Monday, December 10, 2012

In which I fulfill my contractual obligations

Bel Canto easily wins the prize for the book I have most often put in my suitcase or purse with the intention of reading it, but then not reading it, and even buying other books to read instead. I threw it into my box at the Open Books warehouse sale with Alice because she said she liked it and the box was one flat price. Since then it's done a lot of traveling. But I have finally, at last, read it, and I thought it was therefore appropriate to make it the book post that breaks my not-posting spell, even though I have four (I know, I KNOW) other books that I could potentially write about. (The other ridiculous thing about the non-posting spell is that I made a special effort to post even when I was travelling for two weeks, and then promptly dropped the ball as soon as I got back home.)


So, Bel Canto is a focused sort of book. An opera singer, a Japanese businessman, and a hodge-podge of international guests are taken hostage in an unnamed Latin American country. As the days and weeks go by, relationships start to break down barriers and suddenly potential for life and happiness is everywhere despite the outwardly desperate circumstances. In the end, the "crisis" is more like an unreal, almost magical, moment outside of time -- although, of course, it has to end eventually, in a sudden burst of tragedy.

"Telling detail" is a difficult thing to achieve in writing -- everyone wants to be able to throw in that one little action or trait, wrapped in the perfect bit of language, that will instantly transmit the author's vision to the reader. Patchett is very good at using detail to convey a lot of information, and her descriptions of characters and events and motivations really sucked me in. Every character is distinctly, recognizably a person (well, except for the thirty or so hostages who pretty much don't get mentioned, but that seems inevitable). Once I started the book, it was very easy to keep going to the end. This is really good fiction: enjoyable, engrossing; not overly serious but full of enough humanity to feel worthwhile in some deeper sense.

Ugh, that was so many words that I had to type with my poor little fingers. Is there something else I'm supposed to put in a post? Whatever. Here, it's broadly opera: a bit of The Messiah.


MUSIC, feel its POWER.

8 comments:

  1. Whoa, I was at the Open Books sale this weekend, too! I wish I had seen you and Alice there, that would have been fun :-)

    It's so funny you wrote about Bel Canto today - I was just going through my CPL audiobook wish list and decided to download this one because I've had it on my shelf FOREVER and now just need to read it (even if I still don't read the PHYSICAL copy of it). Glad it's so engrossing!

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    1. Ooo, the audiobook. There are so many languages and nationalities in this book; hopefully that will make for an interesting listening experience.

      I was in Chicago this weekend but didn't end up going to the OB sale because I already had an awkward number of Christmas presents to haul home and didn't want to make it any worse for myself. Also Alice was in NYC (the traitor) so I didn't feel obliged to go. But that would have been awesome if we'd all run into one another there! This book is from... yikes, more than a year ago, I think.

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  2. This sounds so good! I really liked Patchett's State of Wonder, and Bel Canto has been sitting unread on my shelf for months. I need to read it soon! Nice review :)

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    1. Haha! I am heartened/amused that there are several of us who've been putting this book off.

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  3. Bel Canto! I read this book for a first year English class in university. I don't remember much - your review makes me want to read it again. I do remember it being really beautiful and weirdly quiet for such a violent situation.

    Atwood's "Cat's Eye" is my never-read-but-always-carried book right now (it's small and in paperback, you see). I should follow your example and finally read it!

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  4. I LOVE THIS BOOK A STUPID AMOUNT A LOT OK I'M JUST SAYING

    Also I'm really glad you liked it. I think Ann Patchett's one of our legit good authors today. And she's also supposed to be really nice, so that is awesome.

    P.S. Roxanne Coss (sp?) is supposed to sound like Renee Fleming.

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    1. Also The Messiah is an oratorio, damnit. I am not allowed to sing stuff from it at auditions.

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    2. "broadly"! Because my opera-major friends in college sang in it. And I just heard on the radio that oratorio became popular because opera was banned during Lent. So, bottom line, I feel you should be allowed to sing from The Messiah during auditions if you want to.

      ALSO I forgot to mention this, but I did not like the name "Roxane Coss" (I think it's one 'n'? but the book is upstairs so whatever). The character is fine, I just didn't like the name. I don't usually have reactions to character names per se, but there it is.

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