false<![CDATA[Bel Canto]]>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165551537m/5826.jpg582632In 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:
<blockquote> 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. </blockquote>
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, <I>Bel Canto</I> remains a gentle reminder of the transcendence of beauty and love. <I>--Victoria Jenkins</I> 8593422001Bel Cantototal:24744|5:7205|4:9272|3:5812|2:1879|1:576|2474494883310833445520falsefalseWed Aug 26 23:17:09 -0700 2009Fri Jan 18 12:25:23 -0800 2008Wed Aug 26 23:17:09 -0700 2009
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319falsefalseMon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007Tue Sep 11 15:08:53 -0700 2007Mon Mar 23 18:49:19 -0700 2009
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319falsefalseWed May 13 00:00:00 -0700 2009Tue Mar 03 10:01:12 -0800 2009Wed May 13 09:32:12 -0700 2009
three, but later… you know when I was like eight or nine and I would think it was so cool that she was brainwashed--...more...]]>
312falsefalseMon Apr 07 00:00:00 -0700 2008Sat Mar 29 15:59:19 -0700 2008Tue Apr 15 10:57:12 -0700 2008 Anyway, I thought it wa...more...]]>
39falsefalseSat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003Wed Jan 23 09:29:16 -0800 2008Wed Jan 23 09:29:16 -0800 2008 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'...more...]]>
59falsefalseSun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009Wed Feb 25 08:04:49 -0800 2009Sun Mar 01 22:17:44 -0800 20091 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.]]>
59falsefalseTue Dec 02 00:00:00 -0800 2008Fri Nov 14 20:59:42 -0800 2008Fri Aug 28 21:21:34 -0700 2009
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57falsefalseThu Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007Wed Jun 20 13:01:57 -0700 2007Tue Jun 26 06:27:50 -0700 2007 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"...more...]]>
28falsefalseSat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003Sun Jul 29 11:27:24 -0700 2007Tue Aug 07 07:43:43 -0700 2007
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 tr...more...]]>
46falsefalseWed Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005Tue May 29 01:55:28 -0700 2007Wed Jun 13 01:10:14 -0700 2007
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55falsefalseSat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008Sat Sep 01 21:09:54 -0700 2007Wed Mar 26 15:27:39 -0700 2008
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 (usuall...more...]]>
36falsefalseFri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007Sat May 26 05:54:33 -0700 2007Tue Jun 12 17:09:00 -0700 2007
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45falsetrueMon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008Tue Dec 30 08:06:18 -0800 2008Wed Dec 31 12:50:13 -0800 20081
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 par...more...]]>
210falsefalseThu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004Mon May 05 18:47:03 -0700 2008Mon May 05 18:49:58 -0700 2008
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43falsefalseMon Apr 06 00:00:00 -0700 2009Thu Feb 12 14:34:28 -0800 2009Tue Apr 07 15:01:40 -0700 2009
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53falsefalseThu Aug 02 00:00:00 -0700 2007Sat May 24 16:27:37 -0700 2008Sun May 25 05:09:18 -0700 2008
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 el...more...]]>
33falsefalseFri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008Sun Apr 06 23:29:56 -0700 2008Wed May 28 09:16:07 -0700 2008
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 in...more...]]>
53falsetrueThu Jul 03 00:00:00 -0700 2008Mon Jan 07 09:17:47 -0800 2008Sun Jul 06 15:01:21 -0700 2008 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 do...more...]]>
43falsefalseTue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007Wed May 02 10:40:04 -0700 2007Sun May 06 18:09:15 -0700 2007
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53falsefalseMon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003Sun Oct 28 11:50:35 -0700 2007Mon Jan 05 00:38:17 -0800 2009
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