Bel canto how many pages

Like that of her heroine, Patchett's great talent in Bel Canto is one of range. With bravura confidence and inventiveness she varies her pace to encompass both lightning flashes of brutality and terror and long stretches of incarcerated ennui.

The novel's sensibilities extend from the sly wit of observational humour to subtle, mournful insights into the nature of yearning and desire. Like the blueprint of operatic performance that she has imported, Patchett slides from strutting camp to high tragedy, minute social comedy to sublime romanticism. After an initial period fraught with tension and danger - including an extraordinary description of the lingering death of Roxane's diabetic accompanist - the kidnapped household soon develops its own more peaceful rhythms.

The terrorists have failed in their mission before they've even begun: their real target, the country's Japanese-born president, had stayed home on the crucial night; ostensibly to attend to "matters of Israel", actually to watch his favourite soap opera. Soon the kidnappers themselves, enchanted by the grandeur of their surroundings, are also hooked on the TV drama, fitting their half-hearted drills around it or wandering through the house eating pistachio nuts and sniffing hand lotion.

Deprived of their intended prize, the revolutionary generals are revealed as men without a plan, their only remaining chance the continuing abduction of the soprano. Soon they find themselves running around to satisfy her every whim, procuring for her dental floss, a muffler, herbal throat lozenges. Holding them to ransom with the threat of non-performance, Roxane demands score after score, and thereafter works another spell on the household, trilling arias for hours on end.

The trick is ingenious: a hijack in which the captors have nowhere to go and the hostages have no desire for release.

For Mr Hosokawa, proximity to his idol is a dream come true, surpassed when they begin a tentative relationship; for his loyal translator Gen, captivity is also unexpectedly liberating. I was actually laughing but then I have a tendency to laugh when things got too preposterous.

I wouldn't say it was that in this case but it got pretty close. Of course, view spoiler [it was devastating for kidnappers and kidnappees alike. But I felt almost no sadness for any of them when the rescue happened hide spoiler ] since I already knew the outcome anyway, the author told us early on. The end of the hostage situation and the epilogue have this gaping hole left open.

And there's a disconnect between those two events that I wish we got to get a glimpse of, if not a chapter. I still to this day, a week later, wonder why the author didn't just show us. View all 3 comments. This was my third Patchett novel - I have also read the more recent Commonwealth and The Dutch House , and although I have great respect for her craft as a writer and her books are easy to read, I don't think she'll ever be a personal favourite writer.

Like those books, this one has many endearing elements and is very well written, but for me the whole framing scenario was a little too implausible and romantic, and the ending a little too contrived. View all 7 comments. Sep 01, Jessica rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites. Patchett does two really remarkable things here. Well, she does many remarkable things, but two I'd particularly like to point out: 1.

When an author loves her characters too much, the reader can often tell. Situations and descriptions seem contrived, and there is a veneer of usually unintentional dishonesty. But in Bel Canto, it's clear that Patchett is in love with her characters, yet she is able to remain objective and in control. Her role as the omniscient narrator allows her to Exquisite. Her role as the omniscient narrator allows her to travel in and out of various character's minds, and she does so with grace and assurance.

Each emotion feels true to the character, and each character feels distinct and real. Patchett's gentle yet powerful language moves around the room and through the diverse characters easily and intentionally. How often do authors rely on villains and extremes to make their stories stand out? What struck me on completing Bel Canto was that the characters are in a situation that strips them down to their essentials and forces each of them to come to know their true selves.

What Patchett does that feels almost revolutionary is that for every character, from terrorist to CEO, when they see their true selves what they see there is goodness and love for others. How amazing it is to think that we are so much better than we know!

Tragedy is foreshadowed from the beginning, yet the book is really about beautiful moments and realizations. When cut off from the outside world for a few months, both the captors and the hostages are free to discover love and other talents.

The bizarre nature of the situation, coupled with the endless stretches of time in one place, allows for people to connect across cultures and individual variances. I'm making this sound cheesy, but it's not at all. Even with such an improbable premise, nothing is maudlin or exaggerated, no character is a caricature -- and that is a real accomplishment.

Jun 18, Maggie Stiefvater rated it it was amazing Shelves: recommended. This is a weird and beautiful book about machine guns, chopping onions, and opera singers. Check your disbelief at the door and enjoy the language.

I don't care for the ending -- but it was worth it anyway. Lovely writing. Because I'm only reviewing my favorite books -- not every book I read. Consider a novel's presence on my Goodreads bookshelf as a hearty endorsement. I can't believe I just said "hearty.

View 1 comment. There is nothing I can say. I don't even know how. Instead, I will veil my head, lament the deaths of each person loved since the beginning of time, and cry tears of unsurpassed desolation in the hopes that tomorrow, the sun will shine on my face and god will see me standing there. Jan 23, Robert Beveridge rated it liked it Shelves: finished , owned-and-gave-away. Ann Patchett, Bel Canto Harper, I have spent quite a while mulling this over, and have finally come to the conclusion that, patterned after Greek tragic opera or not, I can't forgive Ann Patchett for the climax of this novel.

Much of that has to do with the beginning of the novel; I'd have been inclined to be more forgiving had the first hundred pages not moved at a snail's pace. But the book finally picked up, everything was going along swimmingly, and then, suddenly, bam-the most predict Ann Patchett, Bel Canto Harper, I have spent quite a while mulling this over, and have finally come to the conclusion that, patterned after Greek tragic opera or not, I can't forgive Ann Patchett for the climax of this novel.

But the book finally picked up, everything was going along swimmingly, and then, suddenly, bam-the most predictable possible climax. The story is based on accounts of the guerrilla takeover of the Peruvian embassy in , but Patchett moves the action to another, unnamed, South American country and adds a few extra ingredients into the mix.

In Patchett's story, opera singer Roxane Coss has been lured to the embassy for the birthday party of a wealthy Japanese industrialist whom the country hopes will build a factory there. During the festivities, the guerrillas invade, and a hostage situation begins. It drags on, and soon the strict militarism with which the siege begins evolves into a more relaxed system, where the line between terrorist and hostage begins to blur.

It's after that line begins to blur that the book really takes hold. The original three chapters, that describe the scene and introduce us to most of the main characters, are painfully slow. Patchett hits her stride, and the book takes off. For the middle two hundred pages, it's easy to see why the book won the Orange Prize and was shortlisted for so many others. Then comes the climax. My initial reaction is that it was the biggest letdown I'd had in a novel in a number of years, and that's saying something.

I don't know enough about Greek tragic opera to really make a judgment one way or the other as to the accuracy of Patchett's patterning.

Such is not the case here, and it certainly kept me from enjoying the book as a whole as much as I otherwise would have. Great middle. Mediocre beginning. Awful ending. Still, the hundred pages that are worth saving are remarkable, and worth the price of admission.

There are certain books which start with a bang and drag you in. And before you know, you are in the midst of the story. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett is one such book. It is a birthday party in honour of Mr. Hosokawa, a Japanese tycoon, in the Vice Presidential mansion in an unnamed Latin American country, whose government hopes he will invest there. Hosokawa, however, has come only to hear the famous lyric soprano Roxane Coss perform live - he has been an opera lover all his life, and a fan of There are certain books which start with a bang and drag you in.

Hosokawa, however, has come only to hear the famous lyric soprano Roxane Coss perform live - he has been an opera lover all his life, and a fan of this famous singer from Chicago ever since he first heard her. At the conclusion of the performance, the lights go off and when they come back on, the party find themselves hostages of La Familia de Martin Suarez, a revolutionary organisation which are dime a dozen in most of these banana republics.

They have come for the president, who was to have attended the function - but who cancelled at the last minute and decided to stay at home to watch his favourite soap opera. So the terrorists are in a quandary. Ultimately they decide to keep the more famous and influential of the hostages and let the others go. These number forty - thirty-nine men and one woman, Roxanne Coss.

What follows is the surreal existence of fifty-eight people - forty hostages and eighteen terrorists - in the palatial villa of the Vice President, Ruben Iglesias. Apart from him, there is Hosokawa and Roxane; Hosokawa's interpreter Gen Watanabe; the French Ambassador Simon Thibault; A trio of hot-blooded Russian dignitaries; the priest Arguedas, who even after being released refuses to go as he feels his duty is with the prisoners; Kato, an employee in Hosokawa's organisation who finds hidden talents within himself as an accompanist to Roxane.

Among the revolutionaries, there are the generals led by the shingle-infected Benjamin; the brainy Ishmael, who learns chess by watching; the talented Cesar, who is accepted as a pupil by Roxane; and Carmen, the girl soldier, who wants to be taught to read and write by Gen Watanabe. As the days go by and weeks stretch into months, the boundaries between captive and captor become blurred and it just becomes a seething mass of humanity trying to make sense of life at close quarters, in a suspended-animation-like existence where Roxane's singing is the only constant, the fulcrum around which their lives revolve.

Everyone is in love with Roxane. Not as a person, or even as a woman; but as a symbol of the divine art which flows through her.

Everyone want to possess her, be her - whether it is the millionaire Hosokawa, the government functionary Fyodorov, padre Arguedas, the girl revolutionary Carmen or even the kid Cesar who gets an erection when she sings. It is not coincidental that the novel opens with the sentence "When the lights went off the accompanist kissed her. When she says she cannot live without singing, Father Arguedas arranges to get sheet music for her, and Kato jumps in as accompanist.

From then on, life in the hostage camp is a musical journey. Apart from Roxane, the one character who holds the novel together is Gen Watanabe. In his capacity of translator, he becomes the tongue and ears of the imprisoned tower of Babel. As the days go by, the languages mix and meld and Gen becomes not only a translator - but a teacher too: most importantly, a teacher to young Carmen in the china cupboard at two o'clock in the morning - of Spanish, English and the pleasures of love.

Language and music form the twin threads around which the narrative is woven. In Sanskrit, there is a couplet which says: "Music and literature are two breasts of the Goddess Saraswati: one, all sweetness from top to bottom; the other, nectar to thought. There is a type of movie in which the protagonists meet, interact, form and break relationships in the space of a limited amount of hours, in a gathering where they are forced into close quarters - Jean Renoir's Rules of the Game being the classic example.

Here, the Vice President learns the pleasures of housework; the French Ambassador relearns his culinary skills; Cesar and Kato unleash their inner musicians; and Hosokawa and Roxane, and Gen and Carmen, fall in love.

However, the narrative here is anything but realistic: it seems poised on the threshold of magical realism, a nod to which is slyly given in the form of one of the revolutionaries reading One Hundred Years of Solitude , and complaining it would take him "a hundred years to complete it. This is what I got. The prose is like Ernest Hemingway and P. Wodehouse collaborating. A wonderful read! View all 4 comments. Jun 24, jo added it. View all 21 comments.

I am so upset. But not for the reasons one might expect. The fact that it was not a happy ending was expected. On the contrary, most authors would have made a happy ending out of this story, and I applaud Ann Patchett for not taking the easy way out- however much I wanted it for all the characters I became attached to.

Which she did was not necessarily worse, but definitely as bad. It was not only sudden, but seemingly random. Almost as if she was rushed to meet a deadline. Almost exactly in the I am so upset. Because the hostage situation is finally over.

In an unknown country, in the home of the Vice President, a birthday party is held for Katsumi Hosokawa, the visiting chairman of a large Japanese company and opera enthusiast. To get Hosokawa to invest in the country, famous soprano Roxane Coss is scheduled to perform as the highlight of the party.

Near the end, a ",very reasonable" band of terrorists emerge, turning into a hostage situation when they realize the President is not present, as expected.

He elected, instead, to watch his soap opera, changing his mind at the last minute. After some negotiations, bring reasonable terrorists, there are thirty nine hostages kept, the rest released. Among the remaining hostages are not only Hosokawa and Roxane Coss, but an assortment of Russian, Italian, and French diplomatic types.

Swiss Red Cross negotiator Messner is roped into service while vacationing. He comes and goes, wrangling over terms and demands, and the days stretch into weeks, the weeks into months. Yes, I said months. Over four months total. And everyone is friendly and no one is shot and there are a few love affairs. Not really. I actually was not glad to find out this was based on a true story. Somehow, it seemed, disrespectful, for lack of a better word.

It was based on the Lima Crisis in Peru. Yes, the unnamed country was Peru. Which was ridiculous, how far Patchett went to avoid naming the country, using all sorts of pronouns. She should have simply made one up if she was not at liberty to use "Peru", instead of making it a distracting "secret". Alas, how true to life was it? Definitely based on a true story, not a true story. Stretching the definition on that, even. Alas, this is my third Ann Patchett novel, and, as always, her stories are character based.

This is what she does best, and does her best yet as far as the ones I have read in "Bel Canto". I did fall in love with many if not all of the characters. There were a few more characters than I would have liked to keep track of throughout. The omniscient third person point of view really catered to this book well, floating from room to room, character to character.

That being said, supposedly this categorized "Bel Canto" as magical realism? I suppose that is one way to define the genre, but not mine. Magical Realism is incorporating fantastical or magical elements into an otherwise rational world, and this was more making a true life event unbelievable with overt scenarios.

Not even merely sugarcoating, but making things up. The terrorists playing soccer with the hostages? Falling in love with each other, rendezvous at two in the morning in the kitchen cabinet? Alas, here are my reasons, why Patchett's beautiful use of language, coupled with her insightfulness and my consequential love for the characters she creates ultimately outweighed the idealizing and romanticizing.

They cried they cried for the beauty of the music, but also for the failure of their plans. They were thinking of the last time they had her sing and longed for the women who had been beside them then. All of the love and the longing a body can contain was spun into not more than two and a half minutes, and when she came to the highest note it seems that all they had been given in their life and all they have them came together and made a weight that was almost impossible to bear.

Her voice vibrating the tiny bones deep inside his ear. Her voice stays inside him, becomes him. She is singing her part to him, and to a thousand other people. He is anonymous, equal, loved.

Yes, love can transcend language. How we all might find out audacious, glorious, magnificent, impossible things about ourselves and each other if only given the opportunity.

If only given the chance, we might do things we never thought possible. Of course, in this rendition, they are all for the positive. My thoughts on the characters. Ben is the main guy, he has a family, is very "reasonable, is proud of his terrorists, expresses regret for recruiting some of the girls. Plays chess with Hosokawa. Recruits Beatriz, Carmen, Cesar, Ishmael.

Beatriz is addicted to the Maria Soap Opera, Hosokawa gives her a watch even so she knows when it starts one in the afternoon. Yes, the same soap opera the President neglected attendance for. She also tires confession for the first time there, a sort of coming of age. Carmen, I adored her. Vivacious young girl, torn between her duties and what she sees as noble efforts and her love for Gen.

Was very good at being invisible, guided Hosokawa in his rendezvous, to get him upstairs to get room. Cesar is an unborn until now amazing Soprano, becomes a prodigy to Roxanne when he sings out loud for the first time the night after Roxane and Hosokawa's first time together, she being asleep when she typically does her daily practicing.

Ishmael impressed everyone by learning chess by watching. He is small for his age, thus impressing even more in his hard work, always more than the others. He dares to believe. Oscar Mendoza is great friends with Ruven, often worries about his family, fearing his wife unknowingly allowing young boys to take advantage of his daughters the way he did her when they were younger , to the point of dreaming murdering them.

He is an example of an interesting character. Simon Thibault is the French who cried himself to sleep, caressing his wife Edith's scarf, having reestablished his love for her during the hostage situation, realizing how much he loves her, before she is released. Victor Fyordorv proclaims his love to Roxane Costs with a cute, sentimental story about how his grandmother, above all, treasured a book of impressionist paintings, used gloves to turn the pages, only took it out sometimes, teaching him to appreciate art thus Roxane and thus gives him some "permission" to love her.

Vice President Ruben Iglesias. Thus is his place. Throughout the four plus months, he continues to serve as host, realizing how pampered he is, learns to truly appreciate Esmeralda, his maid who actually is the one to stitch a wounds inflicted during the situation, before she is released. He misses his children, his wife, wants to adopt Ishmael. Messner seems to want to be on both sides, obviously unsuccessful in negotiating anything.

Father Arguedas holding confession with two chairs pulled aside, an arrangement everyone, terrorists and hostage alike, respect.

He is the one hostage that volunteers to stay, not once, but twice. Tetsuya Kato is the pianist, replacing Christoph, when he dies of a diabetic insulin insufficiency. He used to be a secret pianist, but was the only one there when Roxane needed a pianist. Turns out he is a maestro, had him wondering what he will do when real life returns. First love affair. Roxane Coss, the great. Did not really like her, although Hosokawa send to make her a better person and more humbled.

Christoph had shared his love for her on the plane, she had shunned him, she feels regret. Hosokawa discovers happiness for the first run.

Probably the most changed character. His love for Roxane change him, shows him works and things he never imagined possible. Family and his wife were arranged, he used to see it as an obligation, time was everything. Now, in this works where tune had been suspended, he never wants to leave this was woman that does not even share his language.

Second love, which I savored so much more. Carmen the beautiful young terrorist and Gen the translator. How they shyly like at each other and how that became her asking him to teach her Spanish to studying in the kitchen cabinet to get taking him outside onto the grass under the moonlight to make love to the promise of studying English and Spanish for two hours before making love but being unable to keep that promise.

Young love in their twenties. Not only young love, but audacious, unimaginable, compelling disremembering love. Now, the ending? So why not wed Gen and Roxane? So it occurred in real life. Well, it did not fit this story, in which Carmen and Gen made such a lovely story.

The same goes for Hosokawa and Roxane. Totally made their stories, the entire novel, disingenuousness. A generous four stars, although this is only by practicing my own disremembering in regards to the ending. Readers also enjoyed. Literary Fiction.

Book Club. Adult Fiction. About Ann Patchett. Ann Patchett. Patchett was born in Los Angeles, California. Her mother is the novelist Jeanne Ray. She moved to Nashville, Tennessee when she was six, where she continues to live. Patchett said she loves her home in Nashville with her doctor husband and dog. If asked if she could go any place, that place would always be home. Bernard Academy, a private, non-parochial Catholic school for girls run by the Sisters of Mercy.

It was also there that she wrote her first novel, The Patron Saint of Liars. In , when she found that her hometown of Nashville no longer had a good book store, she co-founded Parnassus Books with Karen Hayes; the store opened in November Books by Ann Patchett. Articles featuring this book. Need another excuse to go to the bookstore this week? We've got you covered with the buzziest new releases of the day. To create our list, Read more Trivia About Bel Canto.

Quotes from Bel Canto. All the brilliant things we might have done with our lives if only we suspected we knew how. Don't you think? It is a kind of talent in itself, to be an audience, whether you are the spectator in the gallery or you are listening to the voice of the world's greatest soprano.

They fear what will happen when their captivity ends. Messner, the Red Cross representative, continues to be the sole outsider to visit the mansion. He, too, grows fond of the terrorists. The terrorists try to forget about what will happen to them in the end, but Messner tries to convince them to surrender. He tells them repeatedly that there is no other hope, but they refuse to listen, since they know that surrendering will mean imprisonment and, most likely, death. After four months have passed, government troops storm the mansion and kill all the terrorists, including Carmen.

Ace your assignments with our guide to Bel Canto! SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Themes Motifs Symbols. Important Quotes Explained.

Mini Essays Suggested Essay Topics. Summary Full Book Summary. The novel ends with an epilogue in which Coss and Watanabe marry. Previous section Epilogue Next section Key Facts. Popular pages: Bel Canto. Take a Study Break.