Bel Canto - Ann Patchett
Last Patchett I read...least favorite of the bunch...though I still liked it. They made a movie out of this but honestly, though I think its on Hulu, I have not been inspired enough to watch it. The book is loosely based on a hostage situation that happened in real life. In the novel, a group of people who gathered at a birthday party to listen to an opera performer are taken hostage. Unfortunately, the main target did not show up so the terrorists settle for a different group of people who, along with the opera singer, end up being held for an indeterminate period of time.
I thought the author's analysis of their response to the situation insightful. I thought that the introduction to and deep dive into the hostages and the terrorists alike was great. The hostages, on observing an act of bravery: "Each asked himself if he would have done the same and each decided the chances were good that he would not." On thinking of how desperate and pitiful her life had been before and could be again, one of the young terrorists desires only that the world let them alone: "Would it be the worst thing in the world if nothing happened at all, if they all stayed together in this generous house? Carmen prayed hard. She prayed while standing near the priest in hopes it would give her request extra credibility. What she prayed for was nothing. She prayed that God would look on them and see the beauty of their existence and leave them alone." My favorite character may have been the hostage negotiator-he was painted so terribly real! You could feel him losing hope page by page by page.
The book was also a love story within a story and love was a recurring theme. "What a sense of humor one would need to believe that the woman you love is not in Tokyo or Paris or New York or Athens...the woman you love is a girl who dressed like a boy and she lives in a village in a jungle..." and later "As for the love...there is nothing to say...it is a gift." Love should always be a gift, should it not? "why should I carry this love with me to the other world? Why not give to you what is yours?"
While to some it may have been welcome, the heavy handed use of musical imagery did not really resonate with me. "Death had made the body dense, as if every recital performed, each day's never-ending practice, came back in those final moments and balanced like lead bars across his chest." I mean, I love Hamilton, I love going to my kids band concerts and I can belt out a country tune with the best of them, but I had a hard time buying into the dramatic use of music as a tool which was pulling these people through this experience. Its like the music was supposed to be another character, the way a house or setting can sometimes be a character in a book...but I just could not get there: "Only Mr. Hosokawa and the priest completely understood the importance of the music. Every note was distinct. It was the measurement of the time which had gotten away from them. It was the interpretation of their lives in the very moment they were being lived." Beautiful writing, sure. But between this reader, Mr. Hosokawa and the priest, they still are the "only" ones who get it.
My observation by around page 250/279 was that the book was interminable...it just seemed to go on and on and on! Which maybe was intentional, because these characters certainly were wallowing in their own troubles for far longer than they wanted to be there. Not such a long book so it really should not have caused me to balk but there it was. Recommend? Sure, it was good. Best book ever? Not by a long shot.
Rating: Liked It #4
I thought the author's analysis of their response to the situation insightful. I thought that the introduction to and deep dive into the hostages and the terrorists alike was great. The hostages, on observing an act of bravery: "Each asked himself if he would have done the same and each decided the chances were good that he would not." On thinking of how desperate and pitiful her life had been before and could be again, one of the young terrorists desires only that the world let them alone: "Would it be the worst thing in the world if nothing happened at all, if they all stayed together in this generous house? Carmen prayed hard. She prayed while standing near the priest in hopes it would give her request extra credibility. What she prayed for was nothing. She prayed that God would look on them and see the beauty of their existence and leave them alone." My favorite character may have been the hostage negotiator-he was painted so terribly real! You could feel him losing hope page by page by page.
The book was also a love story within a story and love was a recurring theme. "What a sense of humor one would need to believe that the woman you love is not in Tokyo or Paris or New York or Athens...the woman you love is a girl who dressed like a boy and she lives in a village in a jungle..." and later "As for the love...there is nothing to say...it is a gift." Love should always be a gift, should it not? "why should I carry this love with me to the other world? Why not give to you what is yours?"
While to some it may have been welcome, the heavy handed use of musical imagery did not really resonate with me. "Death had made the body dense, as if every recital performed, each day's never-ending practice, came back in those final moments and balanced like lead bars across his chest." I mean, I love Hamilton, I love going to my kids band concerts and I can belt out a country tune with the best of them, but I had a hard time buying into the dramatic use of music as a tool which was pulling these people through this experience. Its like the music was supposed to be another character, the way a house or setting can sometimes be a character in a book...but I just could not get there: "Only Mr. Hosokawa and the priest completely understood the importance of the music. Every note was distinct. It was the measurement of the time which had gotten away from them. It was the interpretation of their lives in the very moment they were being lived." Beautiful writing, sure. But between this reader, Mr. Hosokawa and the priest, they still are the "only" ones who get it.
My observation by around page 250/279 was that the book was interminable...it just seemed to go on and on and on! Which maybe was intentional, because these characters certainly were wallowing in their own troubles for far longer than they wanted to be there. Not such a long book so it really should not have caused me to balk but there it was. Recommend? Sure, it was good. Best book ever? Not by a long shot.
Rating: Liked It #4
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