I felt I was being held by the hand and led through a surreal and harmonious encounter under the most ridiculous circumstance starting from the very first chapter of "Bel Canto". Amazing power in narrative, Ann Patchett has this great charm in her story telling. The New Yorker described the novel as "tragicomic" and I cannot agree more. There is this constant but subtle ironic humour that tickles you, soft enough that it would not make you laugh, but it is for sure there to lift your smile. I love this book. It portrays a constant nagging of time and ending when all we want to do, and can only do, is to treasure and be hypnotized by the moment. I have never seen how wild imagination can be this close to life. Bravo!

The Peruvian government is hosting a party for Japanese business man Mr. Hosokawa. In honour of his birthday, and in an attempt to encourage him to open a factory in their country, they have hired opera singer Roxanne Coss to perform at the party. Unknown to them, terrorists plan to invade the party and take the President hostage. These plans are thwarted when they find that the President is not in attendence and in his place they take all the party attendees as hostages.

I listened to this as an audiobook that I downloaded from my library. It was read by Anna Fields and produced by Blackstone Audio. When I first listened to an excerpt I was a bit put off by the thick, almost too thick accent, of the reader and I remember rolling my eyes and thinking "oh no, not another overly fake accent". I decided to download anyway and give it a try. I'm glad I did as I later found that the guests at the party were from many countries and they spoke a number of languages which the reader aptly portrayed.

While Mr. Hosokawa and Roxanne Coss and their budding romance were the main focus of the story, it was to Gen, Mr. Hosokawa's translator, that the greatest role fell. Without him, everything would have fallen apart due to mis-understandings and mis-communications. It seemed to me that he was the 'sounding board' between the terrorists, the hostages, and the outside world. Most of the time he provided simultaneous translations, but at other times, he would wait before carrying messages between parties. Time for reflection or just for Gen to hold onto some control?


The character of Messner, the Red Cross representative, played the important roll of keeping the story grounded. He reminded us of the practicalities of life, food and medicine, and the realities of the situation, that this hostage taking could not go on forever.

I've never been taken hostage and I can't imagine what it would be like. Is this story a case of Stockholm Syndrome where the hostages start to identify with their abductors. In my opinion, the hostages grow to know their abductors as people. People with families, goals, yearnings (learning to read, to sing, to play chess) just like themselves have lives outside of the vice-president's mansion.


Ann Patchett has written a very compelling book. I didn't want to stop my recording when my car trips ended. I wanted to keep listening to see what happened next. Without giving away anything, I want to say that I was surprised by the adruptness of the ending, though it was appropriate. I wanted the story to continue, to see the progress of the reading lessons, to have the new chess player win....

did enjoy this book, however felt that certain things were left up in the air. Characters developed, that you never hear about again. Also the epilogue seemed unnecessary to me. It is very successful at creating a "cozy" atmosphere though. I enjoyed it, but can not say I LOVEd the book.

This book grabbed me from the beginning. There is such a style to her writing that wouldn't let me put the book down. When you hear it is about a hostage situation in a South American country you might think a high action book. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is a quiet book but a powerful one and I think I'm going to be thinking back on it a lot. I really like her writing style. I just read Run by the same author and didn't like it but loved the writing. This one was the whole package.