Review of Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

In Bel Canto, we grow to love the characters, both the hostages and the terrorists who hold them, but it is a love that cannot endure. We know that the hostage situation, which drags on for months, cannot end well. Opera is a theme that runs through the novel, as the main character, whom everyone, hostage and captor alike, falls in love with. But as any tragic opera, the beauty is in the experience, in this case Ann Patchett's magnificent writing, not in the conclusion. I finished this book three days ago and I'm still thinking about the characters, and wondering what they, the ones who survived that is, are doing now.