Lately my life has been a lot of travel, on planes, trains, and in a station wagon that is so beat up I am pretty sure it's not going to pass...
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LAB, January 30, 2013 (view all comments by LAB)
Bel Canto is a great book. The characters are interesting, well developed and unique. The story is easy to get into and stays with you. I'm not sure that the epilogue was necessary (and I think the book would be slightly improved without it), but it did not detract overall from an excellent read.
Howling Fantods, January 7, 2013 (view all comments by Howling Fantods)
This is, by far, the best book I read in 2012. Upon reading the last sentence, I wanted to turn back to the first page & start it all over again.
thomas.susanw, January 1, 2013 (view all comments by thomas.susanw)
Gave it five stars even though the ending troubled me. I still think back on this book a lot and look forward to reading more of Patchett's work.
njfb128, January 1, 2013 (view all comments by njfb128)
Maybe the most unique and certainly one of the most beautifully written books in my experience. The reader is drawn slowly but inexorably into identification with, or recognition of, the characters and a total involvement in the unfolding story.
"Review A Day"
by Laura Miller, Salon.com,
"There are quite a few improbable aspects to Bel Canto, but the handful of times when I found my head popping above the surface of Patchett's novel to catch a quick lungful of realism — is it really possible that among a group of 57 assorted men there wouldn't be one opera hater or homosexual? — I was promptly sucked back under the surface by the book's bewitching undertow. This is a story of passionate, doomed love; of the glory of art; of the triumph of our shared humanity over the forces that divide us, and a couple of other unbearably cheesy themes, and yet Patchett makes it work, completely." (click here to read the entire Salon.com review)
"Review"
by Madison Smartt Bell,
"Bel Canto has all the qualities one has come to expect from a classic Ann Patchett novel: grace, beauty, elegance, and magic."
"Review"
by Kirkus Reviews,
"Patchett creates a remarkably compelling chronicle of a multinational group of the rich and powerful held hostage for months....Readers may intellectually reject the author's willingness to embrace the terrorists' humanity, but only the hardest heart will not succumb....Brilliant."
"Review"
by A. Manette Ansay, author of Midnight Champagne,
"Let me put this plainly: Ann Patchett has written the best book I've read in a long, long time. Bel Canto is a masterpiece true to its title, a beautiful song, a broad, bold entirely original love story destined to become an international classic. This is the book we all wait for, the one we thrust into the hands of friends, saying, 'You've got to read this! You've got to read this now!'"
"Review"
by The New Yorker,
"Patchett's tragicomic novel — a fantasia of guns and Puccini and Red Cross negotiations — invokes the glorious, unreliable promises of art, politics, and love. Against this grand backdrop, the smallest gestures bloom with meaning."
"Review"
by Janet Maslin, New York Times,
"[An] elegantly alluring book....Although this novel is entirely housebound, at the vice presidential mansion, Ms. Patchett works wonders to avoid any sense of claustrophobia and keeps the place fresh at every turn."
"Review"
by John Valentine, Independent Online,
"Ann Patchett's latest novel sneaks up so stealthily on the reader that before you know it, you've already skipped a meal or missed your meeting....The power and majesty of music, the power and acceptability of good writing. It's all there in Ann Patchett's Bel Canto."
"Synopsis"
by Ingram,
From the bestselling author of The Magician's Assistant comes a marvelous novel of love, opera, and terrorism set in South America. Two couples, complete opposites, fall in love; sexual identities become confused; and a horrific imprisonment is transformed into an unexpected heaven on earth.
"Synopsis"
by Harper Collins,
Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of Mr. Hosokawa, a powerful Japanese businessman. Roxanne Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerized the international guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening — until a band of gun-wielding terrorists breaks in through the air-conditioning vents and takes the entire party hostage. But what begins as a panicked, life-threatening scenario slowly evolves into something quite different, as terrorists and hostages forge unexpected bonds and people from different countries and continents become compatriots.Friendship, compassion, and the chance for great love lead the characters to forget the real danger that has been set in motion and cannot be stopped.
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