Bel Canto is the 4th book I’ve read by Ann Patchett. A soprano is commissioned to sing for a Japanese businessman in a South American Country. At the gala, terrorists invade the grounds in hopes of taking the country’s president as a hostage. Since he didn’t attend the event, the terrorists took the diplomats and soprano as hostages instead.
The story is classic Stockholm Syndrome with the hostages and terrorists getting to know and like each other. Another plot thread revolved around the different men and how they all loved the soprano. To me it was classic projection: all that was female, love, and good with the world was projected and placed upon the singer.
Character development over the 4 months in prison was detailed for terrorist and hostage alike. They got along in such a way that nobody wanted the time to end. But the grounds were eventually stormed by the government and we have an unhappy ending.
Other readers didn’t like that this story was patterned after a real event. In 1995, the president of Peru and many of his guests were taken hostage and held for months. Bel Canto is a fictitious story based loosely on those events. Other readers didn’t like the epilogue, saying it was unnecessary or spoiled the story. It was well written and engaging tale.
