What readers think of Bel Canto, plus links to write your own review.

As a soprano who has sung some of the pieces with which Roxane Coss mesmerized her unlikely audience, I was thrilled to think again the truth that something beautiful can be transforming - if only for a brief time. I see and hear news accounts on any day of such hostage takeovers, and Patty Hearst's story resonated with me from its beginning, but somehow this novel puts me more deeply into the world of unreconcilable differences: this fiction tells more truth than the news. Each character was so believeable, with one exception: Kato. For a person to have had that kind of artistry and capability, never having lived in the music world, is for me a more than remote possibility. But the obseration that "...the people in the living room of the vice-presidential mansion listened to Kato with hunger and nothing in their lives had ever fed them so well...". gives a new hope to me that there is another way for me to nourish others. What if each of us could have yearly R&R in a place or situation which removes time from the equation?

I found the book an easy and pleasant read; with the exception of the first seventy or so pages, I read the entire novel on a flight from Salt Lake City to Baltimore via Denver. While I have nothing particularly negative to say about the novel, neither do I have anything particularly positive to say about it. I don't think the novel had anything unique to add about the nature of the hostage/captor relationship (what's new about everyone being a hostage to fate?), the nature and allure of art, or the elusive nature of love. The epilogue, while not totally implausible (the opera singer, Japanese industrialist, his translator and the female terrorist were in many ways a foursome, so the epilogue does have a kind of logic to it), is not particularly satisfying. Unlike most of the critics, I didn't find the book lyrically emotional; I thought it was pretty flat and by the numbers. I'm interested to see what the other members of our book club thought of it.

Political farce gets a new face. Some people have a hard time stomaching after 9/11, but just goes to show the books power. Very sublime. Laugh out loud and yet completely tragic. I love this book. It's like neo-magical realism. Can't wait to read the rest of the authors works. Bravo!

This book was enthralling, and our book group found a great deal of topics to discuss. Patchett's writing is eloquent and easy to read. Although unbelievable at times, the book cleverly winds around the minds of the individual hostages and their captors giving us a taste of what it might be like to be a hostage for the long haul. I am a musician, and the author clearly did her research on the musical aspect as she beautifully wove it through the story. This book was chock full of fascinating and intricate characters. The action takes a lull about three quarters of the way through, but the desire to find out what happens to the hostages and the almost likable captors will keep you reading on. It has a quirky surprise ending that is very debatable.

Even thou the premise of the book is predictable and some what under developed, the charcter interaction and communication is enjoyable. The author has the ability, albeit for a short period of the book, to make forget that the hostage situation goes for over a month, with the reader feeling some empathy for the characters and sometimes smiling with them as well. But generally the book trades on sentimentality with no substance.

Although this book is based on a true event it is too unbelievable. A famous opera diva, a brilliant piantist, a child prodigy, a translator who speaks twenty languages, a friend of a priest who has all the sheet music known to man and terrorists who play soccer with their foe on the front lawn. I was waiting for the flock of pigs flying south for the winter to pass by. They can probably sing too.

The interaction of the characters was riveting. After page 100 I couldn't put it down. I very much enjoyed the way the author went from one character to another and told their background story and their side of the event. It gave the reader multiple perspectives and allowed you to see what drove the characters to act the way that they did.

Ironically, the novel is rather comical. Ann Patchett is able to take a tense frightening situation and turn it into an entertaining situation in which the reader can take pleasure and giggle while reading. Without the comedy in this book it is nothing more than childish prose containing boring stories about an unreal situation happening to characters to whom the reader feels no connection or interest to what-so-ever. Many people do not see the comical way in which the author writes, making the experience of reading the novel painful and giving the reader a sick sensation of the author's seemingly disreguard for hostage situations. The only reason this book is assigned in English classes is so the Teachers/Professors can feel like they are being diverse and cultural.