Paradise in captivity

“Who knew that being kidnapped was so much like attending university?” Gen said.

Ann Patchett, Bel Canto

In Ann Patchett’s magical 2001 novel Bel Canto, a prolonged hostage situation in an unnamed Latin America country turns into an educational opportunity for both hostages and terrorists. A tiny ragtag liberation army composed mostly of teenagers, including two girls, crashes a birthday party for a prominent Japanese businessman, Katsumi Hosokawa, held at the vice president’s home. The featured guest is the celebrated American opera singer Roxane Coss, because Hosokawa loves opera. The terrorists had planned to kidnap the country’s president and trade him for the release of political prisoners, but the president has stayed home to watch his favorite soap opera. So Roxane becomes the big prize, along with all of the male party guests, who come from a variety of countries and speak a variety of languages.

The negotiations drag on for months, during which time the situation becomes not just the normal but the ideal. Roxane falls in love with Hosokawa, even though they cannot speak the same language. Gen, the translator and thus the most valuable person in the house, falls in love with Carmen, a pretty soldier whom he teaches to read and write. Another young soldier learns to play chess, while another, with Roxane’s instruction, learns to sing opera. The vice president, who has never done manual labor in his life, develops skills at both housekeeping and gardening. And so on.

As one of the generals says near the end of the novel, “It makes you wonder. All the brilliant things we might have done with our lives if only we suspected we knew how.”

Yet as prevalent as this education theme may be in the novel, it is not the dominant one. That has to do with service, grace, second chances and the power of music. The vice president becomes a humble servant after his servants are released. Gen, the translator everyone depends on, becomes everyone’s servant, as well. Beatriz, the other female soldier, confesses to a priest for the first time in her life, discovering the freedom in forgiveness.

Then there is Roxane. Again and again we find lines like these when she sings, something that becomes the highlight of everyone’s day: “God’s own voice poured from her,” “such a voice must come from God” and “she sang as if she was saving the life of every person in the room.”

If captivity can become a paradise, then rescue paradoxically becomes paradise lost. Patchett’s ending brings the harsh real world back and disappoints for that reason. Readers, like both the captors and the captives, much prefer the captivity of the book’s first nine chapters.