Book #37: Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Ann Patchett is a beautiful writer. I don't know what exactly caught me about this book, but I really became so engrossed in it, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it all day. I started this book yesterday and couldn't put it down (except when we were leaving for the evening) and finished it this morning.

The storyline is basically that there's a group of rich and famous people gathered together in someone's house for a party in some South American country, and then the party is interrupted and taken over by terrorists. They take everyone hostage so that they can make demands of the government, but don't kill anyone. Then a standoff begins between the terrorists and the government that lasts for four and a half months--the hostages and the terrorists living side-by-side, as guards and prisoners, but slowly getting to know each other and finding common ground. One of the hostages is an amazing, world-class opera singer, and her music and the beauty of the music is a huge theme throughout the book--it brings these two totally separate groups together on numerous occasions. I loved Patchett's descriptions of the music and everyone's reactions to it--everyone, all the uneducated teenage terrorists and the wealthy corporate giants, are affected by it and feel the music so strongly. Patchett does a good job of making you feel attached to and familiar with a huge number of different characters--you hear their perspectives and their backgrounds, and even if it's only a paragraph or two, you end up getting to know many more people than you might in another story.

Not to give a big spoiler, but Patchett pretty much does it herself: I thought it was interesting how Patchett pretty much gives away the whole storyline in the first few pages. After describing how the terrorists came in to the party, she says something like, "All the guests at the party were sure they were about to be shot and killed, when in reality it was the terrorists who would be killed in the end." Why did she give that away? Because that part of the story doesn't come until the last three pages, after you're attached to many of the terrorists who are really just young kids and human beings and can't believe the cruelty of the people killing them. I'm not sure if she was just testing to see if you're paying attention, or maybe she thinks you won't believe it as the story progresses and everyone gets so close.