I wasn't sure I was going to like Ann Patchett's novel Bel Canto
when I started reading it. I mean - it didn't seem like a book that
would either grab my interest or hold it. But a funny thing
happened to me about 75 pages in...I started to care about these
characters.
Bel Canto is actually based loosely on something that happened in
Lima, Peru. On December 17, 1996, the terrorist organization Tupac
Amaru took over the Japanese embassy there. From this nugget of
truth, Patchett unspools the story. It's Mr. Hosokawa's birthday
and the government of an unnamed South American country are hoping
he will open an electronics plant there. They have hired Roxane
Coss to sing and the only reason Mr. Hosokawa has agreed to attend
the party is because she will be there; he is an opera fan and she
is the best soprano in the world. The party is being held at the
home of the country's Vice-President; the President had to attend
to 'matters in Israel'. In the middle of the festivities, the house
is taken over by a group of terrorists.
What happens when a group of wildly different people are forced to
share close quarters? The book forces the characters- a wonderful,
eccentric group- to be both more and less than they are. A priest,
for example, finally has the opportunity to hear confession; Mr.
Hosokawa's translator, a central character named Gen Wantanabe,
gets to converse in Spanish, German, French, English, and Russian
and because of it- is privy to people's most private thoughts and
Roxane Coss uses the power of her voice to tame the savage beast-
so to speak.
The terrorists themselves are also central to the story and we
learn much about them...and I dare say, we come to care for them
every bit as much as we care for the privileged party-goers. There
is a message to be had in this book and Patchett's fine prose
illustrates that without hitting the reader over the head. This was
a book club selection and, truthfully, not everyone loved this
book.
For me, though, this is a book about love- how it shapes us and
changes us, how beauty transforms and transports and how you just
might take a risk if you thought it might be your last opportunity
to do so.