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Summary: One of the best written books I've ever read!
Review: I was instantly drawn in and seduced by the language of the book. Beginning to end I loved every word. I found the ending to be arbupt and weird, but overall I loved this book.
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Summary: The transformative power of music
Review: This book captivated me and deepened my love of music, especially vocal music. I have been urging everyone I know to read it, as the message I got from it, of the transformative power of music (and art, and of course great literature) is so very important at this point in history. This past week I attended a concert in which a wonderful soprano was singing Mozart arias, and I had the good fortune to have a seat right in the front of the hall. As I watched and listened to her amazing singing, so close that we could have been in a living room together, I recalled the scenes in the book where the terrorists and hostages are listening to Roxanne practice in the ambassador's living room, and I had to fight tears. Great music, great literature have the power to transcend cultural and political barriers and touch the human soul, and ultimately they are what really matter in life, not politics. As I watch in horror the daily news, I take more and more solace from music and literature. This book was a strong tonic, a profound reminder in these troubled times of what is really important and of what humans can achieve if only the politicians would let them.
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Summary: If Noam Chomsky Wrote a Novel:
Review: Understandably, those looking for all-is-well-with-the-world, escapist "happy endings" might find this novel very disappointing, and. agreeably, it does seem to possess a "love-it-or-hate-it" quality. I must weigh in on the "love it" side of this equation: I found myself truly caring about characters for the first time in a long time (and I read voraciously), and I am finding its "message" (intended by the author or not) haunting. This is a "romance" in the classic sense of that word; it is also a true novel in that it uses fiction in the classic sense: to hold up for us a mirror, a reflection (again, in every sense of that word) and commentary on the contrast between what it means to be individual human beings--with all our capabilities, sensitivities, capacity to love and change, and our foibles--and the mindless, shallow, insensitive "horror" of "the state." I find its depth of insight into that very contrast thought-provokingly remarkable, especially in our "entertian-me" times: it could have ended no other way: the heart-renting, daily, continual acting out of this tragic contrast, worldwide, would be lost entirely. I agree that Gen and Roxanne's marriage in the "Epilogue" may require some "suspension of disbelief," but this is a novel: how else could the author have found a denouement that pulls together, and places for their loving, respectful safekeeping, the events of this novel's story? If you seek more than simply a "good read" (although it is that, too); if you are willing to experience the inherent sadness and tragedy of life and the human condition at the level of a "classic" novel, this is one of the few modern novels to address that condition with much depth, within a current context, in some time. The only other novel I've read recently of this calibre would have to be Rohinton Mistry's _A Fine Balance_ , another exploration of the tragic poignancy of human relationships within the constrictions of conventions and horrors of state. To paraphrase: "had I more time, this [review] would be much shorter," and, it is to be hoped, far more succinctly denote my deep appreciation of the profound depth of insight and felt sadness, even despair, regarding the human condition this novel expresses and evokes. No, _Bel Canto_ is not just another "beach read," as we say in the South: "by any amount of means": far too much substance! If Chomsky reads and appreciates excellent fiction pertinent to his own deep concerns, would someone please let him know about this book? Thank you, Ms. Patchett.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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!
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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!
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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.
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