March Group Read: Bel Canto

Welcome to the group read for Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. When we were first discussing adding Bel Canto to the group read list, we had talked about having everyone read it before March so that we could all be ready to discuss the book at the same time.

Is everyone still interested in that format?

You beat me to it! What I was originally thinking was that we could pick a date, probably over a weekend in late March to do the bulk of our discussing. I would propose that discussions begin March 21.

In effect, we could use this thread before that date for general updates on who is participating, how the reading is going, general impressions, etc. Then on/after March 21 hopefully most of us will be finished and this thread will welcome all comments and discussion with no spoiler warnings needed.

What do you all think about that plan and date?

Sounds good to me! Very democratic.

Here to lurk! I loved Bel Canto and look forward to seeing everyone's thoughts are they read it.

Ditto mamzel--the last Patchett work I read completely interrupted the rest of my life, so I plan on picking up Bel Canto when I have my spring break in the first week of March. I'll still be working, but more on my own schedule, so theoretically it won't have me losing so much sleep as that last one did... In any case, I'm in! (And, it's my first participation in a GroupRead, so I'm excited!)

Love the plan and the date. I'll be ready for full fledged discussion on the 21st!

I'll be reading Bel Canto during the last half of March. I'll be celebrating my 10th wedding anniversary with a 3 week trip to London and France, so I may have limited Wi-Fi access.

^ What a fabulous way to celebrate that milestone!

I'm glad to see a discussion date of the 21st. My requests from the library are piling in, so this should give me time to clear my plate. Looking forward to a reread of a book I remember really liking as well as the group read!

Let's plan on March 21 to open up discussion, then. LoisB and anyone else not finished at that point - please join us when you're done, but expect to see open discussion and spoilers on and after March 21 on this thread.

I'm going to start reading soon and hoping to get most of it done on my upcoming vacation to Disney World. That may be wishful thinking, but I'll have almost 2 weeks to finish it when we get back if I don't get reading time on a trip with our two little boys!

I am in and I have even finished the book (yesterday). For now I will only say if you are on the bubble pick up the book... It is worth it!

Starting today.... :)

I ended up finishing this past weekend while on an unexpected trip. Lots of airplane time - can't wait to discuss it later this month!

Hi everyone! Just a reminder that the group discussion opens up on 3/21. Since we're all on different time zones, let's just say that from here on out, don't read any posts if you don't want spoilers. We will be having a free rein discussion on this thread.

Looking forward to seeing what everyone thought of the book!

I started a few weeks ago and am certainly drawn in by the story and the characters. I am not yet finished and have become side-tracked with No Country for Old Men so will hold off reading any further posts in this thread until I get it done. It is great so far!

ccookie - come on back when you're done! There is no ending date to our conversation, just the starting date.

So, what did everyone think?

I really liked it, but the ending kind of left me on a sour note. I did not see Gen and Roxanne getting married and was surprised and found it a little off-putting. I think they could have comforted each other through friendship rather than marriage.

I also found myself wondering why the Thibault's were the only other hostages included in the epilogue.

On a different topic, I'm a professional musician and I tend to avoid books with music or musicians as a focus because I often find the writing too inaccurate or too over-emotional. I did not find that to be the case for this book. However, I read an interview with the author where she said she chose an editor who was an opera lover and very knowledgeable about music and he took out many of the emotive phrases and sections where she described the music. All I could think was, thank goodness! My one quibble would be that Roxanne was a bit young to be the most famous opera star. Most women's voices are just hitting full development in their mid 30s. That's why you see women in their 50s as more likely to be singing extremely taxing roles like Wagner.

First, I should say I loved the book--it's hard for me to remember another work where so many totally different characters were both believable and unique from one another, even those who played smaller parts. I did want to know more about Beatriz, and wished for more resolution/detail about her character, but considering how many there were, that seems like a tiny complaint.

To continue from japaul's notes: I was actually really wondering how everyone reacted to all of the discussion of music, especially in the beginning. I adore opera, and really enjoyed the related passages, but one of the reasons it took me so long to get around to reading this was that I'd given a copy to my mom some years ago, and she never managed to get interested in it. When I started reading, a small part of me wondered if it could have been the opera since she doesn't enjoy it at all, live or otherwise. I've had students who can't stand "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin because of the discussions of music, so I have to wonder...

Meanwhile, I've given a lot of thought to the ending, partly because so many reviews mentioned it as being the one unsatisfying portion of the book, and because it seemed somewhat abrupt for me as well. I've got a few thoughts.... I'm okay with Gen and Roxanne ending up together partially because they went through such similar experiences towards the end of the situation, and working through it (I imagine) could lead to a sort of dependency on the one other person who could understand it, I would guess. Perhaps because I'm not entirely satisfied with this, though, it also occurred to me--is it possible that Roxanne is pregnant? I'm not sure what led me to think of this as a possibility, but once I did, something about it stuck with me, making me wonder whether that would be the extra influence pushing them toward marriage.

Assuming that the marriage isn't entirely based on traditional romantic love, regardless, it did make sense for me for the Thibaults to be present. He'd been the only one, towards the end of the situation, that was still wishing ardently for the outside, and totally lost in his own love of his wife. In fact, he may have been the only one who was ever clearly mentioned as being totally lost in a romantic love, up until the in-book romances developed. So, for me, his being there and being the other primary mention was the one part of the epilogue that made perfect sense, seeing his reaction to Gen and Roxanne.

In any case, sorry for the long post!

Regarding the ending, it also occurred to me that Gen's love, Carmen, loved Roxanne most besides Gen, and Mr. Hosokawa probably cared most for Gen after Roxanne. So in a way, Gen and Roxanne decided to love their lovers second favorite after they were gone. Does that make sense? - it was hard to write clearly!

I'm not sure if Roxanne was pregnant, but I doubt they had any birth control as hostages! Certainly possible.

Interesting observations, whitewavedarling!

I loved this book! I enjoyed the way that Patchett slowly and carefully developed the characters. It was totally believable. I came to respect and care for the terrorists, especially the youngest ones and the girls, and I so wanted them to get out of this situation safely. But, of course, I knew that would not / could not happen. As I was nearing the end of the book, I was afraid to turn the page because I knew it was coming. My heart was at the back of my throat and, yet, I was just as surprised as the hostages were. And I was very saddened at the death of Mr. H. and Carmen but realize that it was the only resolution to their situation. Had they lived they would have been separated from the love of their life forever. Gen would have had to go back to Japan and leave Carmen behind in jail or executed perhaps and Mr. H. would have gone back to his wife and his life in big business in Japan. This way they die at the height of their happiness.

However, that still leaves Gen and Roxanne. I did not buy them getting married. It doesn't ring true for me. But, I guess, from the perspective of living through such a crisis and both losing their lovers, they could relate to one another in a way that no one else could. I am unclear as to how long after their release from captivity their wedding took place, but it just didn't seem to me to be realistic.

Still, a great read! 4.5 stars

I have to agree with everyone the epilogue was utter rubbish and should have been left out.

I had no idea what the book was about when I started and when I found out it was a mass kidnapping I almost put it down thinking I might not be up for it. Then I came across the line that all the kidnappers were killed in the end and this is was made me "okay well at least it all works out". I never forgot that as I slowly got to know the kidnappers and then started to like them and almost wished I could forget having read the early line.

Overall I found it a very clever book and a wonderful read.

Finally getting a chance to catch up on everyone's posts. I really enjoyed this book and was very easily caught up in the story. The premise did seem a bit odd but somehow it worked. It was interesting to find out that it was loosely based on a true story - at least the hostage situation and the length of it, no opera singer involved.

I may be the only one who wasn't too upset with the ending. At one point early on, I had thought that they may get together, but instead they ended up with different people. To me, it made sense, in that they both completely understood what the other person had been through and nobody else would be able to truly relate to them.

In regards to the questions above about how we felt about the music descriptions. It was fascinating and yet hard to understand since opera is something I just don't understand. I have attended a couple and enjoyed them overall, but have never been so caught up in the voices or the music.

I would have liked a bit more resolution for some of the other characters, especially the pianist (can't remember his name right now).

This was a re-read for me, but I remembered only the barest of details and kept wondering how it was going to end...or how Patchett was going to avoid the inevitable ending. I did end up down-grading my rating to 4.5 stars - I found Roxanne to be too much of a diva and probably the shallowest of the characters. Maybe this is because I also am not a big fan of opera and the reasons that everyone else loved her, or lusted for her, weren’t convincing to me. I did like the parts about her singing or the other details about the music, but I wasn’t wrapped up or enamored by them.

About the ending, I was wondering if maybe all that Gen had to translate to Roxanne had an effect on his feelings towards her. I remember one scene where he had to tell Roxanne that Mr. H (or was it the Russian?) loved her and Gen realized that he had never said those words. I also think that japaul’s comments about Gen and Roxanne loving their lover’s loves makes sense. Add to that the shared history of a traumatic event and a possible pregnancy (now that whitewave said that, how could she not be?) their marriage makes sense. True, they probably are not ‘in love’ with one another and their marriage is probably not going to be a romantic one like the Thibault’s would want for them. So I guess my main beef with the epilogue is that it didn’t wrap up the story for the rest of the survivors.

22: Good point about not giving us a clue about any of the other survivors. I really wonder about the person who played the piano. Clearly his passion that was hidden before he started to play for Roxanne. Was it back to work as usual or something different?

^ I just realized the perfect ending for him...he could've been Roxanne's new accompanist. That would have wrapped things up in a nice little bow. That is sometimes the silver lining in ambiguous endings - you can choose your own futures for the characters.

Yes, the accompanist (the second one) was an interesting character. Like many of the hostages, I think he realized what was truly important to him while he was a hostage, but it's interesting to think about how many of the hostages would actually make life changes after that experience. That's easier said than done, you know? I'm kind of glad the author didn't get into all of that, though. To be done well, it would need a lot of writing - more than just an epilogue.

>20 fmgee: I thought the pacing of the suspense was really well done. At the beginning, you know things won't turn out well for at least the captors, but I really got comfortable in the middle and felt like maybe it just could go on the same way for a while and not end so badly. Then Patchett started adding little hints to remind you that the end was coming.

>25 japaul22:--it's funny what you mention about getting comfortable. Mid-way through, I was thinking about how many complaints I'd previously read regarding the ending. For a long while, my guess was that the whole problem would be a non-ending, or that the hostages would just end up living their with their captors for the long-term--I thought maybe the non-realism or lack of an ending would be what caused complaints, though it's rather what I was hoping for for a bit! I suppose that ending would be more akin to what Gabriel Garcia Marquez would do with the beginning, though...

After further thought, I think I am glad there wasn't a sort of listing of the different hostages endings, as they do so often in the multi-plotted movies like Love Actually (though I do love that movie). I like the ambiguity, and the fact that the one expected ending should they get out (Thibault being happily back with his wife) is juxtaposed against a totally unexpected one in Gen and Roxanne.