A review by sharkybookshelf
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

3.0

A South American government throws a lavish birthday party for Japanese businessman Mr Hosokawa - renowned soprano Roxanne Cross has just finished singing for the illustrious guests when a band of gun-toting guerrillas take over the house and a hostage situation develops…

This one has an intriguing premise - the differences on every level between the eminent international guests and the guerrillas, the dynamics of Roxane Cross as the only female hostage, the different ways the various nationalities react to the situation - there’s a lot of potential there, but it just didn’t quite come together for me.

Patchett’s writing is very accomplished and she’s clearly an astute observer of the small details of human nature and the connections people form, but there was something missing and I can’t quite put my finger on it. The pacing didn’t help - nothing much really happens for most of the book. Sure, it reflects the monotony of the hostages’ days and the way they settle into their situation, but as a reader it’s a bit of a drag, and by the time the plot does take off near the end, it’s too much, too late. And this is coming from somebody who doesn’t mind a quiet book.

Something that ended up really bothering me was that the South American country in which this was set is unnamed and that felt like an excuse to lazily lean into generic stereotypes of how South American countries function. I’m not sure it would quite fly in a book published today.

An accomplished character study of how different people might react to a hostage situation, the way humans seek connection and the deep emotion of music, but missing some pizzazz.