Art, love and a terrorist attack. Sounds intriguing, doesn't it? I, certainly, approve of the juxtaposition - politicians and opera divas entrapped by guerrilla fighters in a villa, in some undefined South American country, getting affected by the Stockholm syndrome by minute. Sadly it wasn't what I expected.

The opening sequence is captivating, but from then on, the plot becomes scarce and progresses forward at a speed of a glacier. The usual character build-up gets nowhere. As a result, characters' motives and behaviors remain largely unexplained throughout the novel, making it hard if not impossible to identify with any. And all further attempts at revealing what makes these individuals tick only skim the surface of their emotional life, leaving them seem cartoonish and flat. Consequently when both captors and prisoners have sudden revelations (Prompted by what exactly? Boredom? It's never fully explained...), we're told to trust their words and random declarations of love. Not all that satisfying, to tell you the truth. Shouldn't the author make me care for and believe the characters? Why am I asked to take that leap of faith. It's a lot to ask, if one's not a romantic at heart. But I'm ranting.

Back to Bel Canto. Towards the end the action picks up a little, FINALLY creating a moment of suspense. But even that fails miserably, as the outcome is predictable and delivered too abrupt. To top it all (Oh, why, Ann Tyler, why?!!) you're given a sappy and uninspiring epilogue. Why was this awarded an Orange Prize? I clearly must be missing something...

Looking back, I'm surprised I stuck with this book till the very end. Usually I have no qualms whatsoever about aborting a book. With Bel Canto, I was determined to persevere, to be able to count it towards one of the reading challenges. Bad judgement on my account, could have gone with some other book.

I mostly choose to try reading this book because someone I like told me it'd be good, and definitely made it sound interesting. When I looked at it individually, I wasn't that interested, and I stopped reading about after 100 pages.

The characters seem uniform (except for the Mr. Hosokowa). Somehow, they became flat. It feels like there's no distinction between gender eventually, and the small quirks that separate each person start to fade out under all the jabbering about the opera singer. Exhausted, worried, bored, depressed hostages would probably not be considering a woman's beauty that much. I can imagine something else happening in a room full of men, isolated for weeks (months, or whatever it might be by the end), with a single, well-dressed woman they keep thinking about. I don't know if that happens, and I'm not really inspired to know. Just too much repetition.. There is not much happening, literally, or psychologically.

I also doubt everyone would be so heavily interested in opera, and be so unconcerned about their lives. I can see people being passive a lot of the time, and that they would only get truly scared when they're life is actually threatened, but I don't see them being so casual like this. Everyone has their common knowledge of what a tired, deprived body feels like. I know I wouldn't think about men, art, or a few other things if I were in this state, no matter how much I love them. It just loses a sense of reality.. Makes me roll my eyes..

I did enjoy Bel Canto. I found it to be a very pretty book in writing and plot. The characters each had something about them that appealed to me as a reader and made me associate with them. I enjoyed the idea that music (more specifcally opera) was the one thing that they all understood no matter what country they were from nor which side they were on. Though I do not know opera, it was easy to associate the devotion these people had to music to other things in my life which made relating to the expressive style of writing a tad easier.

Understandably everyone knew how the story would end (minus one or two minor suprises) and I'm not sure if that made it better or worse. I like to think that a happy ending for everyone would have been possible, but then, like so many other stories that end with tragedy, I am not certain the book would have had the same force had things ended in a fairy tale type sense.

The most interesting thing perhaps about Bel Canto, for me, is the fact that although I don't really have anything negative to say about it, I don't have anything overly positive either. I like it, but I certianly didn't love it. I am happy I read it (as I don't feel that it was a waste of my time) but I would not have ever felt that this was a book I just had* to read. The one thing that I truly remember from it was Gen and I found him to be a very interesting character and one of the better flushed out one. Perhaps, in the end, that is the problem: though each character is given their moment and has their uniqueness about them, none of them ever truly came alive to me. More than anything the idea of opera and music did. Maybe that is what was sought after, or maybe not.

All in all, in my order of books, this would be a middle of the road one I feel.

What an absolute marvelous novel! The story, the people, the exceptional setting just blew me away. I could go into detail, but everyone should just read this book! Ann Patchett’s sentences flow with beauty and wit.

This oddly structured pageturner from Ann Patchett fuses opera and a hostage crisis–and surprisingly, it works.

This novel is like a perfect little slice of The Magic Mountain. Melancholy, yet infused with the beauty of the world; the glorious potential of life. How can such a perfect novel falter so fatally in the final few pages? The short epilogue is truly misguided, and almost undermines the rest of the novel.

Let me preface this review by saying that I know this a disproportionately emotional review, but it's my review and my emotions and it is what it is.

In 1996, the home of the Japanese ambassador to Peru was taken hostage by guerillas during a party and held for 126 days until the home was raided by military force killing all the insurgents, many executed after they surrendered. At a time when Peru suffered an undercurrent of terrorist activity, president Fujimori was praised for his handling of the crisis and his approval rating soared. Since then, the commanders in the Peruvian army have been on trial for homicide but granted amnesty because they were praised as national heros. President Fujimori himself is in prison for human rights violations, not from this incidence, but still an interesting side note since those loss of rights are linked to his low tolerance for terrorist activity. A very interesting story that happened in Peru, a country with a name and a history more interesting than opera, but this I'm afraid was not that story.

It upset me to realize that Patchett was using a piece of Peruvian history with no intention of telling a story of Peru or its political unrest or even including a proper description of the country. She only refers to "the host country" or "this godforsaken country" in a vague brush of one of those South American countries that aren't very important or distinct. Did she neglect to put Peru in the story because it defames the country or really is it that they just aren't interesting enough to her? I know I shouldn't be offended that she dedicated this whole book to an opera singer who wasn't even part of the crisis and even gave it an Italian name, but a little bit I am. Even the "about the book" section is dedicated all to loving opera without a mention to the actual crisis that inspired the events.

There is a passage in the book about Roxane, the opera singer, singing a Czech piece and Gen, the translator, notes the distinction between knowing the words and speaking the language and only someone who spoke the language would see the lack of understanding. Maybe my reading this book was a little like that. I felt like I was reading two books simultaneously. The one about opera with vague, inaccurate concepts of an unnamed Peru where, if I had let Patchett guide my visual picture of the book I would have imagined the Von Trapp house stuck in the middle of the Amazon jungle. And the other of what I know about Peru and the crisis situation, trying to meld that visual to this story.

I realize that this is a piece of fiction and Patchett has the artistic license to write a fictional description of the crisis anyway she wishes, but I didn't like the story she chose to tell. A hostage situation is intense, but even the takeover she stretches through wanderings of the love of opera and manages to dull it so that not even the hostages seem anything other than mildly putout. Maybe it's because I'm not a opera lover (there are opera pieces I enjoy, but as a whole it's not something I seek out), but I found it unbelievable that all these people (most of them men) would be so mesmerized by an opera singer and all of them fall in love with her and her music. I felt as though Patchett was using this story as a vehicle to force me to love opera and me on the other side of the pages resists for nothing more than the force of her request.

It took me over 200 pages to get into this 300-page story and the only thing that eventually drew me in and saved it was the relationships between the hostages and their captors. In a normal setting I may not have believed it, but I did of the generally humble Peruvians, which is why the country should have been vital to the story. It took Patchett awhile to get there, but eventually I did like the characters. Even though I knew how it would end, I was anxious for the conclusion, to avoid inevitable tragedy. I could have done without the epilogue that was unnecessary and cheap. If Patchett wanted to include an epilogue, maybe she should have included one about the actual events. Or maybe it's all too appropriate that Peru was ignored. Okay, I'm done with my Peruvian inferiority complex over here. Feel free to talk about the actual story in your review or in the comments section.

1.5 stars, somewhere between a book prevented from being a great story and a book that upset me according to my own star ratings. I did find some merit in the book by the end, but it wasn't enough to overcome Patchett's inability to research her setting.

I love the writing of American author Ann Patchett. She can write brilliantly about human relationships and how they are forged... no matter what the situation or historical context. She makes it look easy but only an experienced writer of her caliber, can pull it off so well. Ten year ago, 14 members of an activist guerrilla group captured over 600 hostages in Lima, Peru. Ms. Patchett has based her novel loosely on what she imagined happened during the intense hostage hold-out that lasted four months. A very rough and bloody encounter of Peruvian history told in a beautiful, sensitive way. Good for Book club discussions.

There are a lot of themes here, opera and the bel canto tradition of singing, a siege by a group of exceptionally gifted terrorists in a south American country, communication difficulties between a group of people thrown together without a common language, impossible love affairs between unlikely characters.
Patchett handles some of these themes convincingly, for example, the beautiful voice of the soprano reaching into the souls of the other characters and awakening feelings previously unsuspected in their depths. But as is the case in most operas, credibility was stretched quite a bit throughout the tale, not least by the almost complete absence of violence between the dozen or so kidnappers and their forty plus hostages, all confined within a small space for more than three months.
The pace was painfully slow at times, perhaps reflecting the stagnant nature of the siege but the writing was excellent.

The plot of this book is almost like the response to an improvisational cue: “an opera singer and a terrorist – go!” It is so much more than a story of a singer, a group of terrorists, and diplomats being held hostage. If you are looking for an action-packed terrorist takeover thriller, seek it elsewhere. This story is more about human relationships.

A group of multinational diplomats, politicians, and business executives have gathered to celebrate the birthday of a Japanese electronics magnate being courted for the economic benefits he can bring to this unnamed South American country. The honoree, Katsumi Hosokawa, is accompanied by his translator. The highlight of the event involves an exclusive performance by a famous American opera singer, soprano Roxane Coss. Hosokawa has agreed to be honored at the luxurious home of the Vice President of the country, primarily to hear Miss Coss, his favorite opera singer. An unexpected hostage situation develops when revolutionaries invade the mansion. Their demands are initially denied, and an impasse ensues. As time passes, discipline among the revolutionaries becomes lax. Lines between the abductors and hostages blur, and unlikely relationships begin to form. A human drama unfolds, where emotional and psychological factors come into play. Of course, at some point the real world will have to be confronted.

About half way through, I had an epiphany. The book is not really about what is going on in the story. It is a comment on what makes us human, a moving portrait of what separates us and what brings us together, beautifully illustrated by the interactions among the terrorists and hostages. Themes include the transformative power of music, the need to be understood, the desire to learn, the need to connect, and the importance of teamwork. These people, thrown together by chance, build a subculture. Time becomes fluid. Consequences are forgotten. The beauty of music draws them together. They take time to reflect. Some turn to religion, some to philosophical discussions. They interact and find common bonds. Initially, everyone is concerned about being able to communicate in the traditional manner, and the translator is in demand. Eventually, the language barrier dissolves and they find other meaningful ways to communicate – gestures, actions, mutual appreciation of music, and even romantic love. It seeks to explore the common humanity among very different people.

The book starts off a bit slowly to formulate the relationships, but about half way through all the pieces start coming together. My only issue with it was the inclusion of an epilogue, which I thought detracted from the primary message. Recommended to readers that enjoy stories of the transformative power of music and love to bring people together, even in extreme circumstances.

It seems some people were disappointed in this book because they thought it would be based on an actual event that took place in South America in which a house full of V.I.P.'s were taken hostage for 126 days by terrorists. It is not based on that event, but rather inspired by it.

Others think this book is about Stockholm syndrome. I disagree.

Patchett obviously was sitting at her desk one day and wondered what could happen when a large group of strangers were forced to live together for that amount of time. That, and the fact that many of the terrorists were only young teenagers, gave Patchett's imagination much to draw from.

The result is brilliant. I must say I enjoyed every minute. I definitely plan to read more books by this wonderful author.

What a journey! It took me a long time to read this book, and there were great gaps in my efforts. Reading was an effort, for a long time a slog, because it is a slow story. I read another book in between the first and second halves. This is not fair, but it’s what I did. And the story and characters are so vivid they maintained a reality inside me even during the gaps.

By the end, I was floored. This is a great book! And reading it was as slow as real life, but, like real life, I’m glad I lived it.