Bel Canto
by Ann Patchett
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ann PatchettEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-08-02
ISBN: 0060838728
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780060838720
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Bel Canto
Book Review: Bonjour, Tristesse
Summary: 4 Stars
There's a melody that runs through Ann Patchett's "Bel Canto," faint at times, bombastic at others, but always there among the ferment of the words. It's the sound of the author trying to sing her story, straining to squeeze the same intangible qualities from language that make music the stuff of heavenly yearning. She succeeds as far as she can. But inadvertently or not she demonstrates the limitations of language for framing and exposing human emotion.
Not that "Bel Canto" doesn't resonate with the force of love, death, and all the striving that goes on between the two. As a work of literature it mostly succeeds, weaving with skillful earnestness a tale of terrorism and its consequences in the opulent setting of a South American Vice President's mansion. In the midst of a reception for a valued Japanese businessman, a band of left wing guerillas burst up through the building's air vents, intent on taking the nation's President hostage. But the President isn't there. That leaves the Vice President and an international assortment of prominent personages as the gang's booby prize, the next best ace to leverage their demands for social equality.
There's an unstated knowledge from the beginning of this ordeal among all involved that this will end badly. But that doesn't stop life, and love, from continuing its eternal rhythms and transformations. The hostages and their captors pass through various stages as the months progress, from terror through boredom and acquiescence, and on into a bizarre appreciation of each other and the life they create in the coccoon they share away from the real world. If there was ever a case to be made for the positive implications of Stockholm Syndrome, Patchett makes it in "Bel Canto".
It's all compelling stuff, but the theme the author hammers home, the subject constantly on her mind, is the redemptive power of music. Mr. Hosokawa, the Japanese businessmen, has been enticed to this reception by the promise of being entertained by international opera diva Roxanne Coss, whose matchless voice has provided him an oasis of color and beauty in an otherwise grinding existence. Patchett lingers for long passages over Hosokawa's raptures, Coss's divine gifts, and the celestial heights to be gained the the attainment of one perfect pitch.
If this sounds over the top, it is. And it's unclear whether Patchett means it to be. Clearly the story is an opera in thin disguise, complete with tragic ending and timeless passion. But the author sometimes tries way too hard to worship music by telling rather than showing. This is a fine novel. But when Patchett is at her most self-consciously ecstatic, she udermines the power of novels rather than extolling that of music.
But no matter. The point is still well taken. Languages come and go, politics ebb and flow, lovers live and die. But music goes beyond all these exigencies. For the flesh and blood characters in the book, and for the reader, it guides the way to God.
Summary of Bel Canto
Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of the powerful businessman Mr. Hosokawa. Roxanne Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerized the international guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening -- until a band of gunwielding terrorists takes the entire party hostage. But what begins as a panicked, life-threatening scenario slowly evolves into something quite different, a moment of great beauty, as terrorists and hostages forge unexpected bonds and people from different continents become compatriots, intimate friends, and lovers.
In an unnamed South American country, a world-renowned soprano sings at a birthday party in honor of a visiting Japanese industrial titan. His hosts hope that Mr. Hosokawa can be persuaded to build a factory in their Third World backwater. Alas, in the opening sequence, just as the accompanist kisses the soprano, a ragtag band of 18 terrorists enters the vice-presidential mansion through the air conditioning ducts. Their quarry is the president, who has unfortunately stayed home to watch a favorite soap opera. And thus, from the beginning, things go awry.
Among the hostages are not only Hosokawa and Roxane Coss, the American soprano, but an assortment of Russian, Italian, and French diplomatic types. Reuben Iglesias, the diminutive and gracious vice president, quickly gets sideways of the kidnappers, who have no interest in him whatsoever. Meanwhile, a Swiss Red Cross negotiator named Joachim Messner is roped into service while vacationing. He comes and goes, wrangling over terms and demands, and the days stretch into weeks, the weeks into months.
With the omniscience of magic realism, Ann Patchett flits in and out of the hearts and psyches of hostage and terrorist alike, and in doing so reveals a profound, shared humanity. Her voice is suitably lyrical, melodic, full of warmth and compassion. Hearing opera sung live for the first time, a young priest reflects:
Never had he thought, never once, that such a woman existed, one who stood so close to God that God's own voice poured from her. How far she must have gone inside herself to call up that voice. It was as if the voice came from the center part of the earth and by the sheer effort and diligence of her will she had pulled it up through the dirt and rock and through the floorboards of the house, up into her feet, where it pulled through her, reaching, lifting, warmed by her, and then out of the white lily of her throat and straight to God in heaven.Joined by no common language except music, the 58 international hostages and their captors forge unexpected bonds. Time stands still, priorities rearrange themselves. Ultimately, of course, something has to give, even in a novel so imbued with the rich imaginative potential of magic realism. But in a fractious world, Bel Canto remains a gentle reminder of the transcendence of beauty and love. --Victoria Jenkins
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