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Bel Canto (novel)
Encyclopedia
Bel Canto is a 2001 novel
by American author Ann Patchett
, published by Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins
Publishers. It was awarded both the Orange Prize for Fiction
and PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
. It was placed on several top book lists, including Amazon's Best Books of the Year
(2001).
Based on the Lima Crisis
, this book is about a group of terrorists who hold high executives and people of high political standing hostage. It explores how the terrorists and hostages cope with living in a house together for several months. Many of the characters form unbreakable bonds of friendship, while some fall in love.
ese electronics company called Nansei. Performing is a famous American
soprano
, Roxane Coss.
Near the end of the party, members of a terrorist organization break into the house looking for the President. When it is discovered that the President did not attend the party, the terrorist group decides to take the entire party hostage
.
After determining they have too many hostages, the terrorists decide to release all of the hostages except those they deem most important and most likely to receive a large ransom. This includes Hosokawa, Roxane, and the translator Gen.
Two major romantic relationships develop as the standoff drags on and serve as the backdrop to the rest of the story. The first is between Roxane Coss and Katsumi Hosokawa. Hosokawa is one of Roxane's biggest fans and he attended the party because Roxane was going to be singing. When they are placed in the house together, they develop a deep bond, even though they do not speak each other's language and thus cannot communicate verbally. The second relationship is between Gen Watanabe and the young terrorist Carmen. They must keep their love a secret because Carmen is forbidden to have relationships with a hostage. The two lovers meet in the china closet every night to practice Carmen's reading and eventually to make love.
At the end of the novel, the government breaks into the house and kills all the terrorists. All of the hostages are freed except for Mr. Hosokawa, who dies in the struggle. The novel ends some time after the crisis; we learn that Gen and Roxane were married in Italy
.
music since attending a performance with his father as a child. He fell in love with Roxane's voice before he fell in love with her person, and the host country's government bribes him into visiting by booking her to sing at the party. He has a strong bond with his young translator Gen, who always anticipates his needs. He speaks no Spanish
and must use Gen for all communication in the host country, though during the hostage period he resolve to learn ten new words every day. He falls in love with Roxane, but knows their relationship can only last for the duration of the standoff. He is gunned down in the final scenes by the soldiers of the host county, in his attempt to save Carmen.
Roxane Coss is an internationally renowned American soprano. She is invited to perform at the party because the host country wanted to convince Mr. Hosokawa to attend the party. In her late thirties, she is a petite woman with dyed blonde hair. While not conventionally gorgeous, she possesses a rare charisma; every man in attendance is in love with her to some extent because of her ethereal singing voice. She is detained when all the other women are freed during the first few days. At first a prima donna
who sets herself apart from the rest of the guests, she eventually begins to bond with the others when she receives a box of musical scores and begins singing to them every morning. She is especially touched by her relationships with Mr. Hosokawa, with whom she falls in love; Gen, with whom she forms a strong bond and eventually marries; Carmen, who sleeps in her bed, braids her hair, and comforts her; and Cesar, another young terrorist with a gifted singing voice whom she begins tutoring.
Gen Watanabe is Mr. Hosokawa's translator and assistant A quiet, sensitive and gifted young man who speaks all the major languages and many minor ones; he divides the languages he speaks into "extremely fluent, very fluent, fluent, passable and could read". He is usually at the center of the action of the novel, since most of the multinational characters communicate through him. He cares deeply for Mr. Hosokawa, and though the other characters rely on him, he feels different from the rest of the hostages because among them he is the only one, besides Father Arguedas, the priest
, who is not fabulously wealthy and powerful. He has only slept with three women in his life. He begins tutoring Carmen when she asks him to teach her how to read and write in Spanish and English, and they begin meeting each night in the china closet, reading and eventually making love. When she leads him outside to the garden one night, he later regrets not walking into the street and taking her back to Japan
with him. When the authorities come, he plans to tell them she is his wife to save her. Gen eventually marries Roxane and moves to Italy
with her.
Carmen is the terrorist Gen loves. Carmen remains incognito in the guise of a male terrorist for the first part of the novel. The leader of the organization, General Benjamin, notices what a beautiful young woman she has become and notes that, "had she been this pretty before, he never would have let her sign up". A Quechua
-speaking Indian
girl from the jungle, she often prays to Saint Rose of Lima. As he teaches her, Gen realizes that she is as smart as any of the women he knew from university, and she loves him deeply. She knows that after the standoff ends, she might never see him again, and together they build something unique and rare. In the ultimate shootout, she is gunned down before Gen can get to her. In the newspaper articles after the fact, there is no record of her ever existing.
On the second floor is a variety of rooms. In a hallway near the kitchen is a narrow and twisting staircase that leads to the servants' quarters, which contains a door to the nursery. The nursery opens up to the second floor, and at the third door past the bathroom is Roxane's room. Mr. Hosokawa takes this path to see Roxane at night and Carmen takes the route in reverse to meet Gen.
Surrounding the house is a garden with a ten-foot wall. There are two known ways to enter the garden. One is through the kitchen and onto the back porch while the other is through the front door and beyond a stone walkway. The garden was prepared for the party and contained many beautiful plants. However, while the crisis was going on, no one has been able to tend to the garden. By the time the hostages were allowed to enter the garden, the grass was high enough to brush against the people's calves. The garden contains many plants, including jasmine vines and evening lilies. In the garden there is a curve in the wall that makes a pocket of grass and slender trees. It is impossible to see this spot from the house, and it is here that Gen and Carmen make love for the first time.
The hostages and terrorists also develop a sense of community among each other. At the beginning of the novel, the hostages lived in fear of the terrorists while the terrorists were only concerned with getting the President and leaving the house. By the end of the novel, the hostages and terrorists are connected with each other. Gen and Carmen develop sexual relations, Cesar becomes Roxane's opera student and Ishmael pictures himself as the Vice-President's son. The hostages and terrorists learn to create a community within the house and live together as a community
when she watched the crisis on the news. The opera in the story was added when she thought how operatic the crisis was. However, Patchett did not know anything about opera prior to writing the book. To build a knowledge of opera, Patchett read books about opera, attended local theatre performances and listened to opera whenever she could.
Patchett has stated that writing her books has been a progression. She always wanted to write with an omniscient third person narrator, but stated that she always went back to a narrative structure she could handle. She was pleased when she was able to write this book in the narrative she wanted.
The basis of this book was a prologue in Gen's perspective where he told us that this book is about how he met his wife. However, Patchett's mentor Elizabeth McCracken
told her that the prologue was not needed, so Patchett took it out. Also, Patchett's editor wanted her to take out three lines. One of the lines was about the plants growing a half-inch over the course of an hour. Patchett insisted on keeping the line and changed the length to a half-centimeter.
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by American author Ann Patchett
Ann Patchett
Ann Patchett is an American author. She received the Orange Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 2002 for her novel Bel Canto. Patchett's other novels include Run, The Patron Saint of Liars, Taft, and The Magician's Assistant, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize...
, published by Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins
HarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
Publishers. It was awarded both the Orange Prize for Fiction
Orange Prize for Fiction
The Orange Prize for Fiction is one of the United Kingdom's most prestigious literary prizes, annually awarded to a female author of any nationality for the best original full-length novel written in English, and published in the United Kingdom in the preceding year...
and PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to the authors of the year's best works of fiction by living American citizens. The winner receives US $15,000 and each of four runners-up receives US $5000. The foundation brings the winner and runners-up to...
. It was placed on several top book lists, including Amazon's Best Books of the Year
Amazon's Best Books of the Year
Amazon's Best Books of the Year is a list of best books created yearly by Amazon.com. It is a list of best books picked by Amazon editors and customers. It began in 2000. Customer favorites are ranked according to the number of sales made through October, for books published in that calender year...
(2001).
Based on the Lima Crisis
Japanese embassy hostage crisis
The Japanese embassy hostage crisis began on 17 December 1996 in Lima, Peru, when 14 members of the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement took hostage hundreds of high-level diplomats, government and military officials and business executives who were attending a party at the official residence of...
, this book is about a group of terrorists who hold high executives and people of high political standing hostage. It explores how the terrorists and hostages cope with living in a house together for several months. Many of the characters form unbreakable bonds of friendship, while some fall in love.
Plot summary
Set in an unnamed South American country, the story begins at a birthday party thrown at the country's vice presidential home. The party is thrown for Katsumi Hosokawa, the visiting chairman of a large JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese electronics company called Nansei. Performing is a famous American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
, Roxane Coss.
Near the end of the party, members of a terrorist organization break into the house looking for the President. When it is discovered that the President did not attend the party, the terrorist group decides to take the entire party hostage
Hostage
A hostage is a person or entity which is held by a captor. The original definition meant that this was handed over by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as security for the carrying out of an agreement, or as a preventive measure against certain acts of war...
.
After determining they have too many hostages, the terrorists decide to release all of the hostages except those they deem most important and most likely to receive a large ransom. This includes Hosokawa, Roxane, and the translator Gen.
Two major romantic relationships develop as the standoff drags on and serve as the backdrop to the rest of the story. The first is between Roxane Coss and Katsumi Hosokawa. Hosokawa is one of Roxane's biggest fans and he attended the party because Roxane was going to be singing. When they are placed in the house together, they develop a deep bond, even though they do not speak each other's language and thus cannot communicate verbally. The second relationship is between Gen Watanabe and the young terrorist Carmen. They must keep their love a secret because Carmen is forbidden to have relationships with a hostage. The two lovers meet in the china closet every night to practice Carmen's reading and eventually to make love.
At the end of the novel, the government breaks into the house and kills all the terrorists. All of the hostages are freed except for Mr. Hosokawa, who dies in the struggle. The novel ends some time after the crisis; we learn that Gen and Roxane were married in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
Characters
Katsumi Hosokawa is the founder and chairman of Nansei, the largest electronics corporation in Japan. It is in his honor that the initial birthday party is held that the hostages attend and that the terrorists invade. He is married with two daughters. A workaholic, his greatest love has been operaOpera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
music since attending a performance with his father as a child. He fell in love with Roxane's voice before he fell in love with her person, and the host country's government bribes him into visiting by booking her to sing at the party. He has a strong bond with his young translator Gen, who always anticipates his needs. He speaks no Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
and must use Gen for all communication in the host country, though during the hostage period he resolve to learn ten new words every day. He falls in love with Roxane, but knows their relationship can only last for the duration of the standoff. He is gunned down in the final scenes by the soldiers of the host county, in his attempt to save Carmen.
Roxane Coss is an internationally renowned American soprano. She is invited to perform at the party because the host country wanted to convince Mr. Hosokawa to attend the party. In her late thirties, she is a petite woman with dyed blonde hair. While not conventionally gorgeous, she possesses a rare charisma; every man in attendance is in love with her to some extent because of her ethereal singing voice. She is detained when all the other women are freed during the first few days. At first a prima donna
Prima donna
Originally used in opera or Commedia dell'arte companies, "prima donna" is Italian for "first lady." The term was used to designate the leading female singer in the opera company, the person to whom the prime roles would be given. The prima donna was normally, but not necessarily, a soprano...
who sets herself apart from the rest of the guests, she eventually begins to bond with the others when she receives a box of musical scores and begins singing to them every morning. She is especially touched by her relationships with Mr. Hosokawa, with whom she falls in love; Gen, with whom she forms a strong bond and eventually marries; Carmen, who sleeps in her bed, braids her hair, and comforts her; and Cesar, another young terrorist with a gifted singing voice whom she begins tutoring.
Gen Watanabe is Mr. Hosokawa's translator and assistant A quiet, sensitive and gifted young man who speaks all the major languages and many minor ones; he divides the languages he speaks into "extremely fluent, very fluent, fluent, passable and could read". He is usually at the center of the action of the novel, since most of the multinational characters communicate through him. He cares deeply for Mr. Hosokawa, and though the other characters rely on him, he feels different from the rest of the hostages because among them he is the only one, besides Father Arguedas, the priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
, who is not fabulously wealthy and powerful. He has only slept with three women in his life. He begins tutoring Carmen when she asks him to teach her how to read and write in Spanish and English, and they begin meeting each night in the china closet, reading and eventually making love. When she leads him outside to the garden one night, he later regrets not walking into the street and taking her back to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
with him. When the authorities come, he plans to tell them she is his wife to save her. Gen eventually marries Roxane and moves to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
with her.
Carmen is the terrorist Gen loves. Carmen remains incognito in the guise of a male terrorist for the first part of the novel. The leader of the organization, General Benjamin, notices what a beautiful young woman she has become and notes that, "had she been this pretty before, he never would have let her sign up". A Quechua
Quechua languages
Quechua is a Native South American language family and dialect cluster spoken primarily in the Andes of South America, derived from an original common ancestor language, Proto-Quechua. It is the most widely spoken language family of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a total of probably...
-speaking Indian
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
girl from the jungle, she often prays to Saint Rose of Lima. As he teaches her, Gen realizes that she is as smart as any of the women he knew from university, and she loves him deeply. She knows that after the standoff ends, she might never see him again, and together they build something unique and rare. In the ultimate shootout, she is gunned down before Gen can get to her. In the newspaper articles after the fact, there is no record of her ever existing.
Location
Most of the book takes place in the Vice President's house. The house has two floors. On the first floor is the living room, which is a large space where the hostages gathered for the party. The room was decorated with all the most important artwork and was cleaned to the best of its ability because they were trying to convince Mr. Hosokawa and the other businessmen to invest in their country. Also on the first floor is the dining room, the kitchen, and the china closet where Gen and Carmen meet nightly. The first floor also contains a guest suite, which is where General Alfredo sleeps.On the second floor is a variety of rooms. In a hallway near the kitchen is a narrow and twisting staircase that leads to the servants' quarters, which contains a door to the nursery. The nursery opens up to the second floor, and at the third door past the bathroom is Roxane's room. Mr. Hosokawa takes this path to see Roxane at night and Carmen takes the route in reverse to meet Gen.
Surrounding the house is a garden with a ten-foot wall. There are two known ways to enter the garden. One is through the kitchen and onto the back porch while the other is through the front door and beyond a stone walkway. The garden was prepared for the party and contained many beautiful plants. However, while the crisis was going on, no one has been able to tend to the garden. By the time the hostages were allowed to enter the garden, the grass was high enough to brush against the people's calves. The garden contains many plants, including jasmine vines and evening lilies. In the garden there is a curve in the wall that makes a pocket of grass and slender trees. It is impossible to see this spot from the house, and it is here that Gen and Carmen make love for the first time.
Opera
Opera is often used in the story to draw the characters together. Roxane, one of the main characters, is a world famous opera singer. During the terrorists and hostages' time in the house, they are forced to think and reflect, and the thing they most reflect on is Roxane's music. Her music brings the terrorists and hostages together as one people to admire her voice. Even the name of the novel suggests opera, as the name "Bel Canto" is an operatic term meaning "beautiful song."Community
Before the characters entered the house they were individuals that did not know much about each other. For example, Kato was an excellent piano player, but none of his co-workers knew that he played that instrument. By the end of the novel, the hostages were friends and even lovers. For example, Roxane and Mr. Hosokawa first met in the house, but by the end of the novel, they were having sexual relations.The hostages and terrorists also develop a sense of community among each other. At the beginning of the novel, the hostages lived in fear of the terrorists while the terrorists were only concerned with getting the President and leaving the house. By the end of the novel, the hostages and terrorists are connected with each other. Gen and Carmen develop sexual relations, Cesar becomes Roxane's opera student and Ishmael pictures himself as the Vice-President's son. The hostages and terrorists learn to create a community within the house and live together as a community
Writing the book
Patchett was inspired by the Lima CrisisJapanese embassy hostage crisis
The Japanese embassy hostage crisis began on 17 December 1996 in Lima, Peru, when 14 members of the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement took hostage hundreds of high-level diplomats, government and military officials and business executives who were attending a party at the official residence of...
when she watched the crisis on the news. The opera in the story was added when she thought how operatic the crisis was. However, Patchett did not know anything about opera prior to writing the book. To build a knowledge of opera, Patchett read books about opera, attended local theatre performances and listened to opera whenever she could.
Patchett has stated that writing her books has been a progression. She always wanted to write with an omniscient third person narrator, but stated that she always went back to a narrative structure she could handle. She was pleased when she was able to write this book in the narrative she wanted.
The basis of this book was a prologue in Gen's perspective where he told us that this book is about how he met his wife. However, Patchett's mentor Elizabeth McCracken
Elizabeth McCracken
Elizabeth McCracken is an American author.McCracken, a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, graduated from Newton North High School in Newton, Massachusetts, earned a B.A. and M.A. in English from Boston University, an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa, and...
told her that the prologue was not needed, so Patchett took it out. Also, Patchett's editor wanted her to take out three lines. One of the lines was about the plants growing a half-inch over the course of an hour. Patchett insisted on keeping the line and changed the length to a half-centimeter.
External links
- Bel Canto, reviewed by Ted Gioia (The New Canon)
- Amazon.com review