Bel Canto
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Key Facts
full title · Bel Canto
author · Ann Patchett
type of work · Novel
genre · Romance; political thriller; fantasy
language · English
time and place written · 1990s; Nashville, Tennessee
date of first publication · 2001
publisher · Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
narrator · Omniscient, anonymous third-person; occasional free indirect discourse
point of view · The narrator’s, who moves from character to character, explaining the private thoughts and feelings of each
tone · Sympathetic; melancholy
tense · Past
setting (time) · The not-too-distant past
setting (place) · A vice president’s mansion in an unspecified, impoverished South American country
protagonist · Katsumi Hosokawa, Roxanne Coss, Gen Watanabe, and Carmen
major conflict · As the terrorists and the hostages come to care for and even love one another, the prospect of governmental interference looms
rising action · Hosokawa and Coss fall in love; Watanabe and Carmen fall in love
climax · Government troops storm the mansion, killing all the terrorists and Hosokawa
falling action · Watanabe and Coss marry
themes · Passion in the face of death; the strangeness of fate; the basic human impulse toward civilization
motifs · Opera; language barriers; secret passions
symbols · The vice president’s mansion, the soap opera, Rusalka, child terrorists
foreshadowing · Throughout the novel, the narrator intimates that the terrorists’ deaths are inevitable; the lifting of the fog symbolizes the beginning of the end of captivity
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