Rating: 
Summary: Enchanting
Review: I read Bel Canto several months ago and cannot get it out of my mind. Ann Patchett has painted a picture - no, written a beautiful opera - about a community forged by accident, bonded by captivity, and captivated by music. As in the best of Robert Altman films, the characters are alive and distinctive. As a writer myself, I am impressed that so many characters are developed with such subtlety and warmth. Whether captor or captive, statesman or diva, peasant guerrilla or business mogul, their humanity shines out at us, and a sensitive reader cannot help being drawn into this odd little community of people who discover that what they have in common is stronger than that which divides them. Bel Canto plays to our emotions honestly and without manipulation; it touches us with its warmth, sadness, and light. It is the best contemporary novel I've read for years.
Rating:
Summary: 5 stars for a perfect ending to a romantic siege...
Review: Wow. I loved this book. It was as implausible and fairy-
tale-like as can be, a total, romantic hot fudge sundae with
nuts, cherries and opera on top, but who the heck cares?
It was divine to meander through. I felt like a child in a
strange and beautiful garden, and when finally the book
ended (alas! even I did not want the 'siege' to be over) I wept, because the ending itself was so absolutely perfect. When you thought about it later, you had to admit that there could not be any other finis. Sigh.
Rating:
Summary: I'm raving about this novel to everyone I know
Review: Friends and family are getting a little bit bored by now hearing me rave about Ann Patchett's superb "Bel Canto," but I can't help myself. It's a startlingly wonderful novel built on the most unlikely premise that a terrorist plot to kidnap the president of an unnamed third world country can evolve into a thing of beauty and wonder.Roxane Coss, an American opera singer, has gone to "the host country" (as Patchett diplomatically refers to the country which, by her description, appears to be Peru) to sing at a birthday dinner for a visiting Japanese industrialist. The Japanese industrialist is being wined and dined so that the host country can convince him to build one of his many plants there, creating lots of jobs. The industrialist, however, has come merely because he learns that Roxane Coss--his favorite opera singer--will be singing to honor him on his birthday. He has no intention whatsoever of building a plant in this country and has jetted here only to be in the same room with Coss and drink in her extraordinary singing. When terrorists burst into the room and take everyone hostage (quickly releasing all the women with the exception of Coss), everything--of course--changes. Diplomats and bureaucrats from dozens of different countries begin to live together as hostages, employing the extraordinary linguistic talents of Gen, the industrialist's translator. Gen becomes privy to everything, as he must communicate for everyone--even the terrorists. Patchett deftly and memorably sketches the characteristics and proclivities of about a dozen major characters in the book. She shows us how everything has changed for the hostages--theoretically, very much for the worse--and yet how even in an unimaginably difficult situation, people can still find beauty and love and honor. The characters leap from the page, full-blooded and full of life. Yet as they forge new alliances and discover each other's foibles and virtues, we know that the clock is inexorably ticking, ticking, ticking towards a time when everything will change again--as suddenly, and as violently, as it all began. This is an extraordinary piece of work, and I was really and truly sad when the book ended.
Rating:
Summary: love it!
Review: I'm not yet finished this book and I already want to start reading it again. Bel Canto means beautiful singing, well this book is beautifully written. I'll be sure to read Ann Patchett's other books and hope they are as well done as this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Thin characters
Review: I have to echo the sentiments of the previous reviewer. I'm an avid reader, but I'm finding this book difficult to finish. The character development is weak in my opinion -- I just don't care about these characters. Also, for the most part I don't find Patchett's language to be interesting, engaging or unique. I'm disappointed...
Rating: 
Summary: Engaging, poetic
Review: Beautiful, poetic language, likable and sympathetic characters (even the terrorists), and an interesting ending I had to go back and re-read to ensure I got it right! Highly recommended!
Rating: 
Summary: Has to be one of the worst......!!!!
Review: I started a book club with a group of friends. Bel Canto was recommended. It sounded great... exciting,profound,complex.. nothing could have been further from the dream. The reality found me FORCING myself to pick up the book and get to the end... hoping I could find one thing that would sing its praises at our book club review. It reads worse than a Mills and Boon romance (the mass produced love stories in the UK). I couldn't find a character I was drawn to, a piece of writing that sang to my soul, an event that had me on the edge of my seat... and to top it all off, the plot appeared oh so familiar. The terrorist group Tupac Amaru took a group of hostages in Lima, Peru, back in the the late 90's and all of them blown to bits at the end. Not an original story, needed strong coffee to stop me falling asleep and I would NEVER recommend this book to anyone, least of all a book club!!
Rating:
Summary: A wonder on several levels
Review: This book could serve as a useful study resource for either a literature or a sociology college course. It has so many interesting themes flowing through it, it is like a symphony. Some of the truths explored: Solders are trained to kill and can be cruel no matter the cause; people really care mostly about themselves and not any cause - the revolutionaries eventually forgot about the others they had wanted to free and really wanted nothing more than to live the life of the president (except when reminded they were soldiers); love obliterates boundaries and is the earth's most powerful force; never underestimate the spiritual power of the arts to also dissolve boundaries and change hearts. These are only some of the themes that could be discussed. A very well-written book that can bring a tear and a sense of melancholy at the end - plus a lot to think further about.
Rating:
Summary: Bel Canto Soars on a High Note
Review: Bel Canto is truley one of the best books i have read. It is beautifully written. Much of his discriptions seem extremly poetic. Once you get into the story you simply cant put it down. It has everything you could want - a terroist attack gone wrong- a love story- and heartwarming characters. Truly a great read.
Rating: 
Summary: Promising at first but...
Review: When I picked up Bel Canto, I was enchanted by the setting described on the back of the book. By chance, a similiar event was happening in Russia where a group of people have been kidnapped in a museum or an Opera house, so it fueled my interest. However, the story dragged on and on with not much going on. The hostages are all in love with Roxanne Coss, the Opera singer, with exception to Gen, the translator(Or so as we are lead to believe). She is treated as a diva and have special privileges in terms of sleeping quarters, clothing, and access to almost any provisions she desired. With her immense talent, she mesmerizes the hostages and the terrorists daily with her hours of singing practices. I thought this was so unbelievable in a time of life and death situation. Not one character is losing his mind or even thinking about committing some desperate acts to escape. Then there is Messner who is supposed to be a negotiator, but he is ineffective and relegated himself to a delivery boy. The terrorists and the hostages soon become a big, happy family, each dreaming of living in the present condition forever, or dreaming of the unthinkable, such as marrying each other or working for one another. The hostages have considerable freedom and hardly see any act of brutality. I guess the author wanted the readers to sympathize with the unprofessional terrorists to blur their feelings of the captors and the captives. I have often heard of the transition of the hostages' mental capacity of fear and hatred towards the terrorists into a sort of psychological dependency and a feeling of comradeship. However, to think that most all of the hostages felt like this in just 3 or 4 months of captivity is unthinkable. There were some likeable characters such as the Vice-President and the teacher-turned-terrorist, General Benjamin, but I could not totally relate or sympathize deeply with any of the characters. As a bilingual speaker of both Japanese and English, Gen, the translator was a somewhat interesting character in that he was needed almost all the time for people to convey their converations, and yet he struggled to keep the translation as it is without his comments. At times Gen was the only person who really knew what was going on. Yet this knowledge is usually not a privilege, but a burden because Gen did not have one person to really talk to. I liked how he was enthralled with linguistics and words meant a lot to him. Mr. Hosokawa, the main guest for the occasion is a believable character in his mannerism such as bowing, his views on work and family, his quiet and calm behavior. I have known many such person in Japan, but at the same time, it felt very stereotyped. This book had such potential and yet did not deliver much. Nothing really happens until the last few pages of the book. The conclusion is sudden and extremely quick, needless to say quite predictable. I felt unresolved and dissatisfied at the end.
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