Bel Canto

A Literary Masterpiece

Ms Patchett has successfully extends writing techniques developed by Jose Saramago (Nobel Prize in Portugal) and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. If you liked Blindness or One Hundred Years of Solitude you will love this book. Bel Canto is a masterpiece of writing with a very controlled technique that doesn't waver throughout the book. It tells the story of a disparate group of people taken hostage in a botched attempt to abduct the president of an unnamed South American country. The setting is the palatial home of the country's vice president where a famous soparano has come to sing as a birthday president for a Japanese industrialist. The author manages to easily juggle numerous points of view simultaneously and seamlessly so the story is told sympathetically threw the eyes of the terrorists and the hostages. The story is suspenseful but requires close reading and also workes as an unusual love story.

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Bel Canto: Required Reading

Bel Canto was a book assigned to me in a college English class focused on novels. This was the most traditional novel in the course yet the story was one of the most original. Bel Canto is a love story on every level. The plot revolves around a group of party goers taken hostage by South American rebels. The characters are complex and although they are all very different people they form close bonds, overcoming language barriers, the barrier of hostage taker and hostage, and socioeconomic barriers. Love is the catalyst that brings them together. Although this is a love story, its not a traditional love story. It is sometimes sensual but there are all kinds of love in Bel Canto. A good read.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Another Excellent Ann Patchett novel

I loved this book as much as I loved the other one I read by Ann Patchett: The Magician's Assistant. I was hooked on the first page. There is love, humor, conflict, etc. The situation is very unique, and to talk about it might spoil the surprise for you. I felt a little let down by the ending, but maybe it's just because I didn't want the book to end.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Passionate Fate by Traci

Centered on the basics of Operatic Style, Bel Canto, is a well-written, passionate novel of chance. By including love, lust, and tragedy, Ann Patchett created this intense, lyrical novel. The events entailed within this novel are slightly based on true events which occurred during December 1996. For four months, 14 terrorists held hostages captive inside the Japanese Embassy of Lima, Peru. The novel depicts the passion and anger many of the hostages might have felt during those four months. The novel was directly inspired by the hostage's captivity.

Starring Opera's famous Soprano, Roxanne Coss, Bel Canto opens with a bang. Katsumi Hosokawa had been in love with Roxanne's powerful voice since he developed his love of Opera. Today, he is a powerful owner of a Japanese Electronic company. Hosokawa's birthday was that evening. He wanted to celebrate and spend the evening listening to the beautiful melodies of Roxanne's voice. Hosokawa held his party at the mansion of the Vice-President of South America. Roxanne began singing one of the many pieces found in her repertoire. When suddenly, the lights go out, and the 200 foreign diplomats soon find themselves hostages of an unlikely group of young terrorists under the command of General Benjamin.

The novel expands from that evening and continues for four months. The hostages eventually learn that they need to help one another in order to get through this crisis. The terrorists would not allow them to leave the mansion. They were watched cautiously. Many of the hostages began bonding with each other and formed friendships. Even the cold-hearted industrialist Mr. Hosokawa used his love of Opera to teach him how to socialize with other people. He forges a friendship with his idol Roxanne Coss. She also found it in her diva character to associate with other people.

Through the four months, the captives are eventually granted more privileges from the terrorists. As ironic as it may be, the terrorists also befriend their hostages. Many of the people found inside the mansion change their demeanor. Those who were once shy and timid such as Ishmael learn to let their own voice be heard. The translator Gen Watanabe also learns to speak for himself and doesn't allow the language barrier found between the 200 foreign diplomats affect him. He finds his voice among the multiple languages he communicated with.

Overall, Bel Canto is based on fate. Many of the characters were polar opposites, but with the given circumstances, they find their soul mates. Only with fate could a powerful professional man like Gen Watanabe fall in love with a young terrorist from a small village in Latin America. Destiny also brought Katsumi Hosokawa and Roxanne Coss together. Their friendship blossomed into an intense loving relationship with the hands of fate.

3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

An achingly beautiful story

This is a story that remain in your heart long after you finish the last word. A timeless classic.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Gorgeous

Bel Canto is beautifully written and the characters enthrall you!! This novel grabbed my attention and I became utterly consumed in the lives of these characters--which rarely happens. If you like a slower paced book and a well-written novel, then this book is well worth it.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

An excellent book

This book was woderful to read. I hated for the last chapter to come and for the magic to be broken. It is one of the few books I have read piece by piece so I could savor it like a fine wine.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Such a great story.

This is one of my all time favorites. The writing is excellent.
A great story cleverly told that tells of a group of hostages and
their relationships with their captors. Stockholm syndrome displyaed.
The characters are so real you feel as thought you are there with them.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

sublime

This is a perfect novel.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Enjoyed the writing style, the premise, not so much

Mixed feelings about this book. The writing is commendable. Passages are so full-bodied that, at times, the reader is lulled into a satisfied, dream-like state. What is pictured by the mind lingers. But, the pace is so panstakingly slow and the premise so unrealistic that one loses interest in the beauty of the written word and ends up just wanting to finish the book to see what happens.

I really was hooked from page one of this novel. It's truly a gr

I really was hooked from page one of this novel. It's truly a gripping piece of literature. What I found amazing about the story was how although the characters speak different languages and come from different backgrounds, the language of music brings them together. It's quite a remarkable book. It should be apparent to anyone familiar with opera who the main character is based on. I wish the ending was different. (I never bought into the relationship that occurs.) But, it's overall one of the best novels I've read in ages.

Tough to put down

I loved this book, the intertwined relationships and situation. While a bit longer than it perhaps needed to be, well worth buying and reading. Like others, I was disappointed at the ending but maybe because I didn't want to finish the book.

Ups and downs

Most books have good and bad parts, but Bel Canto really had it's ups and downs. On the good side, it had some very relatable characters that you wanted the story to end well for. It was well written, and quite descriptive. On the down side, it was a decent storyline, with a quite abrupt ending. At times, the description drew on a little too long, and grew boring. Overall, it wasn't the best book I've ever read, but it wasn't a bad read either.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Bel Canto

Great book, but the ending didn't seem true to the characters.

Irresistable!

Ann Patchett is an amazingly skilled writer! Her characters are so diverse and painstakingly nuanced she has a real knack for putting the reader in the thick of it. I can see how some people may have found it boring, the 'action' of the capture happens very early in the book and is over just as quickly, but for me even though the more you learn about the characters and how their relationships with each other evolve the pages just kept flying by! I felt desperate to find out how the situation would end. This book will stay with me for a long time

Slow moving

Somewhat interesting. Just very slowmoving.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

BORING & DRAWN OUT!

I love reading and was looking forward to reading this novel. A total waste of time and money. It would have been a good short story. The first few pages were decent and it had a good premise. However, it was so drawn out and kept repeating the same dialogue over and over... I kept waiting for something to happen...and it did at the very end. If you could just read the first few pages and the last few, it would not have been so bad. Do not waste your time or money on this novel.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Must read

Beatifu story of people of all sorts finding love in a crisis

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Thumbs down

Melodramatic, wouldn't have even finished it if I hadn't paid for it. The ending is very predictable. Hard to believe this won an award for fiction.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Slow, boring, grossly over-rated

Very disappointed in light of public reviews. The book was slow. Took me a lot longer to read than most books because I just wasn't that interested I guess. I cannot figure out why the book was so highly rated? Don't waste your time.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.