Rating: 
Summary: Creating an Enchanted Space
Review: The story is fashioned by an gifted storyteller. Brick by brick she creates a setting that is beautiful and magical -- not of our world and unsustainable in our world. She is a master at developing relationships and demonstrating palpable love. I was reluctant to leave this world of Patchett's creation and did something I've never done at the end of a book...I started to read it again.
Rating: 
Summary: Tone Deaf
Review: This book, recommended to me by a friend, is a dime-store romance that, inexplicably, has been reviewed and promoted as if it were a serious work of literary fiction. Fans of Nora Roberts or Danielle Steele page-turners would probably enjoy this novel, but anyone interested in quality literature should give this book a wide berth.Ms. Pritchard takes the situation for her novel from the Tupac Amaru take-over of the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima for four months in 1997. This dramatic setting would seem to provide the perfect opportunity for an examination of the physiological and psychological pressures of long-term captivity on the human psyche; what we get instead is a pair of profoundly ridiculous love stories: a polyglot Japanese translator falls for a beautiful girl-terrorist; a world-famous soprano falls for one of her biggest fans. The one affair is even sillier than the other: while the first asks us to believe that a Maoist terrorist is really a sweet, romantic girl who prays to St. Rose of Lima and wants to learn to read and write Spanish and English, the second affair asks us to believe that two people who can't communicate whatsoever without an interpreter have somehow, just by looking deep into each other's eyes, found true love. Gimmee a break. What's more, post 9/11, it's really grating to read a novel in which a group of terrorists are portrayed in such dewy-eyed, romantic terms. The leader of the group is shown to be an intellectual, melancholic chess-player type who really "doesn't want to hurt anybody," and most of his "army" consists of fun-loving boys who likewise don't mean any harm (and one of whom just happens to have a voice that could make him a world-class opera singer). The characterization of the hostages is similarly unlikely and predetermined by national stereotype: a repressed Japanese businessman, a romanitic Frenchman, a headstrong Russian, etc. All the characterizations are strikingly one-dimensional: every time we enter the point of view of the Frenchman, for instance, we hear about nothing except his newly-rekindled uxorious love for his wife. Ho-hum. Likewise, we're expected to believe that absolutely every character in the novel is totally enraptured by the world-famous soprano held in their midst; not a single one of them is indifferent to opera, let alone thinks that its just a bunch of caterwauling. Besides a terrorist-heroine with an insatiable hunger for learning, we have to swallow the fact that she and Gen, the translator, are able to carry on a midnight love- affair in a china closet (and, later, out on the lawn) without any of the 80 or so other inmates of the house noticing; that among a group of diplomats and international businessmen almost all of them are monoglots, without even a perfunctory understanding of either English or Spanish (and that, given this circumstance, there's only the single translator present, who happens to speak English, Spanish, Italian, French, German, Danish, Russian, Czech, Serbo-Croatian, Greek and Japanese...and possibly other languages I'm forgetting); that for most of the hostages their internment is a golden idyll which they don't ever want to end. One could go on and on...in terms of plot and characterization this book is about as hackneyed and corny as your typical episode of ""Falcon Crest"...except that at least Falcon Crest had semi-credible villains, whereas in this book even the terrorists are "good guys" that even the chief negotiator hopes will be able to escape unharmed. I also have to note how poorly edited this novel is. The author actually thanks her editor by name at the end of the book, but she should instead be suing him for malfeasance...for if it's an editor's job to prevent goofs, slip-ups, and displays of authorial ignorance, he fails miserably. Among the host of howlers that the reader is forced to wade through are a reference to a chess rook having "a horse's head"; several references to "cabayo" (which is not only a misspelling of "cobayo," the Castilian Spanish word for "guinea pig," but anybody who has actually been to Peru will remember that the Latin American Spanish word, found on almost every menu, is actually "cuy"); a Russian whose two brothers have decidedly un-Russian names ("Mikal and Dimitri," instead of "Mikhail and Dmitri"); and a putatively male character named "Guadalupe." Trivial, you might say, but when such boners appear on page after page after page, all remaining sense of verisimilitude is lost. Couple this with the occasional inane authorial digression-such as when the Russian stops right in the midst of a declaration of true love to note to himself that one of the former names for St. Petersburg is Petrograd-and I really have to wonder if this book was "edited" at all. To end where I started: this novel is fine for anyone who enjoys pure, Harlequin Romance-style, mindless escapism; for anyone who demands intellectual or moral rigor in a work of fiction, however, it is a total waste of time.
Rating:
Summary: Unusual setup, interesting characters, great read
Review: This was an unusual setup for a book, to say the least. Bel Canto takes place in an unnamed country of South America. A well-known opera singer is giving an exclusive performance for a Japanese businessman and some other dignitaries and elected officials when they are all taken hostage by some of the country's rebels. How the characters react to this situation over their three month long captivity is carefully presented by Patchett. Unlike the last book I read (the Corrections), every character here is likable in some way. Patchett looks for the dignity in each person's position and helps the reader to understand their motivations. The importance of art, especially opera, is emphasized as the singer, Roxanne Coss sings for the group everyday and in so doing transforms their lives, particularly those of the rebels. Though there are only three women left in the group (they let most of the women go), Patchett gives a lot of attention to these three women and the relationships they establish. This book was amazing in many respects. One of my favorite characters who is pivotal to the story is Gen, the translator for the Japanese businessman. His knowledge of so many languages makes him invaluable in the multicultural milieu Patchett has created. Translators make what they do seem so effortless, yet Patchett does a great job letting the reader see the difficulties Gen is faced with that only another translator would appreciate. Another great character is one of the Russian gentlemen who falls in love with Roxanne Coss and needs Gen to translate his affections for her. He relates a great story about his love of beauty and art and how important it is to have people who appreciate and understand art, even though they may not be artists themselves. Finally, it is fascinating to watch the rebels transform from their exposure to the elites of their society - from TV, opera, the elegant surroundings of their de-facto prison. Patchett does strain credibility with one miraculous transformation after another as rebels and captives alike change and grow. Still, this is a minor fault compared with what she accomplishes with the book overall. She also stays true to the story she has told. There will be no easy way out of this set-up in the end.
Rating:
Summary: 7/8 Spellbinding
Review: This was my first Anne Patchet book and I couldn't put it down. Until the very end, I was transfixed. HOWEVER, I must take off one star for the ending which undid much of the joy I was feeling. I thought it abrupt, unnecessary, and unexplainable.
Rating: 
Summary: Deep Meaning
Review: The message woven throughout Bel Canto could easily change ones life. Beautiful writing coupled with vivid characterization draw the reader into appreciating the meaning of life. This story moved me and made me care deeply for the characters. I was extremely disappointed when the story ended yet the timing was perfect. The writing is smart and straight forward. No gimics used - just superb storytelling.
Rating: 
Summary: Reality is More Interesting than this Fiction
Review: This is a slick and easy read. One bookgroup I lead loved it, the other - not so much. When I find reading about the actual incident (the kidnapping of society and government guests at the Japanese embassy in Peru by the Tupac Amaru rebel group in 1996) more interesting than the fictionalized version, I have to assume that something is missing in the translation. The characters have less complexity than this review. Their trials and tribulations are so narrow, the book has no spiritual or political significance. When you read about the actual incident in the news, you wonder how it could have become so sanitized in fiction. Fictionalizing is at its best when it personalizes the larger issues. There are no larger issues in this book. Hostages and their guards become personally involved. This kind of connection often happens in reality, but in this book, it happens too easily. The outrageous political oppression just disappears in a poof of romance and soccer games. It is the world as I imagined it when at 15. And therein lies its appeal to some
Rating:
Summary: An aria of aura
Review: This book has a magnificent setting, exciting plot and fascinating characters that face an extraordinary set of circumstances; all of which gives this book an epic depth.
Rating:
Summary: ROMANCE/THRILLER--not . . .
Review: Typical romance novel fare--- although there's nothing wrong with that if it's done correctly. The author seems to have lifted the scope of this novel right from the evening news, mrely changing the location from Peru to an "Undisclosed South American Country." The book is plagued by predictable plot points and there are no delectable plot twists, or sensational character development. This was my first Ann Patchett novel, and she is ceratainly a good writer, but I would be skeptical of reading another of her books unless I saw a spark of originality.
Rating:
Summary: I can hear Roxanne Coss...
Review: I didn't read this as a story with an emphahsis on plot. This is a story about characters in an impossible situation. Magical realism... ok, whatever that is. Plot. There isn't much plot. The characters are lead to the discovery that within the walls of the palace and the confine of their mutual captivity that all those things that defined them and seemed important in their lives outside fell away. Who we think we are and those things we hold onto so fiercely are often environmental constructs. The allegory in our post 9/11 world would be that beneath our cultural/economic/social differences our humanity is a powerful force and given the opportunity will lead us to understand that given the right set of circumstances it isn't so hard to love your enemy. In fact, that person isn't your enemy at all. I found the authors prose elegant and piercing without being showy or reaching. Condescending? I missed that part. My complaint, and it's a big one, is the ending/epilogue. I just don't get it. Huh? How did that happen? I needed a bit more of a seque for the ending to be believable-- even magically realistically believable...
Rating:
Summary: A gorgeous novel!
Review: I wouldn't have thought it possible for a writer to evoke the pleasure of listening to beautiful music with mere words printed on a page. I was wrong. Ann Patchett's novel does exactly that. And with the fluid point of view illuminating first one character, then another, the reader moves through the story immersed in this bizarre and dreamlike situation until it all seems so real that these characters haunt you long after you've finished the book and think you're done with it.
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