I just couldn't do it! The premise was great, the writing was swallowable, but the story! The painful, painful story. There was no character that I truly cared about, and when the "hostages" became "free" or whatever I threw the book across the room and there it has remained ever since. A hefty dust bunny now resides atop. I'd rather read Better Homes and Gardens than finish this one.

"Bel Canto" may be one of the top ten books I've read this year. It is absolutely beautifully written and very gripping. I really felt like I was there and that I was getting to know the characters as they got to know each other. I felt like one of them. Without giving anything away, I was totally surprised and shocked by the ending. However, in retrospect, I realized that it really couldn't have ended any other way. I recommend "Bel Canto" for everyone.

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Added August 28, 2009:

I was listening to the radio today. The local talk show hosts were interviewing a man who deprograms cult members. (This was in regards to the Jaycee Dugard case.) He was talking a bit about the Stockholm Syndrome. It suddenly struck me that Ann Patchett managed something quite extraordinary with this book. She made the reader experience the Stockhold Syndrome. We go right along with the hostages in identifying with the terrorists that are holding them hostage. How very sneaky of her.

Ann Patchett writes a novel with an interesting and imaginative story about a kidnapping that asks the reader to suspend their disbelief and delve into the magic of the story that tells of love developing between seemingly different people and the romance that occurs despite the situation that the characters find themselves in.

2.5 rating

Opera, more than any other art form, has the sheer muscle and magnitude to pull us into another world, and while that world may be as fraught with heartache as our own, it is infinitely more gorgeous. (Ann Patchett)

The founder of the largest electronics company in Japan, Mr. Hosokawa, is invited to a party in South America to celebrate his birthday. Not being a huge fan of traveling abroad, the only reason Mr. Hosokawa accepted the invitation is because the famous opera singer, Roxane Coss, is attending. The evening starts out wonderful. Mr. Hosokawa has brought his interpreter, Gen, to translate for him. Everyone appears to be having a wonderful time until a loud noise is heard, and a large group of armed terrorists take over.

What began as an attempt to kidnap the South American president (who was not in attendance) results in a four-month hostage takeover. However, as the days, weeks, and months pass, bonds are formed, not only with the hostages but also with the terrorists. Unfortunately, what this group does not realize is that this party is inevitably going to end in tragedy.

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I would not call this book a page turner. It is a very slow burn read, but I do adore Ann Patchett, so I pursued until the end. My favorite part of the novel was the excerpt at the end, which explained how her love of opera music inspired this book .

I have never read a book like this before.

The story opens at a party in an unspecified South American country. The guests include Japanese businessmen, French diplomats, the vice-president of the host country (the president didn't attend the party because he had to watch his soap opera), and the opera singer Roxane Coss. During the party, terrorists invade the house and take all two hundred guests hostage.
The terrorists came for the president, and since he's not there, decided to keep the guests hostage in the vice-president's mansion until their demands are met.
The guests are held hostage in the house for four months. During that time, escape is difficult, but definitely not impossible, but no one tries to leave. And really, why would they? They're trapped in a mansion, with food delivered daily by the police outside the walls, watched over by surprisingly civilized terrorists (most of whom are about fifteen years old), with a Swiss negotiatior to bring them soap and newspapers. One of the hostages is a translator who's fluent in every language spoken by the assorted international hostages, and they have a woman who sings opera for them every day.
The desriptions in the book were beautiful, especially when the author describes Roxane Coss singing. It made me want to go to an opera, something that doesn't happen often. The story is unique and surprisingly touching, and I really enjoyed it. The ending was the only part of the book I didn't absolutely love, and that's the only reason this doesn't get five stars. Everything else about the story is beautiful in the most unexpected way.

First read 2008
Rereading (audiobook) 2024

Stay With This One. It's Worth It.
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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" isn't excessive to describe the talent of author, Ann Patchett. I wondered how she came up with such a remarkable and unique story, but then learned she'd been influenced by actual events involving a hostage situation in Peru. Patchett goes far beyond the headlines and enters the minds of the players on both sides. It's a fascinating story and a rewarding and entertaining character study.

The first 100+ pages were slow going as the stage is set; however, the ennui I experienced while reading helped me relate to the monotony of daily life experienced by the guests of a party, who'd been taken hostage in a failed attempt to kidnap the President of a South American country. The country, unnamed in the story, is a developing, Spanish-speaking nation. The party, hosted by the Vice President, is a birthday party for a Japanese businessman. It is filled with an International guest list, including the famous and enormously talented opera soprano, Roxanne Coss. Virtually everyone in the room, both hostage and captor, falls in love with her during the four-month siege. The story picks up speed when two distinct love stories begin, one between Roxanne and one of her admirers, and another, which focuses on the second-most sought-after talent possessed by a multi-lingual interpreter, a Japanese named Gen. Each, along with several intriguing subplots, led to the building of a unique story and ultimately satisfying climax.

The ending comes quickly and shook me to my core. It was not unexpected and yet it still made me cry. And then there's a surprise, which after a lot of thought, made perfect sense. Brava Ms. Patchett. My highest recommendation.

The premise of this book was very intriguing to me. A group of people, all from different countries, are at a presidential dinner party in an unnamed country, when revolutionaries storm the house and take everyone hostage. What ensues is a nearly 6-month long captivity for 39 men and 1 woman plus 15 "terrorists". I thought this would be a fantastic tale, full of rich characters...since they're all stuck in a house for 6 months there's bound to be some great stories (or backstories or something), right? I must say I was pretty unhappy with the character development. I felt like I didn't really get to know anybody very well, the love stories were very contrived and forced, the ending was incredibly anti-climatic and then really bizarre. I wasn't even sure about the motives of the revolutionaries, the author spoke in vague generalities about "freedom for the people" and I found myself asking, 'freedom from what'? And the ending...after nearly 6 months of captivity, the resolution (I use that term very loosely here) is written in less than two pages!! I kept reading because I was hoping for more details and a deeper feeling, but unfortunately neither one came to me.

I have no words to express my thoughts on BEL CANTO, but Pat Conroy on pages 173 and 174 of the large print edition of A LOWCOUNTRY HEART:REFLECTIONS ON A WRITING LIFE beautifully reflects my feelings with the following words.

"But for me, Ann Patchett went to the top of the class when she published Bel Canto, a book that knocked my socks off...Ann Patchett did that wondrous, walking-on-water kind of thing- she created a whole world that contained grand opera, the revolutionary spirit always alive and close to the surface in Latin America, a siege, a story of Shakespearean grandeur, unbearable tension that built up with the turning of every page, a savage denouement, love stories haunted by the approach of death...I had literature all over my hands and face when I finished that book. I thought then and I think now it's one of the best novels I ever read or ever hope to read in my life. High praise? Yes, but joyfully given."
- Pat Conroy

So beautiful. I have only one question: which of Ann Patchett books to read next?

Dull, unlovable characters, flat language...

I wanted to like this book; really I did! A hostage situation? Beautiful people with their lives at stake? It sounded like a recipe for success. Patchett, however, took a good thing and smashed it into the ground. She bit off more than she could chew and both character and plot development suffered for it. It was as though she would actually have a good thought and then go: "wait, I need to explain the background of this good thought," go on a 3 page tangent, lose the thought that she had, and continue sucking.

This review is harsh, to be sure, but it seems all the books I'm picking up lately are just boring, boring, boring.

C'mon literary world! Give us something we can really get lost in!

I loved the characters and the writing but unfortunately, the story didn't convinve me. Too many things in the plot that I thought were either unnecessary (the love story between Gen and Carmen for example) or under-developped (the political goals of the rebels). And the epilogue was way too 'Hollywood' for my taste.
2.5*