Finished Reading Bel Canto: It Was So Unexpected I Laughed and Cried (Spoiler Warning)

The audiobook for Bel Canto (by Ann Patchett) arrived from the library.

As usual, by the time a popular book arrives from the library, I've forgotten why I wanted to read it, so I checked the synopsis online. It's an award-winning literary work, with the theme of "the blossoming of love and humanity through music."

There are people writing reviews for it on Note as well.

English-language review sites seem to be divided between the "bravo" camp and the boring but I endured it to the end camp.

I see, is it boring? Then I'll just listen to it while running. Or so I thought...

What is this!! Is this an abdominal-muscle-destroying comedy??

The relationship between the hostages and the guerrillas goes beyond Stockholm Syndrome at an angle... I stopped to remember the parts I laughed at for my review, stopped my Garmin, took a screenshot of the chapter and timestamp, started running again, and laughed again...

While doing all that, my heart rate kept going up and down. I don't recommend this to people who want to run seriously!

The scene where I stopped my Garmin, for example, is this one.

Scene: The diva's accompanist becomes unconscious and then dies. It turns out he was diabetic.

Terrorist A: "He's dead anyway, should we shoot the corpse and throw it outside to scare them? To show them we're scary terrorists?"

Hostage A: "You won't get any blood if you shoot a corpse, will you? He died from diabetic shock, didn't he? Oh, we had plenty of insulin left over... what a pity."

Diva: "Hey, what are these people talking about?"

Interpreter: "They're discussing whether to shoot the corpse to make it look like an example."

Diva: "What!! I won't let you do that!! If you're going to shoot, shoot me first! Let me tell you, if you kill me, a treasure of humanity, divine punishment will fall upon you! Hey, interpreter, you translated that properly, didn't you?"

The diva's line here is, "Any bullet that goes into that man goes through me first!!"

And of course, my Showa-era brain immediately pictures the scene where Oscar from The Rose of Versailles says, "Step over my dead body!!" I can also picture Oscar saying, "Interpreter! Did you translate that properly?" and my abs just can't take it anymore.

Love is blossoming between hostages and terrorists, the "oshi-katsu" (fan activity) for the diva is taking on a bizarre aspect, people are saying they want to make love to the music itself, and the boundary between the body and art is becoming chaotic. In terms of Showa-era manga, this is the world of "The Sons of Eve."

People fighting over Gen the interpreter for the sake of their oshi-katsu, Gen muttering "I wanted to talk to him about Turgenev" while translating a Russian's passionate confession of love, a general who discovers opera, a boy soldier who is made to practice vocalization by the diva because he's too good when he sings, hostages and terrorists happily playing soccer together... Everyone appears in my mind in the art style of a chaotic manga by Yasuko Aoike.

Looking at review sites, there is no one who says their abs were destroyed. Why?? Am I the weird one?? Some people said, "It's comical and interesting, I read it in a day," which made me feel a bit relieved, but I understood why no one summarizes it as "a hilarious novel" after reading the ending.

<The following contains spoilers!! ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK!>

What is this!!! It made me think it was a feel-good novel, what a genre bait-and-switch!!

The hostages die, the terrorists die, the general dies, Mr. Hosokawa dies, Gen loses his idol and his lover right before his eyes, and yet in the epilogue, he's married to the diva.

Is this a case of 'I was interpreting for my idol and ended up marrying her'?? No, wait, what about the positions of Mr. Hosokawa and Carmen!? Gen, wasn't Carmen your fated lover?

But when I think about it, Gen is the embodiment of intellect, and the diva is art itself; the idea of intellect and art getting together at the end is, well, I suppose I can understand it. A marriage-ending between concepts. Humans are left behind. Humans are always being wiped out and destroyed by the violence of state power in every age, and the idea of hostages and captors falling in love through music is a fleeting dream; however, the concepts of knowledge and love remain, and the bells of the Gion Shoja temple toll.

Summary: What is Bel Canto?

An entertainment piece where you work out your abs through the miracle of fandom and humanity, only to have everything destroyed by state power and collapse to your knees.

That concludes my reading report, written while running and laughing hysterically, and taking notes while crying 🐑