Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful
Review: I've never read Patchett before, but her writing style greatly impressed me. She proves very successful at telling a story through the eyes of everyone at the party. Accepting the challenge of not having a single character narrate the story, the reader is gifted with multiple eyes, looking into each of those eye's lifes. Contrary to other reviews, one aspect that I loved about this book was her character development. Even the characters who, when first introduced, I dispised, or at least met with indifference, by the end of the novel I had grown attached. Patchett is also very successful at the flow of her story telling. Her transitions are very smoooth. I felt she was telling a story that she experienced herself and has retold thousands of times. Very flued. I will admit, the beginning is a little slow, but by the end I couldn't put it down. I highly recommend this novel, very enjoyable.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Start that gradually grows tedious and boring
Review: I read some great reviews about this, and was anxious to read it. I read a lot, and love great writing. However, after 200 pages of this thing, I just couldn't take it anymore. What started off as intriguing and suspenseful gradually turned tedious and implausible. Ms. Patchett's characters seemed to lose more of their charm each day the hostage situation dragged.........on.
Eventually, I didn't care about any of them. I just don't see how all those men could suddenly fall in love with Opera and the diva. I have a hard time believing that the people "outside" would do nothing for four months - c'mon! Mr. Hosokawa...who could like him? Roxane Coss...diva is right - totally unlikable. Gen...great potential for development until his juvenile infatuation with the little terrorist. I don't care what happened. I had to quit.
Rating: 
Summary: The Music of Bel Canto
Review: Bel Canto is a beautifully written novel that weaves a story in which one, single situation becomes both horrible and wonderful at the same time. Patchett is able to transport her characters -and the reader- into her own world where anything is possible. The plot of the book revolves around a hostage situation in an un-known, poverty-stricken host country, but while reading the book, I found that at times I had forgotten these people were prisoners at all. Patchett made me understand and feel what her characters understood and felt. Her words fit perfectly together as I had never experienced before; like a river the words just floated by me and flowed through the story.
At times it began to be a bit wordy,there were long passages that seemed disconnected and unhelpful to the plot. Most of the characters were multi-dimensional, but even in there desperate situation, I couldn't always connect with them. Even so, Patchett seemed to sense my quams and somehow I was always pulled back in by an invisible and undeniable current.
The thing that makes Bel Canto so beautiful is its use of music. Everyone falls in love with the famous soprano, but she's not breath-takingly beautiful on her own. Her music makes her that way. The hostages fall in love with her when she sings. Her voice is like a spell that seeps into their veins and changes that way the look at life, and at others around them. Everyone is tied together by her singing. Everyone is changed by the music. It makes them better, or it makes them want to be better. Like a waltz, Bel Canto is elegant when it otherwise would seem impossible to be so; and flows past time, while time is standing still. It shows us that love is found in even the darkest places, and we have no choice but to embrace it.
Rating:
Summary: Bel Canto
Review: Captivating, made me want to see an opera, ballet, listen to music, make love to my husband,incourage my children on the gift of languages. Only I did not like the very endding, but hey great reading till then.
Rating:
Summary: Good Prose But Poor Story Development
Review: The first third of the book really got my juices flowing. Terrorists bungle the would-be kidnapping of the president of a Latin American president, and, instead, take hostage a group of diplomats, businessmen and artists during a diplomatic function. Through this first third, the book is rich in characterization and Pachett's prose is wonderfully descriptive, which kept me turning page after to page to see what would happen in this tense situation. However, the next two-thirds of the book took on the feel of a pulp romance. The terrorists and the hostages begin having a love fest of sorts, singing, dancing, cooking gourmet meals, running around the garden barefoot, having fondling sessions in closets, cheering up depressed terrorists stuck up trees. There is absolutely no conflict of any kind after the first third of the book: the would-be message, I guess, is that terrorists and hostages live to love even in confinement. I felt like I was living a sappy '30 Broadway musical. Indeed, so much of this book veers on the incredulous. For example, Patchett thinks that there is nothing unusual in having 50 some odd males worshiping opera without regard to their level of musical background or education -- and all 50 male opera lovers are straight! Further, the same 50 some odd males in captivity are completely in love, like they have never been in love, with one woman, and this woman has complete control as to who she wants to sleep with -- this is a fantasy, and one aimed for women. Then there's the teen terrorist who suddenly makes a grand debut down the regal stairs and develops the ability to sing Tosca in Italian as a coloratura soprano and everyone thinks HE sounds almost as good as the "world's best" soprano. The fact that the hostages are from the Western superpowers and that the terrorists are Third World is never explored: why use this device of Western superpowers held hostage in a Latin American country but not explore remotely the politics of the situation? The book is worth reading for Patchett's use of the language, which clearly shows her talents; however, story development is certainly not her forte in this novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Booooooooring
Review: I heard so much about how great this book is that I couldn't wait to read it. I just could not get interested, but kept plugging along hoping it would improve. It didn't. I never did finish it.
Rating:
Summary: Shoot me now...
Review: If I was able to give this a negative star, I would. My book club at work decided to read this as it was selected as a
"Read it, Share it" book. Reading it was like sticking needles in my eye balls. And I can only torture myself for so long, so I stopped at pg. 100. This is quite possibly, the worst book I never read. And for the record, the entire book club HATED IT, and we're a pretty diverse group.
Rating:
Summary: I agree, Fabio should have been on the cover
Review: I seriously cannot believe I wasted my precious time reading this book! The ending is so horrible that I am sitting here wondering what in the heck happened???? I am so dissapointed in the ending that it just soured the rest of the book for me.
Rating:
Summary: Who thought this was award-worthy?
Review: I had high hopes for this book based on the plethora of positive reviews and the fact that it had won several awards. Well, whoever decided that Bel Canto deserved an award or thought that it merited a rave review needs to be fired. The idea for the story was unique and HAD potential. However, as executed by Patchett, all potential is lost. The plot is boring, the main characters do not inspire passion or thought, and the epilogue makes no sense. In fact, the epilogue is the worst part of the book. The main character Gen does something that so out of character that it is unbelievable and none of the other characters seems to think his behavior is out of character! Attention critics...You shouldn't give a book an award just because the IDEA behind it is good, the author needs to follow through and deliver a good book. What a disappointment. Skip this book and read something else, anything else. Ugh.
Rating:
Summary: Lovely!
Review: This book was absolutely astonishing--an overall enchanting read. Patchett sweeps you into a world of grace where none is expected--a bewitching tale.
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