Purchased at the Aspinwall Saturday flea market.


In an unnamed South American country, a world-renowned soprano sings at a birthday party in honor of a visiting Japanese industrial titan. His hosts hope that Mr. Hosokawa can be persuaded to build a factory in their Third World backwater. Alas, in the opening sequence, just as the accompanist kisses the soprano, a ragtag band of 18 terrorists enters the vice-presidential mansion through the air conditioning ducts. Their quarry is the president, who has unfortunately stayed home to watch a favorite soap opera. And thus, from the beginning, things go awry.

Among the hostages are not only Hosokawa and Roxane Coss, the American soprano, but an assortment of Russian, Italian, and French diplomatic types. Reuben Iglesias, the diminutive and gracious vice president, quickly gets sideways of the kidnappers, who have no interest in him whatsoever. Meanwhile, a Swiss Red Cross negotiator named Joachim Messner is roped into service while vacationing. He comes and goes, wrangling over terms and demands, and the days stretch into weeks, the weeks into months.

With the omniscience of magic realism, Ann Patchett flits in and out of the hearts and psyches of hostage and terrorist alike, and in doing so reveals a profound, shared humanity. Her voice is suitably lyrical, melodic, full of warmth and compassion. Hearing opera sung live for the first time, a young priest reflects:

Never had he thought, never once, that such a woman existed, one who stood so close to God that God's own voice poured from her. How far she must have gone inside herself to call up that voice. It was as if the voice came from the center part of the earth and by the sheer effort and diligence of her will she had pulled it up through the dirt and rock and through the floorboards of the house, up into her feet, where it pulled through her, reaching, lifting, warmed by her, and then out of the white lily of her throat and straight to God in heaven.

Joined by no common language except music, the 58 international hostages and their captors forge unexpected bonds. Time stands still, priorities rearrange themselves. Ultimately, of course, something has to give, even in a novel so imbued with the rich imaginative potential of magic realism. But in a fractious world, Bel Canto remains a gentle reminder of the transcendence of beauty and love. --Victoria Jenkins

This book is going to be at the bottom of my Mt. TBR for quite some time. So instead of having it sit around being lonely, I thought it could travel on a bookring and make some new friends!

Here is what I ask of the BookCrossers that join my rings:

1) Have fun!!

2) Please make a journal entry when you receive the book so that we know it arrived safely. It is a cold, cruel world out there after all!

3) Please keep us updated on your reading status. I like to have low-stress bookrings, so I'm not a big time stickler, but please keep everyone apprised of your time frame.

4) Enjoy the book! When you've finished, please make a journal entry with your thoughts on it. (This is my favorite part of bookrings!) It's fine if you just want to put your release note in with this one. If you want to do it separately, that's okay too.

5) Pass it along, and sit back and enjoy the journal alerts (I certainly do)!

Here is the ring order. I will adjust it as more people join the ring to allow for geography, shipping preferences, and other considerations. The person who has the book will be shown in boldface.

Thanks for playing with me guys!

1) AtHomeGoddess - CA (ships INT)
2) iguana-girl - Ontario, Canada (ships NA)
3) Luintaurien - NE (ships INT)
4) teachie - UK (skipped)
5) wordster - Scotland, UK (skipped)
6) synergy - TX (ships US)
7) UTdaisy - TX
8) atnaturesmercy - NJ (ships US/Can)
9) Satnam - NH
10) Grannyann - NY (ships US)

...and back to me (and I will have moved, so please be sure and double check my addy!)

RELEASE NOTES:

And we're off!

I hope you all enjoy it. Thanks again for playing with me.

Best wishes, AtHomeGoddess.

Came back from vacation to find this in my mail. Hurray! I'll be starting the book this week.

What a powerful story! It was so interesting to read the way the relationships and dynamics of captors-prisoners evolved and changed. I was most taken in by Gen and his multi-faceted role in the group.

Though the ending was what could be expected, I still found myself shocked. I didn't want what I KNEW was coming to be coming...I was rooting for the 'bad guys'!

Thanks, mlbish, for the chance to read this great book.

RELEASE NOTES:

Sending it off to the next person in the bookring, Iguana-Girl.

This book arrived today. I've heard very good things about it - I'll start it right away. Thanks for sharing, mlbish!

I loved this book. The writing style is so beautiful. I'm definitely going to check out some of her other books. Thanks so much mlbish for starting this ring.

Got it today. Will read and pass on ASAP. Thank you.

Can't get into this so sending it on.

teachie asked to be skipped. Pming the next person.

mirp asked to be skipped. Trying to contact next person.

Can't contact wordster so going on to next person

RELEASE NOTES:

This book came in the mail yesterday and I started to read it last night. Book review coming soon!

2006 Book #6 : Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
At first I wasn't sure if I was going to really care for this book. The beginning was slow to start, but being a book masochist I usually tend to give books I pick a lot of benefit of the doubt. This book I kept reading because even though I wasn't finding the plot itself particularly interesting, the writing style was rather good. Pratchett definitely has skill in describing a scene or an object, of turning a phrase that's for certain. All without getting too wordy or stretching out the description for too long.

Speaking of objects, one of the things that was really annoying me was Patchett's description of the opera singer and how all these men viewed her. That's my prejudice, though, in that I find irritating when men describe women as though they're, say, a pretty vase - more like an object than a living, breathing human being.

I was glad when the book turned more interesting about halfway through. Focusing more on the Japanese translator, Gen, was more satisfying for me I guess because his point of view was elaborated more.

Not to spoil the ending (the epilogue in particular), but I found it left me quite puzzled with how everything went down. I figured that there was no way things would turn out like a fairy tale especially for some of the people involved, but the ending was like having been swimming lazily in a heated pool and then getting picked up and dunked in the cold deep end. I still don't get some of it. Eh bien.

I rate this book 7 stars instead of 5 or 6 because of the puzzling, surprise ending. I like it when books surprise me at the end.

I finished this book Thursday night and emailed UTDaisy. Today I media mailed it off to her and she should get it in the mail sometime within the next week.

Caught! Thank you! The postcards are lovely.

My, this is a well-traveled book!