Bel Canto has been on my TBR list for many years, but I didn't prioritise it until a colleague at work recommended Ann Patchett to me as one of her favourite authors. It won the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2002 and was number 98 on the New York Times Best 100 Books for the 21st Century list, so it seemed life the perfect place to start. I’m glad I finally read it.
The story begins with a lavish birthday party in an unnamed South American country. A world-famous soprano Roxanne Coss has been flown in to perform for a wealthy Japanese businessman who loves opera. The house is full of politicians, diplomats, and high-society guests. But then, suddenly, the house is full of armed guerillas intending to kidnap the President, who, inconveniently, stayed home that night. So begins a hostage situation that lasts for months.
It sounds like the set-up for a thriller, but Bel Canto isn’t that kind of novel. The novel is tense, but not of the propelling, page-turning kind. What surprised me was how still the novel felt. It felt as though everyone, captors and captives, took a deep breath in and didn't let it go. What Ann Patchett seemed interested in was what happens between the hostages and their captors. How did they adapt and connect with one another.
Over time, the opera singer keeps singing, the captors play soccer with the hostages and an odd, tender kind of family forms within the walls of the vice president’s mansion. No one speaks the same language and there is only one interpreter but ultimately they are communicating with a different type of language that allows them to find something beautiful and human in the middle of fear and imprisonment.
As you can tell, I did enjoy Bel Canto, even though I tend to prefer novels with a bit more momentum. This one meanders softly, beautiful but slow. Maybe Patchett was trying to have the story reflect Roxanne Coss's music. Patchett wants you to understand all of the characters, regardless of their side.
It’s the first Ann Patchett I’ve read, and I can see why she’s so beloved. I think I’ll be trying more. I was thinking of readingTom Lake next, but if you have a recommendation please let me know.
3 stars: It was good, I liked it
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