This book came highly recommended, and once I started reading, I kept thinking I had already but couldn't, for the life of me, remember how it ended. Turns out, it only seemed familiar to me because it is based on a real life experience. In 1995, the president of Peru and many of his guests were taken hostage and held for months. Bel Canto is a fictitious story based loosely on those events.

I only liked Bel Canto. I understand its appeal - the coming together of hostages and terrorists alike, but the writing was a bit too ethereal and romantic for me. SO much emphasis placed on opera, as if it's the universal band-aid. I know a lot of people that don't enjoy opera at all. In fact, a music lover myself, I'd have to admit that most of opera is an acquired taste. The hugeness of the voice, the strong vibrato and foreign languages take some getting used to. However, according to the author, there is no politician, businessman, servant or gunman that doesn't fall into a deep state of hypnosis when a soprano begins her song. I tend to think that perhaps the terrorist from a South American country, where musical tastes are a bit different, might not have been so cast under her spell, but I could be wrong. I've never thought of it as the only offered solace to a terrifying situation.

Which leads me to the other thing that I find a hard time believing. Terrorists...with guns....coming through air vents into a vice presidential palace and no one seems particularly petrified throughout it all. Again, I think this was the author's way of romanticizing the event by leaving out the crapping of pants and desperate pleas for loved ones, but everyone was annoyingly contrite and calm, even the terrorists themselves, who seemed awfully nice and understanding.

The end was appropriately tragic. I read a few reviews that described this as an example of magical realism, a genre I try and avoid so this labeling surprised me. Maybe all the lack of fear, suspended time and happy hostage household was part of it. The ending, while sad and tragic, satisfied my need for logic and realism. This event seemed to have a larger psychological effect on the survivors then the original hostage takeover. Whether or not that is realistic or not, I have no idea.

I wish she hadn't written her epilogue. It was unnecessary and unbelievable. Sort of like how all doctors on a hospital television show end up as couples, as if there were no one else in the world to date or socialize with. I did not believe or think that Gen and Roxane belonged together...even with their personal losses.

The book as a whole, however, is not void of greatness. The Russian cabinet member and his story of the box was poetic. Cesar's natural talent and love of performing made me cheer. And the inward look at most regarding their professions and priorities was very appropriate.

All combined, it makes for an enjoyable, flawed book.

Bel canto means "beautiful song," and Anne Patchett wanted to write a melodrama. Big emotions, big events, like an opera. The plot of her book seems allegorical; it's certainly not realistic, which makes it a surprise that it's based on real events. She was inspired by the Japanese embassy hostage crisis of 1996, during which a number of diplomats were taken hostage for a remarkable 126 days. She thought - I'm taking much of my information from a terrific interview at the end of the book - she thought, "You know what this story needs is an opera singer," and here we are.

What she's carved out of this lengthy hostage crisis is a utopian society: the have-nots forced to coexist with the haves in a world where art is the only diversion and the unifying force. As in the real-world crisis, people of many nationalities are gathered together. There's a translator who serves as witness. Love is found. They make beautiful songs. It's like a more hopeful take on John Fowles's The Collector.

Looming over it all is the suspicion that this probably won't end well, and it's to her credit that toward the end she actually had me half-convinced she was going to write a way out of it. (This is before I realized that it was based on a true story.) Even more surprising, I wouldn't have minded: I liked her characters so much that I would have taken any cheap excuse to see them live. They don't. The eventual "rescue" is sudden and agonizing.

It's a beautiful song, and this is the best book I've read in a while.

Such a beautifully written book. I loved the exploration of what can be conveyed without a shared language and what becomes important when our normal lives are taken away. So much here about the joys of music, small pleasures and gratitude.

[[notes]] I just watched the movie and I was kind of shocked how it made me a whole lot more emotional than reading the book itself. Julianne Moore made this story feels believable for me. Splendid casting.

——————

This book was so weird.
Made even weirder by that epilogue.

This is the first book I read that I did not like the epilogue.

I just didn't feel 'danger' or 'passion' for that matter. It didn't jump off the page for me. I wouldn't have finished it at all if I wasn't ill with the flu. You know, lethargy and all. That was the only reason I didn't mark this as dnf.

The voices in this had this flat tone to them which was strange considering a large chunk of the book talked about singing and opera and passion. I think at times it veered into this sort of fatasy land. Maybe it's the author’s real intention to show us how Stockholm Syndrome felt? Possibly though I'm not sure. I just cannot really see how everyone could love opera that much. Because everyone in this LOVED opera THAT MUCH.

It felt like the author didn't follow through and just left a lot of things out. I mean a lot!. Disoriented was a fitting description of how i felt after turning the last page. I was actually laughing but then I have a tendency to laugh when things got too preposterous. I wouldn't say it was that in this case but it got pretty close.

Of course, it was devastating for kidnappers and kidnappees alike. But I felt almost no sadness for any of them when the rescue happened since I already knew the outcome anyway, the author told us early on.

The end of the hostage situation and the epilogue have this gaping hole left open. And there's a disconnect between those two events that I wish we got to get a glimpse of, if not a chapter.

I still to this day, a week later, wonder why the author didn't just show us.

This is a very unusual, dreamlike, strangely romantic book, which proceeds in a slow-paced, unpredictable fashion. I admire Patchett’s ability to flit seamlessly from one character’s POV to another, and I found her insightful, compassionate approach to be involving and sometimes mesmerizing.

There were some issues with pacing, but overall I feel confident that this creative and imaginative take on a hostage crisis will only grow more enjoyable as I continue to think about it.

Beautiful, engaging and perfectly told story of the clash between a young group of terrorists and their hostages.

How could a wanna-read-bad TBR turn into a sorry-ass DNF?

WTF? DNF! OMG!

WTF?
Who AM I? I finish every book I start, yet I did not finish this one! And I LOVE Ann Patchett! Her State of Wonder is one of my all-time favorite books! What the fuck is going on?

DNF!
I’m having a serious crisis here. Have I thought this out carefully? Can I really pull off abandoning this book? I must do it. Calm down. It’s okay. Listen to your friends who whisper, “It’s fine….let go…” A zillion other books are beckoning. Yes, life is too short to keep reading something you hate. If I repeat that last sentence enough times, I’ll start believing it, right?

OMG!
Oh my god, I did it! I DNF’d it, and I didn’t die! (A weird feeling still remains, however.)

I’m so speechless about throwing this book out the window that I’ve resorted to acronyms to express myself, blurting out clumps of capital letters and exclamation points. Usually I rely on strong verbs and a chain of touchy adjectives, but here, no. I just have unpronounceable cap combos. Now that’s bad.

Let’s start with the fact that yes, I’ve been dying to read this. The title, however, shooed me away for a long while; I hate opera and all its bel-canto-ness. Then a friend assured me that it wasn’t about opera, that it was about a terrorist attack with a bunch of hostages. So I ignored my title hatred and rubbed my hands in glee. Who doesn’t like a good hostage story, as long as it’s in the hands of a pro? And I knew Patchett’s a pro.

I don’t know how she did it, but Patchett managed to make a terrorist attack boring. I didn’t get a sense of mad confusion or terror; it all seemed muted and sort of civilized. And eventually, many of the terrorists become nice guys. I know she wanted to show their humanity but she went overboard.

And my biggest complaint is that she told us immediately who wins in the end. Completely ruined it for me! The fun is in wondering how it turns out. I don’t know what she was thinking, seriously.

I don’t like opera, as I’ve said. Surely there would have been at least a few hostages and terrorists who didn’t like it either. But no, every single person seemed to be transported to la-la land when the little songbird opened her mouth. If it were me lying on the floor, surrounded by armed terrorists, I would be bemoaning not only my questionable fate, but also the fact that I was stuck in a room listening to non-stop eardrum-shattering high-pitched screeching. Just my luck, I’d be thinking. It would disrupt any calming thoughts I was working on, it would take away any chance I had of internal peace. I’d be begging the terrorists for ear plugs.

The characters were lifeless and boring and I didn’t care an iota about any of them, much in the same way I don’t give a shit about cardboard.

The only thing I liked was imagining a whole group of people lying face up and motionless on the floor, having conversations while looking at the ceiling. This unique scenario seemed trippy, and I loved thinking about horizontal chit-chat.

Somehow Patchett managed to take the tense out of terrorism, no easy feat! It was pure torture to pick this book up, and I only made it halfway through.

I wanted so much to love this book, and god knows I didn’t want to abandon it. I wanted the reality to be different. I didn’t want my love of Ann Patchett tainted. Because now whenever I think of the sweet State of Wonder, I’ll also think of the sour Bel Canto. Very sad.

Of course Patchett is a skilled writer. The language is eloquent and there is some insight. But seriously, I just didn’t give a damn.

This is a weird and beautiful book about machine guns, chopping onions, and opera singers. Check your disbelief at the door and enjoy the language. I don't care for the ending -- but it was worth it anyway. Lovely writing.


***wondering why all my reviews are five stars? Because I'm only reviewing my favorite books -- not every book I read. Consider a novel's presence on my Goodreads bookshelf as a hearty endorsement. I can't believe I just said "hearty." It sounds like a stew.****

I was only 3 when Patty Hearst showed up on TV toting a semi automatic weapon looking bewildered and stylish in a ¾ length leather belted coat. Do I remember this? Hell no, I was three, but later… you know when I was like eight or nine and I would think it was so cool that she was brainwashed---what an interesting word--- and I’d have Barbie kidnap Skipper and force her to drop her frumpy ways and really live the lie…, I mean life. Sorry.

So, what does that have to do with this? Well, I guess you could say that I was intrigued with the whole idea of Stockholm Syndrome way before I knew it had a name. Just imagine becoming emotionally attached to people that held you hostage. Isn’t that a bit fucked up? Duh. (As my 4 year old would say)

So, Bel Canto, while the characters and events are mostly fictionalized, was based on an actual hostage situation in Peru in 1996. Where 72 people men were held up in the Japanese Ambassador’s home for 126 days. I must have been living under a rock, because I do not remember this… you think that something like this would have stuck, you know? I’m sure I was too wrapped up in my glee that Judge Judy was now being syndicated. Whoo.

Can you imagine living with terrorists for 4 and ½ months? My god, I can’t imagine that the same level of fear is maintained. I would think that you would start to develop a relationship with these kids (yes, they were basically children) and start to feel that this is what your life has become. And so it goes in Bel Canto , these characters, hostages and terrorists are introduced systematically throughout the beginning of the ordeal and Patchett does a good job of fleshing them out and getting us attached. To a point. I think that this is one of those books where your opinion of it will vary depending on where you are in your life. I can see this book leaving different impressions on someone who maybe has just found new love and someone who is jaded by relationships. Moreover, I think that this could determine just how much you liked this book. I’ve teetered between 2, 3 and 4 starts in just the few days since I’ve finished it.

This is most definitely a chick lit book. You’ve got the Soprano who has men falling at her feet (almost literally) every time she belts one out, you’ve got the young idealists who, of course, are beautiful and destined for a tragic outcome… and you’ve got the older, more elegant group of men, pining for love lost and all that. Something for every taste, I suppose.

The appeal of a good book is how long and hard it stays with you. When I finished this, I was eager to share the story with my friends and family but as the days wore on, the shine was lost and I started to see the faults and the hackneyed plot. I miss the first day when I was caught up in the story and lamenting the outcome.

Why can’t it always be like that?

"There were others...who would have said, if asked, that opera was a collection of nonsensical cat screechings, that they would much rather pass three hours in a dentist's chair. These were the ones who wept openly now, the ones who had been so mistaken."
Yeah that would be me, avoiding a book about music and opera. Not for me? So mistaken. This is a beautifully told story full of wonder and love. The characters feel so authentic, my heart just swells and breaks for them. Ben fato, signora Patchet, belissimo!

I have read a few of this author's books now and I know what to expect. Perfect prose, well defined characters, a slow rambling story like a stroll in a beautiful park. And more often than not a difficult ending.

Bel Canto demonstrates all of those characteristics. Reading it was a real pleasure and the author did not put a foot wrong literary wise. All of the characters are well defined and by the end they become people you know and some like Gen you really want to meet.

Then there is the ending. Just for once I thought the author was going to get it right. It was traumatic yet expected and almost a relief when it arrived. Then she added an epilogue which was most definitely not required. It was just wrong. I can vaguely see what she was aiming for but it was still wrong.

Four stars for a beautiful book which would have been five if I could just mentally unsee that epilogue!

I really, really enjoyed this book. I love her writing style and I loved the way the story flowed all the way until the end. It felt super abrupt - but I guess that's how life goes sometimes too. I loved the themes of adaptation, of love, of change, of escape (literally from the life you were living one moment before), and the push and pull between relationships. Oh and it totally made me want to go to an opera.