Rating: 
Summary: Ann Patchett's Flawless Bel Canto
Review: In Bel Canto, Ann Patchett takes us into a place in which everyday life is suspended temporarily for both the characters and the reader. Within the context of a hostage situation, persons identified by nationality, political association, occupation and preoccupation begin to shed these superficial identities and, day by day, become a group united by their humanity. As the group coalesces, the distinction between hostage and hostage-taker diminishes. The environment becomes intoxicated with the joy of music. Within this fertile social environment, each individual begins to flower. The setting is a grand home temporarily occupied by the vice-president of this unidentified South American country. The vice-president is contented to serve in the role of host/servant. In the end, it is the government's anonymous and brutal military forces who become the spoilers - the enemies of joy, love, creativity and human bonding.
Rating: 
Summary: Listen to your heart!
Review: When I reached page 50 of Bel Canto, I told myself that this book wasn't going to be worth the time it would take to finish. It was boring, improbable--not in the good opera way; in the bad soap opera way--the characters were thin and uninteresting, and the storytelling was totally uninspiring. So I thought about putting it down. But, like so many people, I'm afraid, the reviews got the best of me. I'd heard such good things about this book, I thought I had to give it a chance. So over the next long, agonizing week, I finished the whole thing. For my efforts, I was rewarded with 250 pages of the same tedious junk and an ending so...I'm sorry, it's the only word...STUPID that you just won't believe it. You'll close the book and say...huh? You'll wonder what the hell was that all about. And you'll kick yourself for not stopping back at page 50.I don't know who writes these good reviews, but come on, people! This book is a complete stinker. Go ahead, if you don't believe me. Read it and see.
Rating:
Summary: Ugh. Wait for the inevitable movie
Review: I think Ann Patchett had a love affair with someone closely resembling Roxanne Coss and wanted to send her a valentine...this book must be it. This character does not merit the fawning every other character performs on her behalf, and the whole concept of these "Stockholm syndrome" characters acting the way they do is way beyond concocted. Save yourself the burden of reading the story, as this is the precise type of drivel Hollywood loves to produce into an overblown movie (Think of "The Horse Whisperer" and you'll know what I mean).
Rating:
Summary: Bravissima
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed reading Bel Canto with a close friend of mine. It provided (and still provides) much in the way of conversational topics. We were able to find ourselves in the house, captive participants in the kidnapping. Prachett has a hypnotic influence over her audience, placing them in the center of the drama.
I found that while Roxanne was a central element in the plot, it was Gen who played the leading role. Roxanne merely lent the presence of her beauty, but Gen was the character who showed any development. Though Roxanne was the cause that allowed the kidnapping to take place, Gen was the reason that the group of strangers became one unit. During the course of the book, he transformed from an automaton to a sensitive, rationalizing human being. He provided the driving force behind the plot.
Bel Canto is more than a book about a kidnapping. It's a tale of desperation, acceptance, hope, change--life. It's a book to escape into.
Rating: 
Summary: If you like disappointing endings, this is the book for you
Review: If you like character development that goes nowhere, and an abrupt, disappointing, anti-climactic ending, then this is the book for you. The author did a good job of roping you in for the first 316 pages, and then completely disappoints you in the last 2. The plot literally went nowhere. Why develop characters in superfluous detail, then not tell us what happens to them? It almost seems the author ran out of energy to completely finish the story. You grow to feel for certain characters, then in 1 sentence, they're gone, with no more mention of them. And some of the main characters aren't even mentioned at all during/post climax. What an extreme let down!
Rating: 
Summary: makes us yearn for the the beautiful improbables
Review: Bel Canto has a striking idea. A bunch of young revolutionaries/terrorists taking over a vice presidential palace, somewhere in S. America, in the middle of a resplendent party. The glittering guests are from all over the world, amongst whom the central jewel is an opera singer from Chicago; the beauty of her voice enamours every man in the room. The story unfolds ove r 4 months, with the terrorists and the hostages forming a kind of a symbiotic relationship, of dependence, companionship, and even love. Detached from the outside world, they find completeness in eachother. Finishing Bel Canto I learned about the Peru hostage crisis of 1996, and was disappointed in a certain way, because the purely feminine beauty of the "impossible" fiction that had enthralled me, was now marred by reality. None the less, the a reviewer (New Yorker) said "[Bel Canto].. tragicomic novel which invokes the glorious and unreliable promises of art, politics, and love". Yes, Bel Canto is a wonderful book, maybe it is not magic realism by definition, but the situation itself is fantastic. It almost convinced me that it is possible to reach true equilibrium, even when you are looking through the barrel of a gun!
Rating:
Summary: a beautiful book
Review: After reading some of the other reviews, I realize that this is a "love it or hate it" kind of book--and I confess, being in the "love it" category, that I don't understand how people can feel so strongly that it's terrible. A friend of mine recommended it to me, so I bought it without knowing anything of what it was about, read it, and loved it so much that I recommended it to several friends, who also loved it. I will admit, though, that I was a little bit confused as to why the host country was unnamed when it was so clearly referring to Peru. I am not a fan of opera at all (one of the friends I recommended the book to is, and he can't understand how I loved the book so much without liking opera), but the language, the relationships, the characters, and the setting were all simply beautiful, even if the circumstances of the plot were not. It's an interesting exploration of the Stockholm syndrome, made even more plausible and poignant by the fact that the captors were barely more than children.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book
Review: I picked up Bel Canto at a bookstore while on vacation at the recommendation of the clerk. At the time, I was not really aware of this book, It was not on my list of must reads but it had so many awards plastered on the cover I figured "why not give it a shot" This book is marvelous. It is all consuming and different. It just flows. There are so many layers buried in this novel, so many interesting characters doing so many out of the ordinary things. It was just so refreshing to read a book that was not about someone's hum-drum everyday life. I did not give it 5 stars, mostly because she gave away the ending within the first few chapters and the anticipation isnt what it might be, and partly because the epilogue was just plain bizarre. I am an avid reader with an hour long subway ride and this was the first book in weeks that I had a hard time putting down when i reached my station.
Rating:
Summary: simply beautiful
Review: Bel Canto is set in an unnamed South American country. The novel opens at a birthday part for a Japanese business man, Mr. Hosokawa, who was wooed to that country for the chance to hear his favorite opera singer, Roxane Coss, sing for him. This is a major event for this South American country, and the Vice President is there (the President declined so he could watch his daily soap opera) and is holding the event at his home. Several other diplomatic officials, priests, and executives from Hosokawa's company are there. Most of the people at this party do not speak the same language. When Coss finishes her last song, the lights go out. When the lights come back on, the building has been taken over by terrorists. This is only the opening of the novel. This begins a stand off lasting several months between the terrorists and the government of the country. But while the stand off provides the structure to the novel, the heart of it is inside that house. The novel is truly about the relationships between the hostages and also the relationships with the terrorists. Mr. Hosokawa does not go anywhere without his interpreter (he does a lot of international business), so Gen (the interpreter) was by his side at the party. Gen becomes a major player in the house because he is the only one who can communicate between the Spanish speaking terrorists, the Swiss negotiator outside the house, and the hostages who speak various languages (French and Russian, are the two that I can remember). As the novel progresses, Patchett reveals the disparate cast of characters and who they are and how they came to be at this party. We see deeper into the lives of Hosokawa, Roxane Coss, the Vice President, the French Ambassador, and several others. This makes for an incredibly rich novel and Patchett provides an emotional depth to the work that I had not expected. I was initially reluctant to read Bel Canto. I didn't think the topic sounded that interesting, but as it stayed on bestsellers lists and as I encountered more and more positive reviews, I finally decided to give it a chance. I am so glad that I did. This is one of the best novels that I have read this year.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable, but dissatisfied with the ending
Review: I was intrigued by the plot of the story, and found myself drawn in by a few of the characters. Ms. Patchett's language is beautiful and very descriptive. The ending was dissatisfying to me, though and not believeable. I don't want to post a spoiler, but the characters that end up together was very surprising, and not in a good way. I would still recommend the book, and have already passed it on to others.
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