Many of the books that I've read recently, not just on my book lists, but also ones that I've read for my own personal interest, are ones that seem to span large periods of time, sometimes even lifetimes, as in the case of The Old Wives Tale. So I delighted in the characters in Bel Canto being all confined to one single location (the vice president's home of a South American country) over a relatively short period of time (~4 months) and the entire story (epilogue excluded - which I'll get to) takes place all within this location and time frame. I absolutely loved it. The familiarity you gain with the setting, with each room, with the layout of each room in relation to each other, with each object in each room, with each character, with each person's attire, how each person's attire changes, with the passing of time as portrayed and importantly connected to the change in weather. All of these things are critical to the story. And I just loved it. It felt claustrophobic but in the absolute best way I've ever read. And maybe it harkens back to my love of books/movies that are set in mansions (see December 1, 2013 post for further discussion on this point), but I was hooked from the very first sentence.
The book is about Roxane Coss, an American opera singer, who has agreed to perform at the birthday party for a wealthy Japanese business man at the home of a South American vice president. The Japanese business man, Katsumi Hosokawa, agreed to have the party in the South American country under the pretense that he was interested in opening a factory there, but in actuality, only agreed to come because somehow they were able to hire his favorite opera singers, Ms. Coss, to perform, opera being the single personal indulgence he allows himself to love. However, during the party, a group of terrorists takes the entire group of high-class party attendees hostage, initially intending to acquire the president as their hostage, but unfortunately, the president is not in attendance. So the terrorists have to figure out what to do from there.
What happens from there, is a 4-month captivity of ~40 hostages (a large majority are released initially) from around the globe, many of whom cannot speak the same language, except for Mr. Hosokawa's translator who bears the burden of translating for nearly everyone. And during this time, a whole world of things change in so many ways, driven in part by Roxane's singing, which somehow seems to affect not just Mr. Hosokawa, but his translator, the other hostages, and all of their captors.
I guess I don't need to say again how much I loved this book. However, when I was reading and got to the end of each chapter, I kept expecting it to end with some kind of cliff hanger. Some kind of action related to the hostage situation going on outside to leave me on pins and needles (like, I don't know, some kind of action from the government to end the stand-off or some kind of foreshadowing about what was to come). But it really wasn't like that. Which, after a while, really made me settle down and accept that the book wasn't intended to be about the action of the events of the terrorism take-over going on outside the house, but the events going on internally between the characters inside the house. And that it was ok that the action was more quiet, and subtle and about them, and their interactions, and their moments. So those were what I was meant to feel and be left with after I finished a chapter. Not this urgent need to move on from action to ACTION to ACTION!!!! But to just hold onto these words and exchanges because, as I knew and as the reader knows, this does not, will not last. And I did not want this book to end. So many of the reviews that I've read of the book have said nearly the same thing, so that must be a damn good thing when you don't want your reader to let go of your characters, probably because you know how things will end.
There was an epilogue that I most certainly could have done without. It actually made me kind of grumpy afterwards. But I'll not give anything away, and let you decide for yourself what you think about it.
I did have a chance to watch the movie version of Bel Canto this week as well. I'd say it was a pretty decent version of the book, but something felt just not as emotionally gripping as the book. I think the casting was pretty great (Julianne Moore wouldn't have been my first choice but I liked her much more than I was expecting t0), and there were some modifications from the book that I didn't much mind (epilogue was excluded so I didn't shed a tear to see that gone). But it felt like it could have been a little bit longer and slower to just develop some of the connections to some of the characters that you get so much in the book. I enjoyed it, but would heartily recommend the book first.
Oh and did you know that the book was inspired by actual events when hundreds were taken hostage at the Japanese embassy in Lima, Peru in 1996 (opera singer excluded)?
So next up is back to the lists and on to July's People by Nadine Gordimer. I'm into the doldrums of summer and it's a short read so I'm hoping for this one to be a great, quick, engaging read!
Oh yeah, and 55 days until my 40th bday. Post about that and my lack of meeting the goal of this blog, Coming Soon! xoxo
