Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

Read this several years ago, I think it was recommended by one of my swimming friends. It was a wonderful read then and now. Maybe a little more difficult to read now because I know what is going to happen. I had forgotten some of the minor characters and they were definitely worth remembering.

This is the current read for the online book club, the possible misinterpretations by the young members who are sure there is a political agenda in everything make me nervous. At least there have been neither bursts of adoration nor sulky "I don't get it"s.

The title plays at many levels, something that I missed (or have forgotten) the first time I read it. We have the obvious: the soprano, Roxane, who was the bait to get all of the others together in the remote location. Her "beautiful song" changes every one of them. The romances are songs of their own. The affection that grows between the child terrorists and the hostages who recognize them as human beings in ways that their commanders do not. The Frenchman who discovers that he is desperately in love with his wife, and that he can operate as a chef. The Russian who (along with all of the other hostages) is in love with Roxane, but wants only to confess it to her, not to possess her. The Japanese businessman who creates a new identity for himself as a pianist and accompanist. And the list goes on.

I was intrigued by the fact that Patchett based the novel on an actual incident, which I had never heard of - the taking of several hundred people at the Japanese embassy in Peru (I think). It reminds me of the way that Brooks creates a host of characters and events over five centuries based on the existence of a book.

June 6
The online book club almost unanimously (well, of the three or four members who had anything to say) hated the book. Discussion just flat didn't happen. So, just to satisfy myself, I am posting here a list of reasons that I made for liking the book (may be a little redundant):

I liked the way that Patchett created a "lab" setting for a collection of vastly different characters.

I liked the parallels between the two central characters, Roxane and Gen. The others all rotated around the two of them. Gen because he was the only one who could communicate directly with almost everyone with and Roxane's music touched and changed all of them.

I suppose you could call it Stockholm Syndrome, but I liked the way that the child guerrillas found new role models and a different way of thinking from observing and interacting with the hostages and the way that the hostages "adopted" the children.

I liked the passionate Russian, whose passion required only verbal expression, not possession.

I liked the Frenchman who fell in love with his own wife when he thought that he had lost her - and who became his own national stereotype by becoming the chef for the group.

I liked the Japanese businessman who became a different person by becoming Roxane's accompanist.

There are frequent references to the almost surreal nature of the situation, and on first reading I wondered how Patchett would handle the inevitable transition back to reality and the few truly intense relationships: the boy that the Vice President planned to adopt, the young singer that Roxane was going to train, Gen and the guerrilla girl, Roxane and the Japanese businessman and opera aficionado. The last two at least were utterly impossible in the "real" world. Perhaps her settlement was a little "pat" but the bonding of the survivors definitely plays.