More interesting once the book was finished; book club pick BTS ( )

Haven't read a novel for awhile and found this to be suprisingly good - almost a black comedy - you always know the outcome won't be good, but it was engaging enough to want to go to bed or sprawl on the couch to read how the hostages and terrorists were getting on together! ( )

Bel Canto is one of those books whose characters live with you while you read it and in the spaces between your reading. I finished it last night and woke up thinking about it, pondering the way the notes fell and accustoming myself to the story they told.

A third-world country in South America throws a birthday party for Mr. Hosokawa, a rich Japanese businessman. To lure him (and possibly his future business) there, the services of the world-famous opera singer Roxane Coss had been engaged for the evening. No one expected to end the party as a hostage of a terrorist organization bent on kidnapping the President. But the President wasn't there; he'd decided at the last minute not to attend, and the terrorists are left with nearly 200 hostages they didn't want and no backup plan. And so things drift on for weeks and months as the Generals try to figure out what they can get from the situation.

There are many wonderful character sketches in this story, but five in particular stand out to me. Mr. Hosokawa, his translator Gen Watanabe, Roxane Coss, the female terrorist Carmen, and the Vice President Ruben Iglesias. The relationships they build, stepping out on the tenuous threads of translated speech and interpreted expressions, are the magic from which the story is spun.

And running underneath everything, popping up in every scene and playing a part in almost every private motivation is the power of music. It is like a character in its own right against the backdrop of human violence and tragedy. The way it is handled reminds me so much of Steven Galloway's The Cellist of Sarajevo, another story in which music is a bold statement of beauty in the face of ugliness. Music redeems; music is a force no one was expecting to reckon with.

The tone and certain events in the story also reminded me of Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient. People trapped in a house together try to make sense of their colliding worlds through physical relations, and though it "works" for a time, it cannot last forever. It is also slightly jarring how almost every male in the house is in love with Roxane Coss, but I suppose, given the magic of her voice and the enforced boredom of their captivity, that this is not altogether unrealistic. I don't think I'll ever be comfortable with portrayals of men being unfaithful to their wives for any reason, especially when it is shown as natural and acceptable. Perhaps it is natural, but never acceptable!

Patchett has a very sensitive narrative voice and she probes her characters gently. The terrorists become people too under her hands as she teases out their nebulous hopes and the things that make them distinct (though I'm sure it helps that they are not the more violent faction of terrorists in the country who would have systematically shot their hostages to force the government to act). The reader feels a strong empathy with many of the characters, despite their flaws. I even ended up liking Fyodorov, whom I thought at first was just pushy and coarse.

I feel both unsatisfied and relieved with the ending; I can't quite decide if it feels contrived, or if it's the only possible finish for a story like this. It is not really a happy ending... as much as I love those, I realize that a perfect, bloodless denouément would mar the entire story.

If you are, like me, not overly familiar with opera, this is the kind of story that will make you want to listen to it, try to find the beauty that is so powerful in the novel. I enjoyed the book a great deal but I imagine opera-lovers would find even more to relish here, where opera becomes entwined with literature and human tragedy. We are all of us on the stage.

This isn't a book for younger people, but mature readers (and especially fans of opera) will find much to enjoy here. Recommended. ( )

An Opera singer and many politicians are held hostage in an unknown South American country. Good plot and enjoyable read. ( )

An un-named, poor South American country plots to improve their fortune by hosting a birthday party for a prominent Japanese businessman featuring a performance by his favorite soprano. The party is attended by diplomats, politicians, and even some curious representatives from Russia who wriggled an invite by suggesting they too might be interested in setting up manufacturing in this country. The president of the country is typically adamant about keeping his nights free...in reality, he is addicted to a soap opera and doesn't like anything to interfere with his TV viewing. He agrees to attend this gala, but then backs out at the last second.

The terrorists didn't get the memo.

The mansion where the party is taken place is overwhelmed with a paramilitary group pouring in through the windows and duct work, immediately seizing control. Their goal was to snatch the president and be gone within minutes, holding him ransom until political prisoners have been released. The search for El Presidente is fruitless, though, and the terrorists are unable to decide how they will make use of the altered circumstance. Soon, it becomes a moot point when the mansion is surrounded by police and a long siege ensues.

Bel Canto is the story of several principle characters caught in the nearly 5 month ordeal. Love stories break out not only among the captives, but between a captive and a young lady that is one of two women among the terrorists. Meanwhile, another of the young terrorists is discovered to have an incredible singing voice, and the soprano begins teaching him proper singing techniques. The translator, the only person able to communicate with everyone in the mansion, falls for one of the young women terrorists and endeavors to teach her reading and writing. It's a case of everyone making the best of a bad situation, there is very little malice between hostages and captors.

Patchett's prose is somewhat on the flowery side, her terrorists could never be convincingly terrifying. That's not to say it was lacking violence...it was hinted early that everything would end badly for many of the characters (and all of the terrorists). Pratchett then built them up so the reader felt somewhat sympathetic toward them, and then with relish, throws in an ending worthy of Korean cinema. ( )