This was a great one to listen to. Had I read it to myself I’m sure I would have had trouble getting finished also. But the reader was excellent and I could consume it while doing chores around the house. Although I suppose the Epilogue was believable I was dissappointed that the author decided to end the story that way.

The set up for Bel Canto is intriguing — an international group of businessmen and diplomats, one female opera singer, and a polyglot translator are held captive by a gang of revolutionaries in an unnamed banana republic for several months.

Despite the premise, the story is not particularly exciting. It focuses on the personal relationships among the people involved, especially the relationships between some of the captives and captors. The story is well-written and raises issues about the nature of talent, love, and communication that are interesting to contemplate. But I never thought the book rose above just being interesting. It is not a compelling page-turner, just an interesting story.

This book takes a while to get into. In fact, it took me two tries to actually read the thing (and I never stop reading books once I’ve started them). I recommend plugging through the book… it’s a great story.

This took me forever to finish but was definately worth the time, particularly the last 50 pages (which I’m sure comes as no surprise). It started off incredibly quickly but I, for whatever reason, became incredibly bogged down with it during the middle. Despite how long it took me to finish, I really enjoyed reading this.