Bel Canto Analysis

Sang Diego Union-Tribune reported that “Thanks to Patchett’s narrative know-how, readers won’t want to let the novel go until they finish it” ( ). Karen Valby of Entertainment Weekly said that “One approaches the final pages with a heavy heart for several reasons, not the least of which being that this fine read has come to an end” (Valby, “Bel Canto”). What on earth makes “Bel Canto” such an attractive book? In fact, in the Ann Patchett’s novel “Bel Canto”, the use of framing and foreshadowing play significant roles by affecting the reader’s understanding of and reaction to not only the story but also situation and characters, allowing the story to revolve dramatically. Framing and foreshadowing enable the reader to predict certain both

“Bel Canto”, meaning “A lyrical style of operatic singing using a full, rich, broad tone and smooth phrasing” according to Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford Dictionaries, “definition of bel canto in English”), is her forth novel first published in 2001 and she got the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2002. This novel is supposed to become a drama by a director, Paul Weitz in 2018. The story of “Bel Canto” is based on a true incident in Lima, Peru called Japanese embassy hostage crisis that had been lasting from December in 1996 when the rebellious group called the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) had broken into a party held in a Japanese ambassador’s residence to April in 1997 when the arm forces rescued. This incident resulted in death of one hostage, two commandos and all the MRTA members who had lived in this house for 126 days. Inspired by this crisis, she started writing a novel “Bel Canto”. Her story mainly focuses on what was going on in the house and relationship among characters rather than the incident itself. However, “Bel Canto” is not non-fiction story because she made some changes between the true incident and her story. For example, the number of hostages who were remained in the house for about four months was 40 while the actual number was 72. Although she made some changes in the story, there are also common points between the incident and the