett ends up turning this idea on its head. Carmen may seem to be a "hot-blooded latin" on the outside but she's also a very dedicated student when she determined to learn. Hosokawa could have been stamped as a "workaholic Japanese businessman" until we learn he's a closet opera fanatic who savours those moments alone with his stereo system. My personal favourite was Kato for what he does for the house.

The Bad:
This book is much like "The Shipping News" in that the tension is undercut. We're told at the very beginning what happens to everyone in the house. This disappointed me because it swept the dramatic tension of the story under the carpet. But, this opened up another avenue for the story where the reader doesn't have to depend on this driving force. Instead, you're lulled into a slow passage of days that blend into one another and by the end, you're shocked out of this false sense of security that you share with the characters.

The Ugly:
The epilogue was very jarring to me. I wasn't expecting it and I don't think I agree with Patchett's decision, despite how it tied everyone together. You'll know I mean when you read and maybe you can explain why Patchett constructed it that way.(less)

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Dec 29, 2008 S. rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: those less cyncial than I

Recommended to S. by: my mother

Shelves: schlock, willing-to-swap, women-writers

All in all a little too sugar-coated for my taste – the discovered friendships, unlikely loves, the pervading beauty of every damn thing . . . And the purported passion surrounding one of the most important elements, opera, was unconvincing. It felt largely like a vacuous prop to be honest, like rattling off a list of arias to prove yourself a connoisseur of the beautiful.

But the writing was decent and I decided about a quarter of the way through I shouldn’t be too hard-hearted (and the book aim...more

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Mar 26, 2008 Jessica rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Exquisite. Patchett does two really remarkable things here. Well, she does many remarkable things, but two I'd particularly like to point out:
1. When an author loves her characters too much, the reader can often tell. Situations and descriptions seem contrived, and there is a veneer of (usually unintentional) dishonesty. But in Bel Canto, it's clear that Patchett is in love with her characters, yet she is able to remain objective and in control. Her role as the omniscient narrator allows her to...more

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Jun 04, 2012 Ben Babcock rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: from-library, 2012-read, literary-pretentious, 2012-best10

One of my favourite shows is Buffy the Vampire Slayer (I could get into why, but then we’d be here all day). One of the villains in the second season is a vampire named Spike. He’s a cold and ruthless antagonist, but then in season four he gets metaphorically declawed. With a chip in his head that causes him intense pain if he harms humans, Spike is neutralized as a threat. He spends a good deal of that season tied up in Xander’s basement. It becomes a running joke, in fact, how harmless he is,...more

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Dec 31, 2008 Rachel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: fans of music, languages, and Latin America

Recommended to Rachel by: Robbie

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I read Bel Canto in the week between Christmas and New Year's Day, 2008. It was an excellent choice for an interim period: I was between projects at work, wrapping up the old year and planning for the new, trying to maintain a sense of autonomy while upholding family expectations as I visited my parents for the holidays. A friend from church choir recommended this book to me, presumably because of our shared love for music. Although Roxane Coss, a major character in Bel Canto, is an opera singer...more I read Bel Canto in the week between Christmas and New Year's Day, 2008. It was an excellent choice for an interim period: I was between projects at work, wrapping up the old year and planning for the new, trying to maintain a sense of autonomy while upholding family expectations as I visited my parents for the holidays. A friend from church choir recommended this book to me, presumably because of our shared love for music. Although Roxane Coss, a major character in Bel Canto, is an opera singer, an appreciation for opera is not necessary for one to enjoy the book. Aside from telling a gripping fictionalized version of a mid-1990s hostage situation in Peru, Bel Canto prompted me to consider some uncomfortable but important philosophical questions.

What impressed me most about this story was the psychological evolution of the characters. After a terrorist attack on a party at the vice president's mansion - organized to kidnap a dignitary who was absent that night - goes awry, rather than leave empty-handed the revolutionaries decide to hold the party guests hostage. In the months of confinement that follow, the distinction between captor and captive blurs and their common humanity emerges. The prisoners, stripped of their identities as businessmen, learn to define themselves and fill their days in new ways. The opera singer structures her time and holds on to her sanity by establishing a daily practice schedule. A corporate executive reveals his passion and talent for playing the piano. The vice president takes pride in keeping a clean house, working with his hands. People fall in love.

As the group in the mansion adjusts to their warped new reality, the terrorists' discipline slackens but the prisoners forget to seek opportunities for escape. Instead of pushing their limits, they choose to live inside them. How many of us do the same thing? What walls do we accept as insurmountable obstacles? What walls do we simply not see anymore? What excuses do we make for following a divergent path from the one that would make us truly happy? In the absence of familiar faces, roles, and pastimes, what matters most?

I would have rated this book 5 stars instead of 4, except I did not care for the epilogue. In fact, I almost wish I had never read it. It seemed insincere and too tidy compared to the rest of the plot, which was rendered with compassion and humor even when it turned violent. I believe that Gen would rather cherish his memory of Carmen than tarnish it by accepting Roxane as a proxy. I doubt that Roxane could love someone who did not swoon over her singing, and Gen was one of the few characters who seemed immune to the power of her voice. Gen and Roxane were just not right for each other. I would have preferred for the final scene not to take place at all; if it had to happen, I would like it better if the Thibaults were written out of it. The epilogue was extraneous and distracted from the overall quality of the book. (less)

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May 05, 2008 Sally rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: abandoned

I just couldn't do it! The premise was great, the writing was swallowable, but the story! The painful, painful story. There was no character that I truly cared about, and when the "hostages" became "free" or whatever I threw the book across the room and there it has remained ever since. A hefty dust bunny now resides atop. I'd rather read Better Homes and Gardens than finish this one.

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Apr 07, 2009 Lisette Brodey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Books are so subjective. No matter how much we know this, it’s still shocking to love a book and see that others hated it, or to hate a book that others loved. It’s the same for everything else in life: people, films, TV shows, vacation spots, singers, etc. etc. We are all so very different.

Sometimes, when I finish a book, if I didn’t like it, I will usually have very concrete reasons why I did not. And sometimes I will have very concrete reasons why I did like a book. But often, as is the case...more

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May 25, 2008 Yosafbridg rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own-and-read

Bel Canto gathers together a rather disparate group of people of varying nationalities and classes in an unnamed South American country to hear a world renowned American opera singer perform and to make important political and business connections. Gathered at the vice-presidential mansion for an elegant party celebrating the fifty-third birthday of Katsumi Hosokawa, the CEO of a huge Japanese electronics firm whose business the country (and everyone else is hoping to woe). Hosokawa is there bec...more Bel Canto gathers together a rather disparate group of people of varying nationalities and classes in an unnamed South American country to hear a world renowned American opera singer perform and to make important political and business connections. Gathered at the vice-presidential mansion for an elegant party celebrating the fifty-third birthday of Katsumi Hosokawa, the CEO of a huge Japanese electronics firm whose business the country (and everyone else is hoping to woe). Hosokawa is there because of the soprano, everyone else is there because of Hosokawa. Once the soprano finishes her last song (the one Hosokawa requested) everything goes black and eighteen terrorists storm into the room taking everyone hostage.
At that moment few of the hostages feel they will escape the situation alive, and though Ann Patchett may write with a light and subtle hand, it is difficult for the reader to see this being an easy or terribly ecstatic read. However, in some ways those expectations are defied. Once i was about one hundred pages into the novel i found myself unable to stop until i reached the end (a little over two hundred pages later), i'm not even sure how long that took me.
As the first day of the crisis moves into the first week, and then into further weeks, finally moving into months; both guests and guards find themselves settling into routine; into an almost uneasy Stockholm Syndrome and taking the reader along with them. Although we gain glimpses into many of the characters' lives and pasts (of necessity, mostly male) we gain very little into that of the soprano, Roxanne Cos, except what we observe of her and filtered through the eyes of her many admirers; which seemed to me to be a strength rather than a weakness of the novel. This is a world peopled with characters whose lives revolve around Roxanne, around opera, both her opera and soap opera (those they watch and those they live. This is a world that never leaves the mansion. It has transcended time and reality, in the same way the novel transcends time, reality, and difference. Both the people living in this world and those reading about it know that it will come to a crashing, inevitable end, but somehow wish to escape that inescapable eventuality.
Apropos of nothing, there was also a (somewhat) hidden staircase in this mansion, something that i am completely enamoured of. I was always longing for some kind of secret passageway or stairway or secret rooms in the various houses i lived in growing up, and was always searching for them on the odd chance that i might find one (after all Trixie Belden~of the books i devoured at the time~was always finding them, not to mention the secret passage ways in Clue~although those weren't much fun just whisked you from one place to another.) Imagine my disappointment when, renovating my basement bedroom, my stepfather, shining a flashlight into a cubbyhole behind the furnace, exclaimed "Look, a hidden staircase!" only to illuminate the Nancy Drew book i had apparently dropped back there. I did live in a house in grad school where, we discovered a "servant's" staircase boarded over, right over our basement stairs, off of our kitchen bathroom leading to our second floor bathroom closet, where i kept my shoes (i once was late for one of my classes because my roommate was in there performing his "toilette"~whole other story...) Another roommate and i plotted how we could uncover those stairs but, alas, it was never to be. Anyway, the staircase in this novel brought a tiny thrill, and all those associative memories flooding back...
Both a friend and other reviewers have mentioned some dismay at the epilogue (perhaps a sense of tacking a happy ending on something that really shouldn't have one) but i saw it not so much as a happy ending as a fit conclusion for survivors of a truly tragic trauma (how's that for alliteration?) moving on in any way they can.(less)

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Jul 06, 2008 Libby rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Libby by: Laura Owen

Shelves: 2008-hits

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. AFTER

Finally! After some seven months I finished listening to Bel Canto, and my friends, I am prepared to eat some serious crow. My earlier reservations remain intact, but what can I say, I have seen the light.

Somewhere halfway through this ambivalent little dance I'd been doing with Ms. Patchett, I started marveling at how I'd come to believe, wholeheartedly, in a world and in a set of actions, that should have been wholly unbelievable. The captives begin to fall in love with their captors, but...more

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May 06, 2007 sydney rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: patchett fans, opera fans, polyglots (learned that word from this book)

Here's the setup: a bunch of richies and dignitaries and businesspeople converge in the mansion of the Vice President of a poor, unnamed South American country. The guest of honor, a Japanese businessman, Mr. Hosukawa, thinks he's there for his birthday party, but really, the South Americans brought him in so he'd decide to invest in their country. But the only way they could get him to come was by paying loads of money to bring his favorite opera singer, Roxane Coss, to perform at the party.

Ro...more Here's the setup: a bunch of richies and dignitaries and businesspeople converge in the mansion of the Vice President of a poor, unnamed South American country. The guest of honor, a Japanese businessman, Mr. Hosukawa, thinks he's there for his birthday party, but really, the South Americans brought him in so he'd decide to invest in their country. But the only way they could get him to come was by paying loads of money to bring his favorite opera singer, Roxane Coss, to perform at the party.

Roxane is singing her last song when all of the lights go out, and the party is cut short by a band of gun-wielding terrorists looking for the South American president. He's not at the party (having stayed home for a potentially embarrassing reason I won't disclose). So they decide to just take everyone at the party hostage until their demands are met.

What follows is a several-months-long standoff between the terrorists inside the mansion and the police and Red Cross outside. Neither side will budge. And inside the house, boundaries between terrorists and hostages, South Americans and Russians, men and women, become blurred. Over time, complex relationships form among the people inside the house, and these relationships are at the center of this novel.

Patchett's characters make this book. They are sympathetic and multidimensional. That's one of the best parts; the characters, like real people, constantly evolve. They cannot be pinned down as "bad" or "good," heroes or villains. Their actions are impossible to predict, and this makes them fascinating. And Patchett juggles them easily. She shifts from one perspective to the next several times within chapters and describes the same events through multiple pairs of eyes to flesh them out. She's also really good at getting inside people's heads. The way she describes emotions is dead-on, and this also makes it easy to empathize with all of the characters.

As for opera, let's be real: I've never listened to it, nor have I been interested in doing so. But the way Patchett describes opera makes me want to go out and get some. The music becomes another of her characters. It lives inside the house, and it changes what happens inside. Patchett's characters mark time by music (waiting for the music, listening to the music, and reflecting on the music), and the story can be broken into similar chunks based on what's happening with the music at any given time.

Highly recommended. Let's talk about this book while we stand barefoot in unmowed grass because reading this makes that sensation sound so incredible. Right?
(less)

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Jun 10, 2008 alex rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

it was... readable. flat characters. overly foreshadowed. i brought it to the beach b/c i thought it'd be a good beach read. it reminded me of jean-jacques beneix's film Diva, except instead of some large complex crime with lots of confusion and intrigue, it was simple and dull. maudlin and vapid. everyone loves the soprano. everyone loves each other. both music and love are transcendent, ephemeral, and life-altering. the end.

p.s. the book definitely takes place in peru.

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Mar 17, 2009 Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 5-star-reads

This was a wonderful book. It is difficult for me to describe without giving away some of the story. About disappointment and possiblities and love; about looking inside yourself and finding something unexpected.

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Nov 03, 2009 Kathy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, love-stories, war

This is a book I just randomly picked from a display shelf at the library. I enjoyed it right from the beginning. The first paragraph drew me in and I really enjoyed the writing and the characters. The situation was really interesting too. It wasn't anything too heavy or deep, just entertaining and a good story. I was actually interested enough that I had one of my rare nights of staying up until the early hours of the morning to finish it. Unfortunately I was very disappointed in the ending. I...more

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Aug 04, 2009 Jana rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: heart-and-mind

Ann Patchett fell in love with her characters, and you could tell that from the beginning. And what she did, I did as well.

I'm so happy that Bel Canto and I shared some time together. It was pretty much difficult to say goodbye. I felt bonded with it like it was my friend, as I attached myself with some of the characters very much.

It so rare to find a book where you have such a big group of people, on extreme opposite sides and, the middle with no sides, for which you can say that is so essent...more

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Jan 05, 2009 Zinta rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When Ann Patchett came to the college where I work on staff to give a reading to our students, I attended. The room was packed and bursting to the seams. Her book had been assigned as part of a summer reading program for incoming freshman, discussed in groups, now discussed with the author herself, and all concluding with her reading. It was a delight. Many authors who write well do not read well, but Patchett does both - and very well.

Bel Canto is a simple enough story (and those are always the...more

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Nov 10, 2008 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: best-seller

In the hope of attracting foreign investment, an obscure South American country hosts a birthday celebration for an opera-loving Japanese industrialist. They’ve managed to lure him to their third world backwater by luring his favorite soprano as entertainment. The plan seems to be a good one until, during the encore aria, a group of terrorists break through the air-conditioning vents to take the president hostage. The problem is that the president actually stayed home to watch his favorite soap...more

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About Ann Patchett

Ann Patchett is an American author. She received the Orange Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 2002 for her novel Bel Canto. Patchett's other novels include The Patron Saint of Liars, Taft, and The Magician's Assistant, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and received the Nashville Banner Tennessee Writer of the Year Award in 199...more

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Quotes from Bel Canto

“It makes you wonder. All the brilliant things we might have done with our lives if only we suspected we knew how.” — 1,870 people liked it

“Some people are born to make great art and others are born to appreciate it. . . . It's a kind of talent in itself, to be an audience, whether you are a spectator in the gallery or you are listening to the voice of the world's greatest soprano. Not everyone can be an artist. There have to be those who witness the art, who love and appreciate what they have been privileged to see.” — 153 people liked it

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