Bel Canto has been on my to- read lists for years. I've heard such wonderful things about it. And true, it is wonderful. The writing is splendid, if a bit much page by page by page.
It is one of those books where a lot of nothing big goes on, but a lot of little things do. A group of people, including an opera singer, get held hostage by a dysfunctional group of revolutionaries who intended to kidnap the President (otherwise engaged on the day in question).
It's all pretty grim at the start but through the exquisite joy caused by an opera singer singing and practising for four hours every day, people are brought to a generally peaceable state.
Not sure I wouldn't go mad under the circumstances.
Everyone speaks different languages, and there is only one person who can translate. One mediator from outside comes back and forth. Months pass, captives and captors learn to get along together, the opera singer sings but refuses to do anything else as she is above all that. She sings and sings and sings. The Vice President does the laundry and housecleaning. The Frenchman (of course) cooks. the Russians (of course) smoke and speak of passionate love, only in words, not action. The Japanese character is (of course) self-possessed and wise. And loves opera.
Everyone's character is drawn, first with a pencil and then filled in, darker and darker. People bond together. Love blooms.
The ending, when it comes, is unbelievable. Two characters end up together who have no reason to do so. I felt cheated by the ending, betrayed. It was as if Patchett got fed up with the story and tied it all in a neat bow. ( )

It's been 15 years since I first read this and fell in love with Patchett's writing. Since then I've read all of her work and rereading this one was a treat. A birthday party for a Japanese business man in South America takes an unexpected turn when terrorists take the group hostage just after a performance by an opera singer. It's a surprisingly tender story, less about the hostage situation than about the human connections that can be made in the most extreme situations. It's beautiful and will break your heart. The details, like clandestine Spanish lessons in a china closet, a young chess player, the power of music, and the fastidious vice president's efforts to maintain some calm in the chaos, are what will stay with me. A perfect place to start with the work of one of my top-five living authors. ( )

The setting is a vice-president estate in an economically frontier country where dignitaries from all over the globe are thought to be brought together to celebrate the birthday of a powerful Japanese entrepreneur, but reality is almost to a person they came to see/hear a famous opera singer. The estate is taken over by a political terrorist group that somehow manages to hold onto the estate for several months. The story though is about the different characters, including the terrorists, from vastly different backgrounds and how they ultimately become somewhat of a family. Kindness, caring and love are found between the most incompatible people in the most unusual ways. The common thread to bring all these characters together is Gen, the translator for the Japanese entrepreneur who could speak just about every language spoken in the house. A very interesting premise for a book, but it just drags along at times far too much. Unlike Patchett's other books (e.g. Dutch House) where strong character development was a treasure, Bel Canto just feels overly done. The only surprise at the ending is that it isn't surprising, however, I thought the Epilogue was surprising and even very unbelievable. ( )

Dreamy, tense, lulls you into a sense of thinking the whole world is beautiful. ( )

To be fair to Bel Canto, it's probably a 4 star book; however, I came into it with 5-star expectations. Having read [b:Truth and Beauty|5083254|Secrets of Truth and Beauty|Megan Frazer|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1239242179s/5083254.jpg|5149972] and seeing the combination of grace and brutal honesty with which Patchett depicted herself and [a:Lucy Grealy|57229|Lucy Grealy|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-F-50x66.jpg], I had the highest expectations for her treatment of fictional characters. And, in some cases, she lives up to expectations.

The highlight of the book is clearly Gen, the peon translator, turned by his captivity into essential personnel. The topic of language - who owns which language and what they can do with it - as the supreme power is fascinating and unique and the character is well suited by his theme. His foil, the slightly less multilingual Rubuen - Vice President turned into housekeeper by his captivity is nicely set up and the many conversations between the two really showcase the artificiality of status.

Hosokawa's story is also well done. The trope of important business-person stunned by once in a lifetime event into realizing that there's more to life than work and deciding to live like it counts once it may be too late is a little overdone, but that distracts little from how well Patchett does it.

The terrorists developing rapport with their hostages portion of the plot is by fair the most lauded and perhaps fell a little flat as a result of that. The developing of relationships didn't really feel organic and the terrorists were depicted as relatively sympathetic from the beginning.

However, where the books really falls flat is its female characters. The reader is constantly informed how both Carmen and Roxanne are the most beautiful, smartest, most talented women to ever exist. Every scene staring either of them is filled with male characters perseverating on their beauty. Neither of them have any flaws at all (except maybe an endearing stubbornness.) Roxanne is so beautiful as to sway terrorist organizations. Both of them feel extremely one-dimensional as a result. Music is treated the same way -- it's beautiful and uplifting and world changing. We're never really told why, but instead subjected to the same refrain in every musical scene. As someone who could take or leave music as a whole, and definitely opera in specific, it was teeth-gratingly annoying. ( )