- Pride and Prejudice by: Jane Austen
- Bel Canto by Anne Patchett
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by: Mark Haddon
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Summer Reading List
Monday, August 25, 2008
Bel Canto's Parallel Universe
Bel Canto by Anne Patchett chronicles a hostage situation in Spain. Patchett uses the hostage crisis as a plot device to both propel the characters together and create a separate world. This parallel reality, actually the house of Ruben Iglesias, the Vice President of Spain, offers the opportunity for the characters to reinvent themselves. As the novel progresses the hostage crisis becomes less central to the plot and becomes the backdrop to the relationships formed between the characters. Patchett’s real intentions come out when she proposes these questions, what happens when somebody’s normal life comes to a stop? Is one still the same person in a different environment? Can you reinvent yourself?
The characters begin as one dimensional people who are divided into hostages or rebels. They evolve and assume different identities as a result of the relationships that they form. Mr. Hosokawa, a wealthy business man, escapes from his life of long workdays and his faithful wife to experience the joys of a romantic relationship with one of his favorite opera singers. Each of the young rebels discovers the possibilities that come with sincere and trusting relationships. General Benjamin suddenly has the opportunity to use the hostages as bargaining chips to save his friends and relatives who were in jail. Mr. Kato becomes an accompanist to the famous opera singer Roxanne Coss. The Japanese translator, Gen falls passionately in love with Carmen, the young rebel. With one exception each of the character’s lives significantly increased in fulfillment and happiness while living in the confines of Iglesias’ house.
As the story line continued I found myself suspending disbelief. I accepted the possibility that the hostages and rebels could maintain their happiness. I believed that they could exist separate from the world without having to pay a price for their actions. It was a false sense of security. In the end the real world comes crashing in just as suddenly as the fictional one came in.
I found it fascinating that Patchett created a situation that might have been distressing, but instead made an attractive world. The plot itself was a hypothetical social experiment that morphed into something unpredictable and enlightening.
Once I finished Bel Canto I was surprised by how emotionally involved I had become with each of the characters’ well-being. Patchett successfully engrossed me with her characters perceptions. I was surprised and I am convinced that my connection to the novel is due to Patchett’s artful approach to describing the events which take place in her novel. Patchett’s melodic writing seemed to crescendo and incorporated the dynamic emotions that run through music and translate them into words.
I was swept away into the parallel universe of Bel Canto and have come out of it with a new perspective on the malleability of people’s identities (470).
The characters begin as one dimensional people who are divided into hostages or rebels. They evolve and assume different identities as a result of the relationships that they form. Mr. Hosokawa, a wealthy business man, escapes from his life of long workdays and his faithful wife to experience the joys of a romantic relationship with one of his favorite opera singers. Each of the young rebels discovers the possibilities that come with sincere and trusting relationships. General Benjamin suddenly has the opportunity to use the hostages as bargaining chips to save his friends and relatives who were in jail. Mr. Kato becomes an accompanist to the famous opera singer Roxanne Coss. The Japanese translator, Gen falls passionately in love with Carmen, the young rebel. With one exception each of the character’s lives significantly increased in fulfillment and happiness while living in the confines of Iglesias’ house.
As the story line continued I found myself suspending disbelief. I accepted the possibility that the hostages and rebels could maintain their happiness. I believed that they could exist separate from the world without having to pay a price for their actions. It was a false sense of security. In the end the real world comes crashing in just as suddenly as the fictional one came in.
I found it fascinating that Patchett created a situation that might have been distressing, but instead made an attractive world. The plot itself was a hypothetical social experiment that morphed into something unpredictable and enlightening.
Once I finished Bel Canto I was surprised by how emotionally involved I had become with each of the characters’ well-being. Patchett successfully engrossed me with her characters perceptions. I was surprised and I am convinced that my connection to the novel is due to Patchett’s artful approach to describing the events which take place in her novel. Patchett’s melodic writing seemed to crescendo and incorporated the dynamic emotions that run through music and translate them into words.
I was swept away into the parallel universe of Bel Canto and have come out of it with a new perspective on the malleability of people’s identities (470).
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