It’s interesting that the reviews here are rather blah, when the reviews I read on a blog (that inspired me to read the book in the first place) were all saying they were sad to see the book end. I thought it was a wonderful book-basically about the relationships that developed between strangers thrown together in a hostage situation. I could feel the passion about music and song. I was disappointed in the ending, however. I would have preferred the book end several pages earlier-perhaps when they were all cavorting in the grass. Let the reader imagine a future for them.

The cover blurb described this as a real pager-turner. I don’t quite agree with that but I would say that it is a good book. The ending was a little weird though, or not the ending but the conclusion to the story, it didn’t quite hang together for me. I also thought that the length of the siege was very long, especially when the end of it was brought about so swiftly.

So it was a good book, but could have been helped by having the plot sophistication of a ‘Clancy’ or ‘Forsyth’.

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.