Bel Canto
2001 • 318 pages
Ratings44
Average rating3.8
15
Ratings44
Average rating3.8
Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of Mr. Hosokawa, a powerful Japanese businessman. Roxanne Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerized the international guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening -- until a band of gun-wielding terrorists breaks in through the air-conditioning vents and takes the entire party hostage. But what begins as a panicked, life-threatening scenario slowly evolves into something quite different, as terrorists and hostages forge unexpected bonds and people from different countries and continents become compatriots.Friendship, compassion, and the chance for great love lead the characters to forget the real danger that has been set in motion and cannot be stopped.
Reviews with the most likes.
I honestly didn't get this one. The beginning is thrilling, the setting is original, the ending is unexpected. But between the initial suspense and the climax there's not much happening. Several characters develop unexpected relationships with each other, a few come with some sort of self-discovery. Apart from some funny details and a few interesting interactions the novel just drags on and on, I found I had to really struggle to plow through.
i've said this before and i'll say it again: it was a good book but i had absolutely no interest in it.
i was gifted this book for my birthday and it was the first i picked up post-birthday-spending-spree-tbr because of how interesting it sounded. however, i quickly lost interest because of the way this book carried on, despite it being somewhat of a thriller (or at least that's how the movie adaptation marketed it). it's definitely an interesting story and it's not by any means poorly written, i just didn't care for it at all.
Second book about opera I've read this month. A great, if slow read. Beautiful words meant to be picked apart rather than devoured. I kept thinking this would make a hell of a movie, but it would surely be done all wrong.
