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“To think that God heard his name from so many voices.�� (4.5 stars)

The ending of “Bel Canto�� left me in a bit of a daze for a few minutes. The novel cast a spell so strong, that when the jarring reality of life springs up at the conclusion you can’t help but be a little disoriented.
This is a novel that has been on my radar for years, but I am just now picking it up.
This story, told by an omniscient narrator, follows a hostage situation in the vice presidential palace of an unnamed South American country. The hostages include a world famous opera soprano, and many business and political leaders from various countries. The point of view also considers the guerrillas who take the hostages.
I have never read an Ann Patchett novel before. I will pick her up again! She has a simplicity and lovely finesse with language. I was caught up in the story, but also in the words she used to weave it. With a precise prose that brimmed with clarity Patchett created characters that, even if only a few lines of the text were devoted to them, came across as real people.
I feel like opera gets a lot of negative attention from readers of this text. And opera is important to many of the characters in the book. However, I feel the bigger point is what opera represents to many of the characters in the text. It is a source of life and inspiration. Something that gives joy and generates much power and strong feelings. That is something different for every person alive, and when you realize that you put opera in its proper context in this book, and you can place the love that characters feel for that art in its proper context, and thus appreciate it, and its potency as used in “Bel Canto��.
So many enchanting moments in this book. So many small pleasures. I loved the world it created. I loved the people in that world. So many characters whose small joys I felt as my own. I loved their truth, their pain, and humanity.

“Bel Canto�� is something else!