Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

 

"But these last months had turned him around and now Gen saw there could be as much virtue in letting go of what you knew as there had ever been in gathering new information. He worked as hard at forgetting as he had ever worked to learn. He managed to forget that Carmen was a soldier in the organization that had kidnapped him."

    -from the novel

I can't remember who among our group of Page Turners suggested this novel. I didn't think I was going to like it at first but I ended up being intrigued by its unique plot. I have given a rating of 4.

To start, there is a birthday party being held for an important Japanese businessman, Katsumi Hosokawa, in the home of the vice president of an unknown South American country. In attendance are many international VIPs and a famous opera star, Roxane Coss, and her accompanist who have been hired to provide the entertainment. Suddenly a group of guerillas, La Familia de Martin Suarez, "crash the party"! When they discover El Presidente, whom they planned to kidnap, is not in attendance, they decide to hold all the guests as hostages. The people are detained for months while the terrorist generals refuse to negotiate except to allow most of the women to leave. They keep the singer. Fortunately, it did not seem they were badly treated.

There were so many interesting characters besides the ones already mentioned----Gen, Hosokawa's aide and interpreter, a priest, a Red Cross mediator who is allowed to come and go and the host Vice President Iglesias. Plus the reader gets to know several of the soldiers, two of whom are young women.

I was struck by this review from New York magazine:

 "The author has taken what could have been a variation on The Lord of the Flies scenario and fashions instead a 'Lord of the Butterflies,' a dreamlike fable in which impulses toward beauty and love are shown to be as irrepressible as the instincts for violence and destruction...In more ways than one, Bel Canto is about finding beauty in unexpected places."    

 I will find out soon what others of the group think about this unusual story. More then...

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I predicted the rating would be below 3 but I was wrong.  The group average was 3.4. There were actually 10 ratings of 4 or 5 and only 4 votes of 1 or 2. Not many were on the fence---we either liked it or we didn't! 

Almost everyone enjoyed at least a few of the characters. Those who knew more about opera seemed to like the novel more. Some found the novel tedious, but when we thought about it, being a hostage WOULD by definition be tedious. Some found it unbelievable. Several, like me, didn't like it at first but then it "grew" on us. We liked how people in a bad situation kept looking for the bright side.

As always, the discussion rated a 5!

A Catered St. Patrick's Day by Isis Crawford

 

"...But I do believe that hypocrisy and/or willful blindness are wonderful tools when used correctly. In fact, I can honestly say that if more people engaged in those practices, life would be a great deal smoother."

                  -Sean Simmons, from the novel

           

This quote is one I don't buy into, if I understand it correctly. The character it is spoken to didn't agree either. This novel is pretty short on profound ideas and memorable quotes.

The book was a gift a few years ago. With St. Pat's Day approaching I decided to pull it off the shelf and give it a try. At first, I thought of it as "fluff" and didn't know if I wanted to continue. After several chapters I became more interested and needed to see how it would end.

An assumed murder at the beginning of this mystery was pretty far-fetched---a guy is drowned in a barrel of green beer outside a pub. It turns out he has lost a lot of people's money in a very bad investment so there are many suspects. 

The Simmons family runs a cafe called A Little Taste of Heaven but they do some sleuthing on the side. An influential acquaintance hires Sean, a former investigator, and daughters Bernie and Libby, to find the killer when her nephew is arrested for the "beer barrel" murder.

Though not a literary masterpiece by any stretch, the novel was entertaining enough. The sisters are catty at times and share some sisterly jibes which adds some humor to an already pretty silly premise. I am rating this one a 2.5. 

 

"Kindness, empathy, humor, humility, passion and ambition all marked him [Lincoln] from the start. But he grew, and continued to grow, into a leader who became so powerfully fused with the problems tearing his country apart that his desire coalesced into a single indomitable force. That force has not only enriched subsequent leaders but has provided our people with a moral compass to guide us. Such leadership offers us humanity, purpose, and wisdom, not in turbulent times alone, but also in our everyday lives."

     -Doris Kearns Goodwin on the leadership of Abraham Lincoln

I read Team of Rivals by this author several years ago and enjoyed it. I don't read a steady diet of nonfiction, but I do love American history. The subtitle of that book is "The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln," my favorite president.

I saw the author in a TV interview with Rachel Maddow where this, her latest book, was mentioned. Goodwin writes about each of 4 presidents who served ably during turbulent times, including Lincoln and also Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson.

The book was dense with information but fascinating---almost a page-turner in many places. The format is brilliant. Goodwin takes each of the four presidents chronologically, describing their youth, early influences and obstacles, and their developing ambition and leadership skills. Then one by one, she places them in a position early in their presidencies where they face circumstances perilous to America's economic and/or political future. 

It was no surprise that Lincoln's biggest trial was the Civil War and preservation of the Union. One outstanding accomplishment of Theodore Roosevelt was the Coal Strike of 1902 which was news to me but SO interesting. One had to guess that FDR's claim to fame was either the Great Depression or WWII. Goodwin covers both with an emphasis on the Hundred Days, starting with saving the banks and then passing an amazing amount of legislation to help the American people who were struggling financially. Lyndon Johnson was the biggest surprise to me. I remembered him in his fall from favor over the Vietnam War, but Goodwin showcases his earliest time as president after Kennedy's assassination when he capitalized on the nation's sadness to get Congress moving on legislation that Kennedy had wanted, particularly the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Like FDR, he got many important bills through in a short amount of time.

Goodwin's last section, the Epilogue called Of Death and Remembrance, she begins with Johnson with whom she worked post-presidency and ended with Lincoln who seemed to set the standard of leadership for the other three. (See quote above) I learned so much about these four men and how they positively affected, in some cases even saved our country! I rate the book a 5.