Bel Canto by Ann Patchett Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Bel Canto
Book Review: Bittersweet Hostage Situation Unabridged 9 Audio Cds
Summary: 4 Stars
A birthday party has been arranged for a prominent
Japanese businessman named Mr. Hosokawa. The
only reason that Mr. Hosokawa has agreed to come
to this party in his honour is that Roxanne Coss, a
world famous soprano, is there to sing for the
guests. Unfortunately, the party turns sour quickly when
a band of revolutionaries breaks into the house and
holds the guests hostage.
It is much more a tale about how we build relationships
with others by stopping all of our normal activities and
paying attention to one another as human beings.
People even under extreme stress will search out
comfort with each other no matter what the situation.
Add the illustrious voice of an angel, the music flows
through them everytime she sings for everyone.
The bonds grow between captive and captor.
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.
Book Review: Bravissimo !
Summary: 5 Stars
Bel Canto - Ann Patchett
5 stars
In a poor South American country an unlikely, international group of people convene for a birthday celebration that includes a private recital by a famous opera diva. The party takes place in the luxurious home of the country's vice-president. It is a perfect evening; until the lights go out, and the room is filled not with music, but with shouts and guns. As a result, an even more unlikely group of people begin a prolonged and inevitably tragic siege.
Less than sixty people, one third of them terrorists, multiple languages, enormous cultural differences. This book is fascinating on so many levels. The character development is strong. The writing is simple, direct and beautiful. There are so many themes played out in these pages: the nature of authority, the serious division between the haves and have-nots, friendship, love, and over all the transcendent power of art.
Book Review: Compassinate world of AP
Summary: 5 Stars
I admired the author's compassionate world that she created. A wonderful experience to read...well-done Ms. Patchett.Book Review: Couldn't finish it
Summary: 1 Stars
This is the kind of book that, for me, lets your mind wander. I would read a page and then find that I couldn't remember what I had just read. I got about halfway through it and then stopped. I just didn't care what happened to the characters. I usually look forward to reading but I actually dreaded sitting down with this book. And no matter how boring, no matter how poor the writing, I can almost always find something to pique my interest and get me through to the end. Not this time.