Bel Canto - Sparknotes 75o2i

Bel Canto Context Ann Patchett was born in Los Angeles in 1963. Her mother was a nurse and her father was a police officer. Patchett earned her bachelor of arts from Sarah Lawrence College and her masters in creative writing from the University of Iowa. Bel Canto, Patchett’s fourth novel, was published in 2001. The novel was originally inspired by an incident that took place in December 1996, when a group of fourteen terrorists took over the Japanese Embassy in Lima, Peru. The terrorists held seventy-two hostages for four months before government troops stormed the building and killed all the terrorists. One hostage and two soldiers were also killed. Patchett’s novel focuses not on the political underpinnings of the hostage crisis, but on the kinds of relationships that might have developed between the hostages themselves and between the hostages and the terrorists during those four months of captivity. Patchett had read news reports that described the hostages and terrorists playing chess and soccer, and ordering out for large pizzas. These details were the seeds of Bel Canto, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize. Patchett has said that Bel Canto was inspired most directly by Thomas Mann’s classic novella The Magic Mountain. In Mann’s novella, a man visits a sanitarium for patients with tuberculosis and finds that isolation and proximity to death heightens his senses, increases his sexual desire, and causes him to think more deeply about life. In Patchett’s novel, the four months of captivity enable both hostages and terrorists to experience life more vividly and profoundly. On the surface, Patchett’s life seems unrelated to the story she tells in her novel Bel Canto. But Patchett shares some of the feelings of her character Roxanne Coss, who is adored by strangers who don’t really know her. During interviews about Bel Canto, Patchett has talked about the disconnect she feels between her book tours, where fans greet her with adulation, and her normal life, where she sticks to an everyday routine—writing, taking care of her grandmother, and hanging out with her dog. In addition to Bel Canto, Patchett has written three novels and one memoir about a friendship. Her first novel, The Patron Saint of Liars (1992), is about a young woman who gets pregnant, flees her marriage, and goes to a home for unwed mothers run by nuns. Patchett’s second novel, Taft (1994), is set in a Memphis blues bar. It tells the story of a black man who gives up his dreams of being a drummer in order to manage a bar and make enough money to please his wife. The Magician’s Assistant (1997), Patchett’s third novel, tells the story of a woman who is married to the gay magician she assists. Patchett’s memoir, ‘Truth and Beauty,’ A Tale of Friendship (2004), is about Lucy Grealy, a writer and a dear friend of Patchett’s. The memoir, written after Grealy’s suicide, describes Patchett’s relationship with Grealy as the central sustaining relationship of Patchett’s life. Patchett lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

Plot Overview Opera diva Roxanne Coss has come to a small Latin American country to perform at the birthday party of Katsumi Hosokawa, the head of a major Japanese electronics company. Officials of this Latin American company have wooed Hosokawa to the home of the country’s vice president with the promise of Coss’s performance. They hope that their hospitality will prompt Hosokawa to agree to build a factory in the country. But Hosokawa has no interest in building a factory. He has only come because he loves opera and loves Coss’s voice. As soon as Coss has finished her last song, all of the lights go out in the vice president’s home. A band of terrorists rush into the living room, where the guests are assembled, and demand that the president of the country come forward. It turns out that the president is not at the party; he has stayed home to watch a popular soap opera on television. Thwarted in their original intentions and lacking a fallback plan, the terrorists begin a standoff with the government. The next day, a representative from the Red Cross, Joachim Messner, arrives to act as a negotiator between the terrorists and the government. The terrorists agree that in return for supplies they will release the workers, the sick, and the women. The only woman they refuse to give up is Roxanne Coss. When Coss’s accompanist realizes that Coss has been detained, he insists on staying with her, although he is terribly ill. A diabetic, he soon dies from lack of insulin. During the next four months, life takes surprising turns for the better. The hostages realize that aside from the three generals in charge, all of the terrorists are children or young teenagers. The hostages begin to act parental with the young terrorists. They also discover that two of the terrorists are girls. Because the hostages and terrorists speak many different languages, they rely on Gen Watanabe, Hosokawa’s translator, to translate for them. He is kept very busy translating various conversations. After a few weeks, Coss decides she needs to practice singing. It turns out that one of the hostages, a hardworking executive in Hosokawa’s company, is an excellent pianist. He and Coss begin to practice together every day. The beauty of Coss’s singing makes the hostages and terrorists feel almost lucky to be trapped. As the weeks and months stretch on, most of the hostages and the terrorists begin to enjoy their lives. Two love affairs blossom. One is between Hosokawa and Coss, and another is between Watanabe, Hosokawa’s translator, and one of the female terrorists, Carmen. This second love affair begins when Carmen asks Watanabe to teach her how to read and write. Watanabe agrees and meets Carmen in secret at night in a china closet. No one else knows about their lessons or their love. Other close relationships form: General Benjamin, the leader of the terrorists, begins to play chess with Hosokawa, and the vice president of the country, Ruben Iglesias, becomes increasingly fond of Ishmael, one of the young terrorists. Iglesias even envisions adopting him. After several months, a persistent fog lifts. One morning, Cesar, one of the young terrorists, starts to sing. Everyone is amazed at how gifted he is. Coss begins to give him singing lessons. Around the same time, the generals begin to allow the hostages outside to enjoy the yard. There

they run around, play soccer, and garden. A French ambassador, Simon Thibault, is deeply in love with his wife and longs for the hostage crisis to end. He is the only one who feels this way. The rest of the hostages and the terrorists grow happier and happier. They no longer fear one another. They fear what will happen when their captivity ends. Messner, the Red Cross representative, continues to be the sole outsider to visit the mansion. He, too, grows fond of the terrorists. The terrorists try to forget about what will happen to them in the end, but Messner tries to convince them to surrender. He tells them repeatedly that there is no other hope, but they refuse to listen, since they know that surrendering will mean imprisonment and, most likely, death. After four months have ed, government troops storm the mansion and kill all the terrorists, including Carmen. By accident, they kill Hosokawa, who is trying to protect Carmen from the soldiers’ bullets. The novel ends with an epilogue in which Coss and Watanabe marry.

Character List Katsumi Hosokawa - The head of a major Japanese electronics firm and an extremely hard worker. Order and diligence characterize Hosokawa’s life, and only when listening to opera does he feel ionately alive. His adoration for the voice of opera singer Roxanne Coss brings him to the poor South American country where the novel is set. There, Hosokawa and Coss fall in love. Roxanne Coss - An opera diva used to the indulgence of the world. Over the course of the novel, every man who hears Coss sing falls in love with her. Eventually, Coss returns the love of Hosokawa. While she is small in stature, Coss has an oversized presence. Read an in-depth analysis of Roxanne Coss. Gen Watanabe - Hosokawa’s interpreter. Watanabe, who is in his twenties, has a great gift for languages, and the hostages and the terrorists rely on him to communicate with one another. Despite his facility with languages, Watanabe struggles when trying to express himself. He has an intuitive sense of what everyone else wants and needs, but he is not always aware of his own desires. When Watanabe falls in love with Carmen, one of the terrorists, he finds his own voice. Read an in-depth analysis of Gen Watanabe. Carmen - A shy, timid, and beautiful young terrorist. Carmen’s greatest talent is her ability to move stealthily, without other people noticing her presence. She asks Gen Watanabe to teach her how to read and write in Spanish, her native language. Over the course of their secret lessons, they fall in love. Ruben Iglesias - The vice president of the small South American country in which the novel is set, and the owner of the house in which the terrorists hold their captives. Iglesias, one of the most sympathetic characters in the novel, rose up from poverty and put himself through law school by working as a clerk and a janitor. During the four-month standoff, he spends much of his time cleaning up after the other hostages and terrorists and making sure that they are all comfortable. When the terrorists allow the hostages outside, he immediately begins tending his garden. General Benjamin - The most intelligent and thoughtful of the three generals who lead the terrorists. Benjamin was a schoolteacher until his brother was arrested and imprisoned for handing out flyers publicizing a political protest. After that, he ed the terrorist group La Familia de Martin Suarez, named after a ten-year-old boy who was shot dead while handing out flyers for a political rally. Benjamin has left behind a wife and children, and he is fatherly to some of the young terrorists under his command. He is plagued with shingles, which rage across much of his face. Simon Thibault - The French ambassador to the South American country where the novel is set. Because he longs for his wife, Thibault is the hostage who is most unhappy about the long standoff. Joachim Messner - A Swiss representative for the Red Cross. who negotiates between the government and the terrorists. He is the one person allowed to come and go from the mansion. Messner punctuates the general happiness with frequent reminders that the situation will end badly.

Tetsuya Kato - A good numbers man in Hosokawa’s electronics company. During the four months of captivity, Kato reveals himself to be an accomplished pianist and takes over for Coss’s accompanist. The tenderness Kato feels for his wife and daughters infuses his piano playing. Kato longs to continue accompanying Coss instead of returning to his life as a businessman. Father Arguedas - A young priest and an opera lover. Although the terrorists are willing to release him, Father Arguedas asks to stay. During the four months of captivity, he says mass and hears people’s confessions. He is one of the first characters to feel more concern than fear for the terrorists. He considers the four months during which he is able to hear Coss sing a gift from God. Victor Fyodorov - A high-ranking Soviet official. Fyodorov declares his love for Coss not because he hopes she will return it, but because expressing his love for her makes him feel better. Fyodorov tells Coss how much he loved a beautiful book of paintings that his grandmother had when he was a child, and compares his love for that book to his love for her. Oscar Mendoza - A South American contractor and one of the captives. Mendoza and the vice president, Iglesias, often chat, talking about their early love affairs, their adoration for Coss, and the affection they feel for one of the young terrorists, Ishmael. Mendoza has nightmares that in his absence, young men will take advantage of his five daughters, wooing them into love affairs the way Mendoza himself wooed young girls when he was a young man. Ishamel - One of the youngest and brightest of the terrorists. Ishmael learns to play chess by watching General Benjamin and Hosokawa play. He is a favorite of both General Benjamin and the hostages. Iglesias becomes particularly fond of Ishamel and wants to adopt him. Cesar - A young terrorist with crooked teeth and a crooked nose. For most of the novel, no one really notices Cesar. But one morning when Coss does not come down to sing, Cesar performs instead, and his voice is practically miraculous. Coss takes him under her wing and gives him singing lessons. Beatriz - The brattiest of the young terrorists. Beatriz is often cranky and frustrated, and she is quick to draw her gun if any of the hostages get out of line. But her strong will is appealing, as is her craving for affection. Christopf - Coss’s accompanist. Much to Coss’s dismay, Christopf declares his love for Coss on the plane ride to the South American country. She rejects his love, but he refuses to leave her side after they are taken captive, even when he grows deathly ill. A diabetic, he eventually dies from lack of insulin. Governess Esmeralda - The governess who cares for Ruben Iglesias’ children. She ably and tenderly stitches up Iglesias’ face after he is wounded. President Masuda - The president never makes a direct appearance in the novel. The terrorists invade the party in the hopes of capturing him, but he has stayed home to watch an important episode of his favorite soap opera.

Analysis of Major Characters Hosokawa At the beginning of Bel Canto, Hosokawa is a man with a tidy, conventional life. He works very hard. He is a success. He has a family. But when Hosokawa listens to opera, he stops doing and thinking and feeling what is proper and experiences the intensity of human love, anguish, and ion. During his captivity, Hosokawa experiences a major awakening. Once a man who only felt ion while appreciating art, Hosokawa is transformed by his captivity into a man who feels ion while experiencing life. When his romance with Roxanne Coss blooms, the love that he used to feel only while listening to opera begins to color all of his days. This transformation amazes Hosokawa, who never knew that such a life could exist. Coss alone is not responsible for the change in Hosokawa. He, like all of the characters in Bel Canto, experiences life with particular intensity during the siege. Unlike the other characters, Hosokawa faces the reality that the almost magical idyll of captivity will one day come to an end, and that when it does, the relationships formed under duress will be affected. Hosokawa wonders if he and Coss will be able to protect and maintain their ion for each other once they have been released. Roxanne Coss When Roxanne Coss sings, her voice is at once “reckless and controlled.” People love her for her fearlessness and her ability to capture life’s pain and beauty in song. Many men who hear Coss sing declare their love for her, although they hardly know her. Until she falls in love with Katsumi Hosokawa, Coss is a woman who receives love without giving love in return. Coss is flattered by her fans’ iration, and she enjoys being a star. When she is taken hostage, she believes that whatever may happen to everyone else, she will survive because she is special. Her stardom is an essential part of her identity. Still, the professions of love from near-strangers sometimes annoy Coss. Like many artists, Coss wants the world to love her for her art but is irked when people love her too eagerly or too invasively. At first Hosokawa, like the others, loves Coss for her singing, and her talent never ceases to enthrall him. But Hosokawa and Coss grow to find a deep comfort with each other that is different from the one-sided adoration and adulation that characterizes Coss’s relationship with her fans. Roxanne Coss says, “If someone loves you for what you can do, then it’s flattering . . . but if they love you for who you are, they have to know you, which means you have to know them.” Once Coss finds love with Hosokawa, she is able to love Cesar, the young terrorist who aspires to be a great singer. During their lessons, her desire to be a star is temporarily replaced by her desire to help someone else. One love begets another. Gen Watanabe

Most of the characters in Bel Canto use Watanabe as a means of communication. Watanabe has a great gift for languages, and helps the hostages understand one another and the terrorists. Despite his facility with languages, Watanabe has a hard time expressing his own thoughts and emotions. Although the terrorist Carmen cannot read or write, she is ionate about words, and Watanabe falls in love with her partly because of her intense desire to master the language. Watanabe’s love for Carmen allows him to become a person in his own right, instead of the quiet interpreter who serves everyone else. Watanabe also functions as a symbol of language. Like language itself, Watanabe both facilitates and impedes direct communication. People cannot communicate without him, but he is almost a third wheel in conversation, an impediment to heart-to-heart talks.

Themes, Motifs, and Symbols Themes ion in the Face of Death

In Bel Canto, the proximity of death and suffering makes people love more ionately. We learn that Hosokawa’s love for opera grew in part from his hard life in post–World War II Japan. Simon and Edith Thibault renew their love for each other in what they call a “godforsaken country.” Most centrally, the hostages and the terrorists grow to love one another in the face of death and danger. The characters in Bel Canto must live for the moment, since their situation is uncertain and death could come at any time. They find that under these circumstances, they crave love and friendship. The first time Watanabe and Carmen kiss, they do not make great plans for their future; they talk about the likelihood that they will be separated. The specter of death also sharpens the characters’ appreciation of beauty and art. The first time Kato plays the piano, he plays “the love and loneliness that each of them felt, that no one had brought himself to speak of.” Coss sings “as if she were trying to save the lives of everyone in the room.” Patchett suggests that the drone of daily life makes it hard to live ionately. In order to get through the days, people put aside thoughts of loss, vulnerability, and death. They behave calmly and conventionally, and mute the desire to live and love with intensity. In Paris, a city of elegant women, Thibault saw his wife as just one of many elegant women. In Japan, Hosokawa spent most of his day fulfilling his duties as businessman, husband, and father. He shoehorned his ion into the little time he devoted to opera. It takes a hostage crisis to teach the characters in Bel Canto to live and love fully. The Strangeness of Fate

In the world of Bel Canto, fate exists, and people are at the mercy of destinies they can’t control. In the fifth chapter of the novel, we learn that Father Arguedas is “only just beginning to see the full extent to which it was his destiny to follow, to walk blindly into fates he could never understand.” Like Arguedas, Watanabe marvels at the strangeness of fate. It seems almost impossible that he, a highly educated and well-traveled professional from Japan, would meet Carmen, a terrorist from a remote village in Latin America. But not only do Watanabe and Carmen meet, they fall in love. Watanabe often thinks about how strange it is that they should have found each other. Thibault, similarly, is amazed by the unexpected twists in his marriage. First he rediscovers his love for his wife, and then he loses her company after being taken captive. The Basic Human Impulse Toward Civilization

Many novels explore humans’ base impulses toward violence and power. Novels like The Lord of the Flies suggest that our darkest impulses lurk just beneath the surface and will spring out if given the chance. In Bel Canto, Patchett suggests just the opposite: that our strongest impulses

are not barbaric, but civilizing. At the beginning of the novel, the characters are caught up in daily struggles for fame, for money, for power. But once captivity removes these struggles, people gravitate toward art and culture. The hostages and the terrorists read, sing, learn languages, cook, watch TV, play chess, play sports, garden, and fall in love. Motifs Opera

Opera suffuses Bel Canto, the title of which comes from opera and means “beautiful song.” Roxanne Coss sings, Tetsuya Kato accompanies her, and a star is born in the person of Cesar, who has an angelic voice. Opera connects the characters in the novel, giving them a source of joy during their captivity. The novel borrows its structure from operas, which typically feature beautiful scenes and songs and end in tragedy. Like operas, Bel Canto is about an idyllic world eventually shattered by death. Language Barriers

On a literal level, the characters in Bel Canto speak different languages. Without Watanabe’s interpreting skills, they are helpless to communicate with one another. The characters’ awareness that language separates them intensifies their desire to communicate, and Watanabe is in constant demand. On a more abstract level, the characters have difficulty talking to one another simply because language is a flawed means of communication. When we try to put an idea into words, we are acting as Watanabe does—translating our feelings and thoughts into language. But translations are never perfect, and we can never communicate precisely what we mean through language. Secret ions

Many characters in Bel Canto hide their ions. For most of his life, Kato hides his talent for playing the piano from everybody but his family. Hosokawa does not take pains to conceal his love for the opera, but he does not talk about the opera or about why it moves him. Watanabe and Carmen literally hide their love, meeting secretly in a china closet. Hosokawa and Coss also keep their love private. Symbols The Vice President’s Mansion

Every moment of Bel Canto takes place in the vice president’s mansion, which becomes symbolic of a hidden, private world. Fog settles around the mansion, cutting it off from the outside, and no one but Joachim Messner can come and go. The mansion becomes a cocoon in which characters focus on their own thoughts and feelings and on their love for the people around them, undistracted by the busy outside world. The Soap Opera

Art connects people by expressing shared feelings of love and loss. High art like opera functions this way, and so does low art like soap operas. In Bel Canto, soaps symbolize art’s

powers of unification. The president of the country misses the party to watch a soap opera that the entire country is also watching. In a lyrical scene, Patchett describes the way the soap transfixes everyone from young terrorists to the president. By watching the soap, the country experiences emotions and catharsis as a unified group. Rusalka

The opera Rusalka symbolizes the fear that deep love will end in terrible suffering. Rusalka, which is the centerpiece of Coss’s repertoire, is about a water goddess who wants to love a human prince. She has a witch give her human form, but the transformation comes with a curse: when her human lover is untrue, her embrace becomes deadly. The goddess’s lover repents for straying and begs for her love. At the end of the opera, the goddess and the lover embrace, knowing that that embrace will kill the lover. Child Terrorists

The child terrorists who take over the vice president’s mansion symbolize the danger that accompanies every sweet part of life: innocence, love, joy. The child terrorists play games, wonder at the world, and long for the affection of the adults around them. But they wear uniforms, wield guns, and hold their hostages for months. Their innocence isn’t pure, just as love isn’t perfect, and joy isn’t lasting.

Chapter One Summary Katsumi Hosokawa, the head of Japan’s largest electronics company, is celebrating his birthday at a party thrown for him by the government of an unnamed poor South American country, which hopes he will open a factory in their country. The birthday party is being held in the mansion of the vice president of the country. Opera diva Roxanne Coss has just finished performing her last song for the party’s entertainment when her accompanist makes a motion to kiss her. Still enraptured with the music they’ve heard, many in the audience imagine that they are doing the same. At that moment, all the lights in the room go off. At first the characters are unconcerned, assuming the darkness is simply due to a power failure. They continue to applaud and to imagine the kiss they cannot see. Hosokawa, the narrator tells us, has been in love with the singer’s voice for many years, and only agreed to attend this party in his honor in order to hear her sing in person. He has no intention of building a factory in the country, but he couldn’t turn down the opportunity to be close to the diva. The narrator explains that Hosokawa first heard and fell in love with opera on his eleventh birthday. The year was 1954, and money was tight, so Hosokawa’s outing to the opera with his father was especially precious. Opera might be too complicated for children in normal circumstances, but since World War II had only recently ended in Japan’s defeat, children were able to understand the kind of dark stories dramatized in opera. Hosokawa was intensely moved by the performance of Rigoletto, and his love of opera stayed with him into adulthood. Hosokawa worked hard, rose to prominence, married, and started a family, but it was only when he listened to opera that he fully felt his own capacity for love. When his eldest daughter bought him a recording of Roxanne Coss for his birthday, he fell in love with her voice, amazed at the simultaneous control and recklessness of her singing. One of the men at the birthday party is Simon Thibault, the French ambassador to this South American country. Standing in the darkness, Thibault notices many little lights shining from beneath one of the doors. He realizes that these are flashlights, and suddenly understands that they are all in grave danger. He hugs his wife. Moments later, the lights come on. The narrator digresses to explain the preparations for the beautiful party—the food prepared for the banquet, the arrangement of the flowers, the creation of the place cards, the hanging of the famous painting. A great deal of effort and money were expended by this poor country in an attempt to woo a man who has no intention of being wooed. The narrator explains that the country’s president, Masuda, is absent from the party because at the last minute he decided he could not bear to miss an important episode of his favorite soap opera. After the lights go on, three generals and their band of young terrorists rush in. They are of an organization devoted to the overthrow of the repressive government and the liberation of the people. The guests think of fleeing, but quickly realize there is no escape. They all believe they will be killed by the terrorists. The narrator tells us that in fact, the hostages

will survive and the terrorists will be killed. In an aside, the narrator explains that Hosokawa first met his translator, Gen Watanabe, at a business conference in Greece. Watanabe, who can predict Hosokawa’s needs even before Hosokawa himself knows them, has become indispensable to Hosokawa. The generals who head the terrorist group ask for President Masuda to come forward. When the vice president tells them he is not at the party, one of the generals hits him in the face with the butt of his gun. But when the vice president explains that President Masuda stayed home to watch his soap opera, the explanation seems too absurd to be a lie, and the vice president is not harmed further. The generals realize they have no backup plan. Analysis In the opening scene of the novel, the simultaneous blackout and kiss serve as symbols of love in the face of death and connection in the face of loss. Together they introduce a central theme of the novel: the basic human impulse to love despite, and because of, the knowledge of inevitable loss and death. This theme also points to the novel’s inspirations: opera, most directly, which features many stories about happiness ending in death, and Greek tragedy, more indirectly, from which the tradition of opera grows. In Greek tragedy, characters struggle to live their lives honorably despite impending disaster. The blackout is also something of a wink to the audience—an acknowledgment that a story is being told. The blackout happens right after Coss’s performance ends. When the lights go on, a new drama begins, the drama that unfolds during the four months when the hostages are held captive. By starting and ending her novel with the extinguishing of lights, Patchett recalls the conventions of theater and acknowledges the artificiality of her story. A brief description of Bel Canto makes the novel sound like a political thriller, but Patchett is just as concerned with the nuances of her characters as she is with plot. The first chapter sets up the precedent for the rest of the novel, in which the narrator moves from character to character, delving into the emotions and histories of each one. In Chapter One, frequent digressions lead us away from the main action and into the histories of several characters. From the outset, Patchett suggests that what will matter most in this story is not the action, but the characters, and the relationships that form between them. In Chapter One, Patchett violates a standard thriller convention by giving away the end of the story. The narrator explains that the hostages will live and the terrorists will die. Toward the end of the novel, the narrator repeatedly says that in order for the characters to believe that their love for one another and their happiness together can last, they have to stop thinking about the future. They must forget about the fact that some of them are hostages and some of them are terrorists, and forget that government troops are bound to attack the terrorists and sever the ties they’ve formed. By telling us how the novel is going to end, Patchett puts us in the same position as her characters. She asks us to take pleasure in the ties the characters form, even though we know that the novel will end in tragedy and death. In reminding us that tragedy awaits, Patchett also follows in the tradition of Greek tragedy, in which the chorus sees and knows more than the other characters and often sounds a note of

caution. In this novel, the narrator takes on the role of the chorus.

Chapter Two Summary The night es. By morning, no one has been killed, and people relax a little and start to whisper to one another. Later in the morning, the terrorists round up the hostages. They fear they will be killed, but it turns out they are being brought to the bathroom. The only person who seems to be in danger is Coss’s accompanist, Christopf, who looks pale and ill. The narrator digresses to tell the story of Simon Thibault, a French ambassador, and his wife, Edith. For decades, Simon took his wife for granted. There were so many elegant women in Paris that his wife didn’t seem exceptional. But when he was stationed in what he and his wife call “this godforsaken country,” Simon fell utterly in love with her all over again. Now his heart leaps for her like it did when they were young. The chatter among the hostages has increased so much that General Alfredo shoots at the ceiling in order to restore order. A moment later, someone knocks on the door. Joachim Messner, a Swiss representative of the Red Cross vacationing in the country, has been called in to negotiate between the government and the terrorists. He behaves calmly, as if he is chatting with his neighbors, not negotiating with terrorists. Through the help of Hosokawa’s translator, Gen Watanabe, Messner and the generals agree that all ill prisoners and women prisoners will be exchanged for food and other supplies the terrorists need. Messner sees the wound on the vice president’s face and says it should be treated. Esmeralda, the governess for the vice president’s children, gets a needle and thread and gives them to Messner. But when Messner’s first attempt to stitch up the vice president’s face proves awkward, Esmeralda takes over and stitches Messner’s face as if it were the most natural thing in the world. When she is done, the generals tell her and Messner to lie down. Messner says, “I don’t lie down,” and leaves. The narrator briefly describes Monsignor Rolland, a high-ranking church official who has a good chance of becoming bishop one day. The narrator also describes Father Arguedas, a young priest and an opera-lover. When Arguedas was younger, his response to opera was so intense that he assumed it must be sinful. But after an older priest reassured him that it was not sinful, he decided his joy was a gift from God. Arguedas was able to attend Coss’s performance because a favorite cousin of the vice president pulled strings for him. Now, Father Arguedas is concerned about the young terrorists, and he suggests that one of them take a nap. Victor Fyodorov, a high-ranking Soviet official, has been craving a cigarette since being taken hostage. He decides he can’t wait any longer, and he lights up. One of the terrorists rushes over, but he is not prepared to kill Fyodorov for smoking a cigarette, and after a few drags, Fyodorov puts out his cigarette and the terrorist puts away his gun. The narrator tells the story of Ruben Iglesias, the vice president of the country. Iglesias rose up from poverty, putting himself through law school by working as a clerk and a janitor. He married into a prominent family after he impregnated the daughter of one of the partners in his

law firm. This family pushed him forward, and he rose through the ranks until eventually he was appointed vice president. This last appointment was largely due to the fact that the president, a short man, didn’t want a vice president who towered over him, and Iglesias was sufficiently short. Soon Messner returns, and the generals prepare to free the ill, the women, and the workers. When Messner mistakes the captors for a more ruthless terrorist organization, the generals are offended, saying that they are reasonable men. The terrorists also decide to let the clerics go. Monsignor Rolland makes the sign of the cross and prepares to leave, but Father Arguedas asks to stay. Father Arguedas’s noble gesture infuriates the monsignor, who realizes that the lowly priest has shown himself to be a far braver man than he has, and by doing so in a circumstance that is sure to become highly public, has probably also ruined the monsignor’s chances of becoming bishop. Simon and Edith Thibault hug each other. Then those who have been freed leave as if, the narrator says, they are walking away from a burning building or a sinking ship. Analysis In the second chapter, the hostages make tentative gestures toward normalcy. They talk to one another, use the bathroom, light cigarettes. The potential for disaster and death is always close at hand—a gun could go off accidentally, a trigger-happy or angry terrorist could shoot, government troops could break in at any moment—but the characters continue to live life. Patchett writes, “If what a person wants is his life, he tends to be quiet about wanting anything else. Once the life begins to seem secure, one feels the freedom to complain.” The proximity of danger intensifies life for Simon Thibault, whose love for his wife is sparked again when he moves to the dangerous South American country. The Thibaults are reminiscent of the character Hans Castorp in The Magic Mountain, the novel by Thomas Mann that inspired Patchett’s own. In The Magic Mountain, Castorp’s perceptions of the world and his sexual desires intensify when he goes to a sanitarium. For Thibault, the normalcy and comfort of life in Paris threaten marital excitement, and the harshness and strangeness of a new country revives it. In Chapter Two, Patchett begins to add color and nuance to her characterization of the terrorists. Some of the terrorists are children, and the generals in charge of the terrorists care about being seen as reasonable, even though they are prepared to kill civilians to achieve their goals. This point is illustrated with dark humor when the generals take offense at being mistaken for a more ruthless terrorist organization. The character Joachim Messner, who makes his first appearance in this chapter, is the one person who can come and go at will. He reminds the hostages, the terrorists, and the readers of the existence of a world outside the vice president’s mansion, and of the existence of the government troops. Messner would like to protect both the hostages and the terrorists, but he cannot. Like the narrator, Messner serves the function of a chorus in Greek tragedy, punctuating the drama and reminding everyone that fate will have its way with the characters eventually.

Chapter Three Summary As the women leave the building, the generals tell Roxanne Coss that she has to stay. She says she has had enough. She came to sing, and she did; she was told to sleep on the floor, and she did. But now she’s ready to leave. As an afterthought, she explains that she has to attend to Christopf, her accompanist, who has been allowed to leave because he is very ill. The generals refuse to let Coss leave. Realizing she has lost the fight, she retreats. A moment later, Christopf returns. When he realizes that Coss will not been released, he decides to stay with her, despite his illness. Soon after, he sinks into a coma. Father Arguedas, fearing the worst, begins to say last rites for him. Coss recalls her plane trip to South America with Christopf, who annoyed her by declaring his ardent love for her. Christopf was always an excellent accompanist, but Coss did not bother to learn much about him beyond that, and she did not enjoy being held captive to his confessions on the plane. In fact, she had tried to change her seat. Now, seeing Christopf ill, Coss feels guilty. Christopf’s illness baffles everyone until Coss that he is diabetic. She searches his person and finds a hypodermic needle and an empty bottle of insulin. Almost immediately after Coss recalls Christopf’s condition, he dies. General Benjamin sees the dead accompanist and feels very sorry for him. He thinks of his brother in prison, and hopes that his brother will live to see freedom. Hosokawa gives the weeping Roxanne Coss his handkerchief. Soon after, Hosokawa has Gen approach Coss to offer condolences on Hosokawa’s behalf and to apologize for Hosokawa’s part in bringing her to this country. Coss approaches Hosokawa and they communicate face-toface for the first time. With Gen’s help, Coss says there is nothing to forgive. The terrorists collect information from the hostages. They want to keep the important people, whose captivity will give them more bargaining power, and let others go. When some of the young terrorists begin to bicker, General Hector silences them by shooting the clock on the wall. In the meantime, the vice president walks around his living room, tidying up after everyone and making sure everyone is comfortable. The terrorists release another group of captives. The remaining thirty-nine men and one woman, Roxanne Coss, realize that their ordeal will not end for a long time. Analysis Coss initially plays the role of the diva, behaving with both bravery and self-involvement. Bolder than anyone else in the room, she is not afraid to challenge generals with guns. But Coss also cares primarily about herself. The narrator says that of all the arguments Coss gives the generals in favor of her release, the least convincing is her suggestion that she needs to look

after her sick accompanist. Coss, in these chapters, is the diva who merely absorbs the awe and love of her fans without returning affection. She hardly s that her accompanist, Christopf, is a person. They spend hours together each day, but she knows almost nothing about him or his personal life. When Christopf expresses his love for Coss on the plane, she reacts with annoyance. Coss is not unkind, she is just uninterested. In this chapter, Hosokawa makes direct with Coss for the first time when he pays his condolences for Christopf’s death. The impulse to show kindness and affection in the face of death, which Hosokawa displays, will be a theme throughout the novel. Patchett sets up an exploration of time when General Alfredo shoots the clock near the end of Chapter Three. Alfredo’s symbolic gesture literally stops the clock, a keeper of time, and metaphorically marks the end of normal time for the hostages and the captors, and the beginning of a time apart from the rest of the world.

Chapter Four Summary The days go by, but time seems to stand still for the hostages and the terrorists. This South American country is blanketed by a garua, or dense fog, for several months each year. One morning, the terrorists and the hostages find that fog has completely enveloped the vice president’s mansion. When they look out the windows, they can see almost nothing of the outside world. The combination of entrapment in the house, necessary idleness, and dense fog affects people’s sense of time. The narrator says, “The day no longer progressed in its normal, linear fashion but instead every hour circled back to its beginning, every moment was lived over and over again. Time, in the manner they had all understood it, was over.” People feel as if they’re waiting in a train station. The hostages and the terrorists begin to enjoy some aspects of their lives in the mansion. With Watanabe’s help, Hosokawa starts learning Spanish. The terrorists continue to march around with their guns, but the hostages recognize that most of the terrorists are children, and act in a parental manner toward them. Iglesias, the vice president, sees the badly worn boots of one of the youngest terrorists, Ishmael, and tells him to replace them with a pair of tennis shoes from his wife’s closet. The terrorists find a globe and ask the hostages to show them where they are from. These terrorists, young and unworldly, are impressed by the roomful of international visitors. Most of the terrorists have come from poor rural or jungle villages, and the opulence of the vice president’s house amazes them. One day they find the television and stare at their reflections in the screen. Some of them have seen broken televisions before, but none of them have ever seen one that works. When Thibault, thinking to amuse them, wanders into the room and turns on the television with the remote control, the terrorists are so alarmed that they release the safeties on their guns, and one of the terrorists slams Thibault up against wall. When they realize that he simply turned on the television, they put down their guns. Watching TV becomes a consuming pastime of theirs. During this time, the hostages discover that two of the terrorists are girls. Beatriz and Carmen have concealed their gender under army caps and fatigues, but once their secret comes out, the hostages soften even more in their feelings for the terrorists. In general, everyone feels affectionate. The vice president and a compatriot, Oscar Mendoza, banter about their past love exploits and their infatuation with Coss. Coss starts to have feelings for Hosokawa, around whom she feels quiet and calm. After about two weeks of captivity, Coss decides that if she will be a hostage for an extended period of time, which appears to be the case, she needs to start practicing her singing again. Before she can begin, she needs a new accompanist. Watanabe and Iglesias ask if anyone can play the piano. Finally, Tetsuya Kato, an executive in Hosokawa’s company who is known as a good numbers man, comes forward.

The narrator explains that in Japan, Kato always rose early and practiced the piano for an hour before going to work. He always kept his ion for the piano a secret. Now Kato sits down and plays. Everyone in the room listens and is moved. “Encore,” the priest calls out after Kato finishes his first piece. “Encore,” Carmen, one of the two female terrorists, repeats. Kato looks at Carmen when she says this, and as if in response to her request, plays another piece, and then another. Carmen is moved. “No one had ever played a piece of music for her before,” the narrator says. At the end of the chapter, Kato and Coss agree that they will practice together every day. Analysis The fog that settles over the vice president’s mansion separates the mansion physically and symbolically from the outside world. Time stops marching forward and seems to stand still or even circle back on itself, which deepens the impression that the people in the mansion inhabit a separate world. Patchett suggests that intense emotion does not exist easily in settled, mild lives. It takes a strong character, perhaps even an artistic genius like Roxanne Coss, to express intense emotion publicly and in normal life. Most of the characters in Bel Canto keep their ions hidden, or at least cordoned off from the rest of their lives. For instance, in Japan Kato hid his talent as a pianist because he considered it important to have “another life, a secret life,” separate from his work. Only when he is released from his normal life does he allow other people to see his ion. The vice president’s mansion is like a protective cocoon in which Kato can safely open his heart to others. Even the protection of the mansion would not have made Kato spontaneously reveal his talent. The particular request for a pianist was needed. Without that request, the narrator says, Kato probably never would have come forward. This suggests that the impulse toward public artistic expression is fragile and easily lost. Artistic impression is also a way to wordlessly express feelings that are too deep or painful to talk about. When Kato plays for the group in the mansion, he thinks of his wife and children asleep in bed. As he plays, he expresses the “love and loneliness that each of them felt, that no one had brought himself to speak of.” Kato’s audience listen “with hunger” to the music. Coss’s singing and Kato’s playing makes the already-softened terrorists and hostages feel more strongly that they are living in a timeless, fantastical place.

Chapter Five Summary Almost everyone needs Watanabe, Hosokawa’s translator, in order to communicate. The generals decide to make him their secretary. He will help them draft letters and write up plans. Many of the hostages request Watanabe to interpret when they want to talk to one another. When Kato and Coss talk about their plans to procure sheet music and to practice together, Watanabe translates for them. Messner, the Red Cross representative, regularly visits the mansion. Instead of carrying on intense negotiations between the terrorists and the government, Messner acts as a gofer for Coss, fetching her dental floss, a muffler, throat lozenges, and other items. He is routinely searched before he enters, and during one of these searches, one of the young terrorists can’t resist tickling his ribs. We learn that General Benjamin was a schoolteacher until his brother was arrested and imprisoned for handing out flyers for a political protest. After that, Benjamin ed the terrorist group La Familia de Martin Suarez, named after a ten-year-old boy who was shot dead while handing out flyers for a political rally. General Benjamin has left behind his wife and children to conduct this takeover. Coss and Kato talk about getting sheet music so they can practice. Father Arguedas is thrilled to learn that he can get the music they need from a friend, Manuel, a music teacher with an extensive music library. The generals agree to allow Father Arguedas to make one phone call to Manuel. During the conversation, Manuel says he heard that Coss’s accompanist was murdered and his hands were cut off. For a moment, Father Arguedas thinks to defend the terrorists. Father Arguedas puts Roxanne Coss on the phone so that she can give Manuel the list of music she desires. Father Arguedas recognizes that this is a thrilling moment for him and for his friend. He imagines a time in the future when he and Manuel will sit around the kitchen table recalling the moment they were able to help the famous opera singer. When that time comes, Father Arguedas will “know that he had been the more fortunate of the two because it was he whom she had looked at when she spoke.” As soon as Father Arguedas hangs up the phone, Simon Thibault grabs it, although he has not been given permission to do so. He calls his home and leaves a message on the answering machine telling his wife that he loves her. Watanabe and Messner chat. As they talk, Watanabe notices Carmen looking at him. He also notices how beautiful she is. He and Messner approach Carmen and ask her if she speaks Spanish. She says that Quecha, a language spoken throughout South America, is her first language. She says she is trying to improve her Spanish. Carmen speaks softly and briefly, and after they leave her, Messner notes that it is not often “you meet a shy terrorist.” A few hours later, Messner comes back with the sheet music. General Alfredo, feeling that discipline has become too lax, decides that Messner must be told to come back tomorrow. Coss

says that if she is not allowed to have the music immediately, she will never sing again. Even the generals are in love with her voice, and they agree to let her have the music. Coss decides to begin practicing the next day, but Kato sits down to play right away. Once again the house fills with music. The narrator says that this is the happiest time of Carmen’s life. The music and the beauty of the house are wonders she never dreamed of when she was a child. She prays that God will see the beauty of their present existence and let them stay. That night, Carmen finds the courage to approach Watanabe with a request. When everyone is asleep, she lies down next to Watanabe, prays to Saint Rose for the words she needs, and then wakes him and asks him to teach her to read and write Spanish. He says he will. Analysis In this chapter, we see both the trouble people have communicating with one another, and the ingenious ways they manage to communicate without language. Coss and Kato communicate with each other through their music. Coss and Hosokawa express their affection without words. Simply by being together, they communicate the closeness they feel for each other. Coss gets across her energy and her reliance on Hosokawa. Hosokawa gets across his steadiness and his reassuring friendship. Patchett suggests that humans want to connect to one another so badly that they will find ways to do it even when they lack a common language. For many of the characters, this time in captivity will be the most precious of their lives. Father Arguedas, for example, feels luckier than his professor friend, and Carmen prays to God that the captivity will never end. Much of Chapter Five focuses on the power and the limitations of language. Watanabe is kept busy translating for the captives and the terrorists, who need him in order to communicate with one another. At the end of the chapter, Watanabe agrees to give Carmen reading and writing lessons.

Chapter Six Summary The narrator says that before Roxanne began singing every morning, the hostages felt sad. They saw death everywhere, they missed their families, and they were under the generals’ control. On the morning Roxanne sings for the first time, the house is transformed. The generals lose some control, but they don’t really mind; they don’t have any reasonable plan for how to end the siege, so they are partly happy to give up some power. Roxanne practices every day for three hours in the morning and sometimes again in the late afternoon. Hosokawa compares his old life, in which he was able to listen to opera for just an hour or so a day, and his new life, in which he listens to Coss sing in person. He recalls the hard times of his childhood: his mother’s death when he was ten years old, his father’s prolonged sadness. He thinks of his wife. He and she coexist well together, but now he wonders if he knows her at all. Hosokawa thinks about the fact that his wife reads mystery novels, but he has never thought to ask her about them, and she has never talked to him about them either. He wonders if he has ever made her happy. When Beatriz asks Watanabe if it’s time for her soap opera yet, Watanabe gives her his watch. He finds that in this situation, where there is nowhere to go and no appointments to keep, the watch only bothers him. Watanabe begins to teach Beatriz how to tell time. Viktor Fyodorov approaches Watanabe and asks him for a favor: he wants to speak to Coss. Watanabe agrees to help, but Fyodorov says that there is no rush; they can do it another day. The narrator explains that Fyodorov wants to declare his love for Coss, which Watanabe does not know. Watanabe stands at the window and watches Carmen. He is beginning to fall in love with her. The same day Coss begins to sing, the government sends in boxes of raw foods instead of the prepared foods they have been sending. To Iglesias, this is a sign that the outside world may be forgetting about them. There is also a more immediate worry: who will prepare the food? Iglesias, who has taken up the responsibility of keeping the house neat and tidy, finds that he enjoys housekeeping and is better at it than he was at being vice president. But cooking food is a different matter. Iglesias decides to ask Coss for advice. He doesn’t expect the diva to help him cook, but he assumes she can at least offer him some advice. Coss is at first slightly offended that he would think to ask her but decides that it is a problem of cultural differences, and she tells him politely that she knows nothing about cooking. Watanabe and Iglesias poll the men to find out who can cook. Thibault, an experienced cook, agrees to make the meal. He is faced with another question. How will they prepare the food if none of the hostages are allowed to have knives and all the knives from the kitchen have been confiscated? General Benjamin agrees to let Carmen and Beatriz chop the food for the dinner. General Benjamin asks Watanabe if he plays chess, and Watanabe says that Hosokawa is a good chess player. The general asks Watanabe to ask Hosokawa to play with him sometime.

Watanabe returns to the kitchen, and Carmen, Beatriz, and Ishamel soon follow. Thibault tells Ishmael he’s peeling the eggplant wrong, and asks for the knife so he can show him how to do it correctly. When Beatriz sees Thibault with a knife in his hand, she drops her own, grabs her gun, and points it at him. Thibault calmly asks Beatriz to let him show Ishmael how to cut up the eggplant. He says that Beatriz can shoot him and Watanabe if he uses the knife for any other purpose. Watanabe does not appreciate the suggestion that he could be shot. But he stays in the kitchen just to be near Carmen. In a stolen moment, the two of them agree to meet in the china closet that night when everyone else is asleep to have their first reading and writing lesson. Analysis In this chapter, we learn that Hosokawa’s mother died when he was ten years old. One year after his mother’s death, when he was eleven, Hosokawa fell in love with opera when he went with his father to see Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto. That opera tells the story of a father who loses his daughter. Perhaps Hosokawa, still raw from his mother’s death, found solace in an art form that makes exquisite music about ionate love, tragic death, and the loss of family. Patchett juxtaposes Hosokawa’s memories of the deep pain of his childhood and the joy of opera with descriptions of the pleasant but bland relationship he has with his wife. Perhaps the trauma of losing his mother at a young age makes Hosokawa leery of forging deep connections to people. If he does not love anyone ionately, he does not risk a repetition of the despair he felt when his mother died. It seems possible that Hosokawa seeks out comfort, safety, and order in his human relationships and confines his ionate love to opera. But when opera suddenly fills his life in the person of Roxanne Coss, that detachment disappears. In the tensest scene in Chapter Six, Beatriz points her gun at Thibault. Everyone is reminded that even though life has grown pleasant, the terrorists have guns, and death is still a possibility. But despite the danger, Thibault insists on treating the young terrorists as children, not as mortal threats. Earlier in the novel, he startled the terrorists by turning on the TV with the remote control. They responded by turning a gun on him. In this scene, he directly violates orders by asking the terrorists to trust him with a knife. Again, he finds himself threatened with a gun. Like Coss’s singing, which Hosokawa describes as “reckless and controlled,” Thibault’s commanding behavior is both risky and calm. His insistence on treating children as children is also evidence of his kindness.

Chapter Seven Summary In the middle of November, the garua, or heavy fog, lifts, and everything seems bright. The generals clip out articles about the hostage situation from the newspapers, but the hostages have heard snippets on the TV news about a tunnel being dug underground to free them. The idea of a tunnel seems so far-fetched that no one believes it. Coss sings with even greater beauty and intensity than she did before she became a hostage. She sings “as if she [is] saving the life of every person in the room.” Watanabe and Carmen continue to meet in the china closet. Watanabe thinks about how wonderful and absurd it is that he has fallen in love with a woman not from one of the many big cities that he has visited, but from a village in the jungle. He marvels at the fact that his love dresses in army fatigues, carries a gun, and has taken him hostage. One day Watanabe and Carmen are talking in the bathroom. Carmen suggests that they forget about the outside world and make this their home. Just then, Watanabe hears Fyodorov calling him and steps out of the bathroom to see what he wants. Fyodorov has finally summoned up his courage to declare his love for Coss. Watanabe doesn’t know about Fyodorov’s love, and he is reluctant to leave Carmen. But he agrees and sneaks back to tell Carmen he has to go. Before he leaves, Watanabe says that of course the siege will end. Carmen sheds a few tears, and Watanabe and Carmen kiss for the first time. Watanabe and Fyodorov go to talk to Coss. Fyodorov is so nervous that he has to sit down. Nonetheless, he manages to give an eloquent speech. He begins to explain how moved he was by opera when he was a university student. Then he backs up and tells Coss about the precious art book his grandmother had. She would pull it out in the evenings and show her children and grandchildren how to appreciate beauty. In contrast to the struggles of most people living in the Soviet Union, the beauty of these paintings was overwhelming. Fyodorov tells Coss that he loves her, but he expects nothing in return. He just wanted to tell her. “Some people are born to make great art and others are born to appreciate it. Don’t you think?” he asks. Coss thanks him. Watanabe felt awkward during Fyodorov’s speech, but he notices that Coss doesn’t seem uncomfortable. He realizes that people have probably fallen in love with her throughout her life. The chapter ends with Cesar, one of the young terrorists, thinking about wanting to make love to Coss. Like all the other young terrorist boys, he gets an erection when he hears her sing. But Cesar thinks that it’s not just Coss he wants to make love to, but the music itself. Analysis In much of literature, the lifting of fog symbolizes the end of hard times. In Bel Canto, the lifting of fog symbolizes the end of the characters’ total isolation. The literal cocoon that has

surrounded the vice president’s mansion is gone, and the outside world is close at hand. One kind of exposure is quickly followed by another: right after the fog lifts, we learn about the tunnel the government is purportedly digging to the mansion. The characters, unwilling to face the possibility that their idyll will soon end, decide to ignore the rumors of a tunnel. For Carmen and Watanabe, the possibility that the hostage situation will end is an inducement to speed up their relationship. They kiss for the first time not when they are talking about happy plans for their future together, but when they are discussing the likelihood that their time together will come to an end. Their fear that they will soon lose each other intensifies their feelings. Fyodorov declares his love to Coss without hoping she will return his feelings. Fyodorov is a faintly foolish man, sweaty and nervous, and his protestations of love are something of a burden to Coss. Nonetheless, he overcomes his anxiety to tell a moving, eloquent story about how he came to love beauty. He also makes a strong case that Coss should respect those who can appreciate her singing. Some, like Coss, can express their ion publicly; others, like Kato, express it in secret; others, like Fyodor, cannot express it at all. They are the audience, and they rely on performers to express beauty and suffering for them. But, Fyodorov says, their reliance on performers does not mean that they do not feel the same intensity or are not moved by love and loss just as the artist is. Patchett has said that art is created in the interaction between the artist and the audience. This idea is an important theme in the novel. Coss’s singing is made more important because people listen to it and are changed by it. Without them, it wouldn’t mean much. In this chapter, Patchett acknowledges that the gifted are not only those who make great art but also those who appreciate it. In the same way, love grows from both the lover and the beloved. Thibault loves his wife because of who she is, but also because of what he feels at particular moments, and how his experiences shape him. Coss’s patience with Fyodorov’s declaration of love contrasts with her early irritation with her besotted accompanist. Captivity has made her more appreciative of her irers. Another change in Coss is evident when she tells Watanabe that it is flattering to be loved for what you can do, but better to be loved for who you are. She is referring to Hosokawa with these comments; he is the unnamed man who loves her for who she is, instead of for her talent.

Chapter Eight Summary Hosokawa sits in the sitting room with General Benjamin and plays chess. This has become a routine of theirs. Hosokawa thinks about how much his life has changed. The things that used to be important to him, like his business and his family, no longer seem to matter. He thinks about the fondness he feels for the general. He thinks about how wonderful it is to listen to Coss sing for hours every day, and to sit near her and laugh with her. It would be impossible to explain to the rest of the world how happy he is. Messner arrives, but General Benjamin does not want to stop playing chess. Coss escorts Messner out. Messner tells Coss that because of her captivity, she has become so famous that she could double or even triple her price for performances if she is freed. This news thrills Coss. The narrator tells us that Messner has come to be fond of the terrorists. He knows they are bound to lose the standoff with the government and wishes the terrorists could escape through the air conditioner vents, the way they came in. Iglesias walks into the sitting room where Ishmael, a young terrorist, is playing chess. General Benjamin expresses pride in the boy’s intelligence. In the hall, Iglesias offers the general a bottle of antibiotics. Iglesias had taken the antibiotics after General Alfredo struck him in the face with his gun, and now he offers them as a salve for the shingles that rage across General Benjamin’s face. Skeptical, the general asks if he can trust the vice president. Iglesias swallows one of the pills to show he means well. Back in the main room, Father Arguedas is hearing confessions. Oscar Mendoza, the businessman and friend of Iglesias, tells the priest he dreams that boys are having sex with his daughters, and that he returns home and kills them all. What he wants more than absolution is the reassurance that his daughters are safe. Next, Beatriz confesses. She confesses not because her sins weigh on her but because she is bored and irritable, and because she likes the attention and kindness she gets from Father Arguedas. Though she does not plan to stop sinning—the generals wouldn’t allow it, and anyway, she doesn’t want to—she likes the idea of a cycle of sinning and forgiveness. Father Arguedas tells her that as part of her repentance, she has to try to be kind for a day. She agrees to try. That afternoon, Watanabe and Carmen meet and embrace. Watanabe relays a request from Coss: she wants Carmen to bring Hosokawa to her that night. If Carmen agrees to help Coss, she risks losing the trust of the generals, her place in the organization, and maybe her life. But Coss has been kind to her, sometimes even braiding her hair as a mother or sister would, and she wishes to return that kindness. She agrees to help. That night, when everyone else is asleep, Carmen takes Hosokawa to Coss’s room. As they through one of the rooms, Beatriz sees them and points her gun at Hosokawa. Carmen explains the situation and begs Beatriz not to tell. Beatriz, who was asleep on duty, would get in trouble if Carmen reported her. She also re that she told the priest she would try to be kind for the day. She agrees not to tell.

After escorting Hosokawa to Coss’s door, Carmen finds Watanabe. She leads him outside into the yard, where they have sex for the first time. Analysis This chapter sees the consummation of two relationships; it also suggests the limitations of love. In Chapter Seven, it becomes clear that falling in love has changed Coss. But in Chapter Eight, we see that love has not changed Coss beyond recognition. Her ambition and her thirst for recognition remain intact, and she is thrilled by the news that captivity has only increased her fame. Love has not erased these essential aspects of Coss’s personality. By reminding us that love does not sweep away considerations of the outside world (like the desire for fame), Patchett injects a dose of reality into the idyll of captivity. Another reminder that the outside world has not disappeared comes during Iglesias’s interaction with General Benjamin. The vice president and the general are both profoundly likable characters. They are also drawn together by the tenderness and pride they feel for Ishmael, one of the brightest of the young terrorists. Both act fatherly toward him. In a different situation, Iglesias and Benjamin would likely be good friends. Despite their similarities, however, there are barriers between the two men that all the glorious singing and the love of children in the world cannot break down. Iglesias and Benjamin might coexist in the house without coming to blows, but neither man ever forgets that Benjamin’s brother has been imprisoned by the government that Iglesias represents. Even Watanabe and Carmen’s relationship, consummated in this chapter, does not seem likely to end happily. Carmen optimistically hopes that her love for Watanabe will overcome the fact that she is a terrorist and the man she loves is a hostage. When Watanabe asks her to break the rules and help Coss, Carmen is momentarily forced to face reality. She realizes she is caught between two rival groups, and that siding with her lover could be dangerous. Despite intimations of encroaching reality, the world of captivity remains a charmed one. At the end of this chapter, Watanbe and Carmen are transformed by their love for each other. In the garden, they are not the shy, scared people they’ve always been in the world; they are confident and in love.

Chapter Nine Summary The next morning, Coss does not come down for her usual morning practice. Hoskowa is asleep in the living room. Coss’s absence reminds Kato that one day his life as an accompanist will be over, and he will have to go back to being a businessman. As Kato begins to play the piano, something surprising happens. Cesar, a young and unexceptional terrorist, begins to sing. Everyone is struck silent by his immense talent. Coss comes downstairs. She, too, is struck by his voice. Cesar clearly hasn’t been trained, and when he is about to hit a note Coss fears is too high and hard for him, she quickly stops him from singing in order to prevent him from embarrassing himself. Everyone cries “bravo,” but Cesar, believing he’s made a fool of himself, runs outside and climbs up a tree to hide. Coss sends Carmen to reassure him, but Cesar refuses to come down. Coss asks Carmen if she would ask General Benjamin to allow Coss to go outside to speak to Cesar. No hostages have ever been allowed outside. As Carmen approaches Benjamin, he smells the lemon shampoo that Coss has washed Carmen’s hair with. The lemon reminds him of his childhood and his brother. Impetuously, he decides to let not just Coss but all the hostages go outside. The sensation of being outdoors overwhelms the hostages. Coss talks to Cesar, and they agree that she will give him singing lessons. Lothar Falken, a hostage who was once a runner, begins running circles around the garden. Soon others follow him, enjoying the first physical exertion in months. Mendoza and Iglesias talk about the young terrorist Ishmael, who is within earshot. Iglesias says that when the siege is over he wants to adopt Ishmael, and Mendoza says he wants to give him a position in his company. They sound like they are joking, but the narrator says that they are also serious. In their hearts, the men consider the orphan Ishmael a son. Ishmael knows he shouldn’t take such joking seriously, but in his heart he believes what the men say. Father Arguedas, who hears the conversation, thinks that the men shouldn’t indulge in such fantasies, but he wishes their fantasies could come true. Analysis The morning after Coss and Hosokawa sleep together for the first time, a child, Cesar, comes into Coss’s life. While Cesar is not truly the product of Coss and Hosokawa’s relationship, Coss does adopt him in a figurative sense. She takes him under her wing and promises to teach him to sing. Cesar’s talent for singing, which has been hidden until this point, reinforces the theme that beauty and longing and ion exist in everyone. These qualities are easily lost, however, and difficult to express in the first place. When they manage to come to the surface, as when Cesar sings, it feels like something of a miracle.

The final scene of this chapter is one of the most touching in the novel. In it, both the possibility of love and the possibility of loss seem close at hand. Ishmael, Iglesias, Mendoza, and Father Arguedas attempt to remain logical and to protect their own feelings, but all of them long to believe that love will conquer all. Their illogical optimism induces a feeling of dread. The characters’ situation suggests that if we love deeply, we open ourselves up to deep suffering. They know this to be true, but they can’t rein in their strong affection for each other. The opera Rusalka, the music of which makes up the centerpiece of Coss’s repertoire, echoes the plight of the characters. In Rusalka, a water goddess who loves a human prince asks a witch give her human form. But her transformation comes with a curse: when her human lover is untrue, she becomes a figure of the underworld, and her embrace turns deadly. When her lover repents and begs for her love, they embrace with the knowledge that that embrace will kill him. In the same way, the captors and captives of Bel Canto have transformed, shedding their original roles in order to love one another. In this chapter, Patchett hints that their transformations will lead to unhappiness.

Chapter Ten Summary Mr. Hosokawa regularly visits Coss’s bedroom at night. He is in love, but he knows that the circumstances are extraordinary. He doesn’t believe his relationship with Coss will survive in the outside world. Hosokawa wonders if everyone experiences such love for a short time and then spends the rest of their lives ing it. Each night in the china closet, Watanabe and Carmen alternate between making love and studying. Despite the power of their love, the narrator reminds us, Watanabe is still a hostage, and Carmen is still a terrorist. Messner, the Red Cross representative, shows up looking haggard. He is the only one who seems worried about how this standoff will end. He is no longer trying to work out a compromise; he simply hopes to help the terrorists avoid a tragedy. After struggling to get General Benjamin’s attention, Messner explains that government action seems imminent. Messner begs Benjamin to surrender, but Benjamin refuses. During the conversation, Benjamin seems almost convinced that the government will just let them stay in the mansion forever. Watanabe, who is translating the conversation, understands that time may be growing short for the terrorists. Though this worries him, he can’t believe that anything bad will happen to Carmen. He thinks that because she is special to him, she will somehow be spared. Watanabe tries to forget all of the ways that tragedy is imminent so he can continue to believe that his love for Carmen will survive. In fact, the narrator tells us, “everyone forgot. Except for Messner, whose job it was to . And Simon Thibault, who even in his sleep thought of nothing but his wife.” Coss continues to give Cesar his lessons. One afternoon, she is instructing him inside while everyone else is outside. Many people are playing soccer. Ishmael is helping Iglesias in the garden. Government troops come in. Coss sees them and screams. The troops kill Cesar and then, in the garden, they kill General Benjamin. Soon after the general’s death, the narrator says, the general’s brother is taken from prison and executed for conspiracy. The troops shoot Ishmael. The vice president sees Ishmael go down and rushes to him, weeping. Beatriz sees that all of the terrorists are being shot, but she can’t believe she will be shot, too. She thinks if she keeps her arms straight the government troops will see that she is surrendering, and spare her. Mendoza sees that Beatriz is in danger and rushes toward her. Beatriz smiles at Mendoza and is shot. Watanabe looks for Carmen, repeating, “She is my wife, she is my wife.” The narrator says that Carmen was killed right in the beginning. She and Hosokawa were in the kitchen and they rushed out when they heard Coss scream. Hosokawa was killed when he stepped between Carmen and the government troops to try to save her. Analysis

In Greek tragedy, the characters can’t escape fate. In Bel Canto, the captives can’t escape the inevitable onslaught of government forces sent to rescue them. That the happy captivity would end badly was never really in question, particularly after negotiations ceased, but the characters and perhaps we, the readers, were reluctant to it it. As the lovers try to believe that their idyll will never end, Messner arrives to announce, as a Greek chorus would, that disaster is impending. But even Messner, the voice of realism, wants to wriggle out of what awaits. He counsels General Benjamin to surrender, overlooking or ignoring the fact that if the terrorists surrendered, they would certainly face execution. Death awaited the terrorists regardless of whether they surrendered or stood their ground. Hosokawa is the one character who seems to understand and accept that the love he shares with Coss may be fleeting. Bel Canto is a novel with a large cast of characters, but Hosokawa is one of the characters we know best, and it is he who has gained the deepest understanding of life, love, and loss. When Hosokawa steps between Carmen and the guns of the government soldiers, the gesture recalls the way Carmen stepped between Hosokawa and Beatriz when Beatriz trained a gun on them. These two gestures, mirror images of kindness, prove that the hostages and the terrorists are willing to risk their lives for one another. With this gesture, she reminds us of all the kindness that has gone between the hostages and the terrorists. In this final chapter, it is clear how completely Patchett has subverted the conventions of hostage stories. In most such stories, the reader would be urged to root for government troops to save the hostages from the evil terrorists. But in Bel Canto, the government troops are menacing forces of death, and the hostages weep over the deaths of their young captors. They mourn them as they would their own children.

Epilogue Summary Some time later, the Thibaults meet Coss and Watanabe in Lucca, a small city in Italy where opera composer Giacomo Puccini was born. The Thibaults have come to attend the wedding of Coss and Watanabe. The narrator tells us that Edith Thibault, in contrast to the other three, “still believed she was lucky.” Coss says twice that she is happy, and she kisses Watanabe. The two men go off to see if they can find a bar. Leaving his wife, Thibault feels a moment of panic. Watanabe tells Thibault that these days he mainly translates books so that he has plenty of time to attend Coss’s rehearsals. Watanabe and Coss will live in Milan. Watanabe stops and tells Thibault that not one of the newspapers he has read mentioned the two female terrorists. He wonders if the same was true in the French papers. Thibault says it was. Watanabe has written to the newspapers asking them to correct the mistake, but none of them have. Watanabe says it is almost as if Carmen and Beatriz “never existed.” Watanabe says that when he called Iglesias and told him about his marriage to Coss, Iglesias advised him not rush into anything. But Watanabe says he didn’t want to wait. Thibault tells Watanabe he was right to marry, but privately he begins to suspect that Watanabe and Carmen were lovers. Thibault re how Carmen’s face would brighten whenever she saw Watanabe. Thibault can’t get Carmen’s face out of his mind. Watanabe says that when he hears Coss sing, he thinks well of the world. Thibault says out loud, “She is a beautiful girl.” It is not clear whether he means Carmen or Coss. The narrator says that Thibault feels sure that Watanabe and Coss had married for “the love of each other and the love of all the people they ed.” As Coss and Mrs. Thibault come into view and extend their arms, Thibault is overcome with joy. Analysis Most epilogues tie up loose ends, but this one raises more questions than it answers. Coss and Watanabe, who have both lost their lovers, marry each other. It is unclear whether they are happy, or whether they truly love each other. Coss says twice that she loves Watanabe, as if she is trying to convince herself. And something about the way Watanabe protests that he didn’t want to wait to marry Coss makes Thibault suddenly suspect that Watanabe and Carmen were lovers. Still, it is possible that Watanabe and Coss have found happiness together; the novel is ambiguous on this point. Certainly, throughout the novel Patchett has suggested that true love is often a product of chance and circumstance. Watanabe only fell in love with Carmen, and Hosokawa with Coss, because of the bizarre situation that threw them together. Now that Watanabe and Coss have been brought together by tragedy; perhaps they have truly fallen in love. It is also true that the hostages and the captors often thought, during the standoff, that the

intensity of their love for each other would be hard to maintain in the outside world. Perhaps Coss and Watanabe feel affection for each other, and although it does not approach the ion they felt for Hosokawa and Carmen, it is sufficient for the real world. Coss and Watanabe’s marriage is in part a memorial to the people they have lost. As Thibault says, they married for “the love of each other and the love of all the people they ed.”

Important Quotations Explained 1. What Ruben wanted to tell them was that these things never worked out. No demands were ever met, or were ever honestly met. No one got away with the money and a handful of comrades liberated from some high-security prison. The question was only how much time it would take to wear them down, and how many people would be killed in the process. At this point in the novel, the generals have realized that the president, their target, is not at the birthday party. They don’t have a backup plan, and they are trying to decide how to proceed. This age from Chapter Two, in which the vice president, Ruben Iglesias, thinks about the terrorists’ unrealistic hopes, is typical of Bel Canto. From the beginning of the novel, the narrator hints that the hostage situation will not end well. Here, we are told point-blank that it is merely a question of “how many people [will] be killed.” Like audiences at an opera or a Greek tragedy, we know how the story will end even as we watch the story unfold. The characters’—and our—impulse to hope that somehow tragedy will be averted, even though they and we know it can’t be, suggests the larger human impulse to embrace life even though death is inevitable. 2. He realized now he was only just beginning to see the full extent to which it was his destiny to follow, to walk blindly into fates he could never understand. In fate there was reward, in turning over one’s heart to God there was a magnificence that lay beyond description. At the moment one is sure that all is lost, look at what is gained! In this age from Chapter Five, the narrator explains the thoughts of Father Arguedas, who feels blessed to be in captivity. Arguedas believes that when you trust God, even the most dire events are full of goodness. Being held hostage by terrorists struck Arguedas as a disaster at first, but after a while, he finds blessings in the situation. Captivity means he can listen to Roxanne Coss sing every day. It also means he can fulfill his vows as a priest by ministering to people who are in great need. Father Arguedas’s belief in destiny is strengthened by captivity. He comes to believe that “it [is] his destiny to follow.” A deeply religious man, he does not think it is his place to understand the fate that God has created for him. To Arguedas, people are helpless, uncertain creatures who must trust God if they hope to find happiness. 3. “If someone loves you for what you can do then it’s flattering, but why do they love you? If someone loves you for who you are then they have to know you, which means you have to know them.” Coss speaks these words in Chapter Seven during in a conversation with Watanabe. Fyodorov

has just finished declaring his love to Coss, whom he hardly knows. Nearly every man in the novel loves Coss for her singing. Their adoration flatters Coss, but it does not satisfy her. As she points out here, they love her for her talent, not for herself. Coss is caught in the classic artist’s dilemma. She wants the world to love her for her art, but she also wants to be loved for herself alone. The kind of love she craves is mutual love, in which two people truly know each other. She distinguishes this kind of mutual love from the one-sided adoration an audience feels for a star. 4. He understood that these were extraordinary times, and if their old life was ever restored to them, nothing would be the same. In Chapter Ten, Hosokawa thinks about how much he loves Coss, how full his life has become, and how impossible it would be to maintain this existence if the captivity ended. Hosokawa and Coss could stay together if the crisis ended; in fact, the narrator explains that Hosokawa would be willing to leave his wife and children. But Patchett implies that the quality of Hosokawa and Coss’s love has as much to do with their situation as it does with their innate qualities. Captivity is something of a dream world, far removed from drab everyday worries about getting to work on time, eating lunch, figuring out the kids’ schedules, paying rent, and so on. If Hosokawa and Coss returned to normal life, the petty concerns of normal life would taint their perfect relationship. 5. So Gen should have said something more, and Carmen should have listened more, but instead she kissed him, because the important thing was to forget. That kiss was like a lake, deep and clear, and they swam into it forgetting. In Chapter Ten, Watanabe translates a conversation in which Messner explains that soon the government will stop allowing him to come to the mansion. This indicates that the government is about to take some action that will likely lead to the deaths or imprisonment of the terrorists, including Carmen. Watanabe tells Carmen what Messner said. Instead of thinking about the impending tragedy, or making plans to flee together, Watanabe and Carmen ignore what is happening and kiss. Their willful forgetfulness can be interpreted as frustratingly reckless, but it can also be interpreted as a sensible response to fate. Throughout the novel, Patchett has suggested that the terrorists will certainly die. Perhaps forgetting is, for Watanabe and Carmen, a way of accepting fate.

Key Facts full title · Bel Canto author · Ann Patchett type of work · Novel genre · Romance; political thriller; fantasy language · English time and place written · 1990s; Nashville, Tennessee date of first publication · 2001 publisher · Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers narrator · Omniscient, anonymous third-person; occasional free indirect discourse point of view · The narrator’s, who moves from character to character, explaining the private thoughts and feelings of each tone · Sympathetic; melancholy tense · Past setting (time) · The not-too-distant past setting (place) · A vice president’s mansion in an unspecified, impoverished South American country protagonist · Katsumi Hosokawa, Roxanne Coss, Gen Watanabe, and Carmen major conflict · As the terrorists and the hostages come to care for and even love one another, the prospect of governmental interference looms rising action · Hosokawa and Coss fall in love; Watanabe and Carmen fall in love climax · Government troops storm the mansion, killing all the terrorists and Hosokawa falling action · Watanabe and Coss marry themes · ion in the face of death; the strangeness of fate; the basic human impulse toward civilization motifs · Opera; language barriers; secret ions

symbols · The vice president’s mansion, the soap opera, Rusalka, child terrorists foreshadowing · Throughout the novel, the narrator intimates that the terrorists’ deaths are inevitable; the lifting of the fog symbolizes the beginning of the end of captivity

Study Questions and Essay Topics Study Questions 1. Why did Patchett title her novel Bel Canto? What is the significance of opera in the novel? Bel canto is a term from opera that means “beautiful song.” The novel opens and closes with opera. In the beginning of the novel, Roxanne Coss has just finished singing at Katsumi Hosokawa’s birthday party when terrorists burst in and take everyone hostage. At the end of the novel, Coss is giving voice lessons to Cesar, a young terrorist, when government troops storm the mansion and kill the terrorists. In between, the lives of the hostages and the terrorists are punctuated by beautiful song. Opera serves as a metaphor for life’s beauty, which persists even in the face of death. Opera also stands for the strength of art against brute power. Before Coss starts singing each day, the generals control the situation. But once she begins to sing, her music takes over, and the hostages and terrorists are drawn together as they listen to her. When two of the generals say they ought to be in charge of when Coss does and doesn’t sing, General Benjamin tells them they should first try to control a bird. Opera also gives the novel its form. Like many operas, Bel Canto is a story of ionate, otherworldly love affairs that end in tragic death. 2. At the beginning of Bel Canto, the narrator tells us that the hostages will live and the terrorists will die. How does this revelation change the way we read the novel? From the very beginning of Bel Canto, the narrator tells us how the story will end. In Chapter One, the narrator says, “It was the unspoken belief of everyone who was familiar with this organization and with the host country that they were all as good as dead, when in fact it was the terrorists who would not survive the ordeal.” By telling us the ending, Patchett forces us to pay attention to the relationships between the characters, rather than the unfolding of the plot. Unencumbered by nervousness about whether or not the story will end happily, we are free to pay attention to details and think carefully about the relationships that develop. If Bel Canto is read as an allegory for life in general, knowing that the terrorists will die stands for humans’ knowledge that everyone, including themselves, will die one day. The inevitability of death does not cause us to despair, just as the inevitability of the terrorists’ deaths does not cause us to throw down the novel in disgust. Instead, we take a keen interest in our own lives, just as we take a keen interest in characters whose fate we already know. 3. Describe Watanabe and Carmen’s relationship with language. How does language inhibit and ultimately help them? Watanabe and Carmen are the two characters who have the most trouble expressing themselves. Watanabe is a language genius who helps everyone else communicate, but when it comes to speaking for himself, he is often at a loss. Carmen may be a terrorist, but she is a shy terrorist. She is so nervous about asking Watanabe for language lessons that she must fortify herself by praying to her patron saint, Saint Rose, and asking her to fill her mouth with the words she

needs. Carmen says to Watanabe, “‘Teach me to read. . . . Teach me to make my letters in Spanish.’” At their language lessons, “They spoke of vowels and consonants. They spoke of diphthongs and possessives. She copied letters into a notebook.” As they work on these basic elements of language, Carmen and Watanabe gradually gain the means of expressing themselves. Their growing ability to communicate culminates when they make love. When they are together, they are no longer as shy as they are during the day. They are confident and expressive. From the language lessons, both Carmen and Watanabe gain the ability to speak to each other heart to heart. Suggested Essay Topics 1. Ann Patchett has said that she was inspired to write Bel Canto after reading about a real fourmonth hostage siege that took place in Peru in 1996. What are some of the realistic elements in Bel Canto? What are some fantastical elements in the novel? What effect does Patchett achieve by combining realistic and fantastical elements? 2. Many novels are set in a confined space—a deserted island, an isolated retreat. Bel Canto is set in a vice president’s mansion. What do you think authors gain by setting their novels in confined spaces? What does Patchett gain? 3. What is the role of the artist in Bel Canto? What conclusions can we draw about Patchett’s attitude toward artists and their role in society? 4. Why do you think Patchett ends her novel with an epilogue, rather than a final chapter? How does the epilogue affect your reading of the novel as a whole? 5. Does the end of the novel satisfy you? Why or why not?

Quiz 1. Where is Bel Canto set? (A) Southeast Asia (B) South America (C) Central America (D) An unnamed continent 2. Katsumi Hosokawa attends the birthday party because (A) He wants to build a factory and needs the government’s help (B) He wants to hear Roxanne Coss sing (C) He craves exotic adventures (D) He wants to escape from his wife 3. The centerpiece of Roxanne Coss’s repertoire is music from the opera (A) Rigoletto (B) Rusalka (C) The Marriage of Figaro (D) The Magic Flute 4. Which characters are in love at the beginning of the novel? (A) Edith Thibault and Simon Thibault (B) Gen Watanabe and Carmen (C) Katsumi Hosakawa and Roxanne Coss (D) Viktor Fydorov and Roxanne Coss 5. How old was Katsumi Hosokawa when he first attended the opera? (A) twenty-nine (B) forty-five (C) eighteen (D) eleven 6. What did Coss’s accompanist tell Coss on the plane? (A) That he has a bad feeling about the party (B) That he plans to quit after the party (C) That he is in love with her (D) That he dreams of stardom 7. The president does not attend the party because he (A) Is attending a conference

(B) Is visiting his mistress (C) Is playing golf (D) Is watching a soap opera 8. Joachim Messner is (A) The president of Switzerland (B) A representative of the Red Cross (C) A friend of the vice president’s (D) A terrorist 9. What does Joachim Messner do when the general tells him to lie down? (A) Begs for mercy (B) Calls his boss (C) Lies down next to Roxanne Coss (D) Leaves 10. The first character in the novel to die is (A) Oscar Mendoza (B) General Alfredo (C) Christopf (D) Lothar Falken 11. The female hostages who have been released look as if they are (A) Controlling their panic with difficulty (B) Escaping the clutches of death (C) Walking away from a burning building or a sinking ship (D) Moving in a fog of disbelief 12. When he was a businessman in Japan, Tetsuya Kato practiced the piano (A) In the evening, after dinner (B) In the morning, before work (C) Only when no one was at home (D) For five hours every day 13. The generals give Father Arguedas permission to make one phone call so he can (A) Ask his friend for sheet music (B) Ask his uncle to the press (C) Request that the president come to negotiate (D) Demand medicine for General Benjamin 14. Carmen first approaches Gen Watanabe because she wants help

(A) Writing a letter (B) Reading a letter (C) Learning to read and write (D) Escaping from the generals 15. Simon Thibault takes a knife from Ishmael (A) In order to kill Ishmael (B) In order to pick a lock (C) In order to cut up vegetables (D) In order to cut his hair 16. Carmen’s greatest skill as a terrorist is her ability to (A) Move so quietly that no one notices her (B) Charm the enemy into submission (C) Fend off policemen unwilling to shoot a young girl (D) Shoot her gun with accuracy 17. Carmen and Gen Watanabe make love for the first time (A) In the vice president’s bedroom (B) In the china closet (C) In the general’s office (D) In the garden 18. The young terrorist who most often points a gun at a hostage is (A) Ishmael (B) Cesar (C) Carmen (D) Beatriz 19. General Benjamin is proud of Ishmael for (A) Learning to play chess (B) Turning against the hostages (C) Understanding the history of his country (D) Dreaming of being a general 20. Ruben Iglesias gives General Benjamin (A) His gun (B) A letter (C) Medicine (D) A bottle of whiskey 21. After Cesar finishes singing, he

(A) Bows and basks in the praise (B) Asks if there are any requests (C) Looks around for Coss (D) Hides in a tree 22. Ruben Iglesias dreams that after the siege is over he will (A) Adopt Ishmael (B) Become president (C) Move with his family to another country (D) Sleep every day until noon 23. When Roxanne Coss sees the government soldiers, she (A) Runs to them (B) Runs away from them (C) Sings an aria (D) Screams 24. At the end of the novel, Roxanne Coss marries (A) Gen Watanabe (B) Katsumi Hosokawa (C) Tetsuya Kato (D) Christopf 25. The guests at the wedding are (A) Ruben Iglesias and his family (B) Simon and Edith Thibault (C) Coss’s new accompanist and Viktor Fyodorov (D) The Vienna Philharmonic

Suggestions for Further Reading Benbow- Pfalzgraf, Taryn, ed. American Women Writers: A Critical Guide from Colonial Times to the Present. 2d ed. Detroit, Michingan: St. James Press, 2000. “A Conversation with Ann Patchett, author of Bel http://www.bookbrowse.com. ed May 30, 2001.

Canto.”

Available

online:

Maslin, Janet. “Uninvited Guests Wearing You Down? Listen to Opera.” The New York Times (May 31, 2001). Mullan, Joseph. “The Virtues of Imprisonment.” The Guardian, June 29, 2002. Miller, Laura. “Bel Canto by Ann Patchett.” Available online: http://www.salon.com. ed June 2004. Patchett, Ann. The Magician’s Assistant. New York, New York: Harcourt, 1997. Patchett, Ann. The Patron Saint of Liars. Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin, 1992. Patchett, Ann. Taft, Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin,1994. Patchett, Ann. ‘Truth and Beauty,’ A Tale of Friendship. New York: HarperCollins, 2004.

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Table of Contents Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Epilogue