Bel Canto: A Novel

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   舞台はとある南米国の副大統領の邸宅。そこでは世界的に有名なソプラノ歌手が、滞在中の日本人ホソカワ氏の誕生日を祝して歌を披露していた。この日本産業界の大物をなんとか口説き落とし、この国に工場を建設させたい…。それが副大統領の腹づもりだった。ところがちょうど伴奏者がソプラノ歌手にキスをしているころ、18人のテロリストたちがエアコンの通気孔から建物内部に侵入しようとしていた。彼らの標的は大統領。だが不幸なことに彼はそこにはいなかった。大好きな連続ドラマを見るために自宅にいたのだ。こうして計画は最初からつまずいてしまう。

   人質になったのはホソカワ氏、それにアメリカ人ソプラノ歌手のロクサーヌ・コスだけではない。ロシア、イタリア、フランスからの大使も含まれていた。犯人たちは小柄でおとなしい副大統領ルーベン・イグレシアスには何の興味もないらしい。そこで彼はすきを見て逃げ出すことに成功する。その間にもこの地で休暇を楽しんでいた赤十字のスイス人ヨアヒム・メスナーが交渉人として登場、取引条件や要求のくいちがいのせいで何度も行き来を繰り返すことになる。1週間、1か月…と月日ばかりがむなしく過ぎていくのだった。

   リアリズムの何たるかを十分に心得たアン・パチェットは、人質とテロリストの間を魔法使いのように軽やかに飛び回り、その心境をつぶさに伝える。そこから垣間見えるのは、どの人物にも共通する「人間らしさ」のもつ深みだ。パチェットの語り口はほどよく詩的かつ音楽的であり、温かさとやさしさに満ちあふれている。初めてオペラを耳にしたある若い聖職者は、コスに対してこのような反応をみせる。

この世にこんな女性がいるなんて思いもしなかった。きっと神はお膝元に仕えるこの女性に御声をそのまま注がれているにちがいない。いったいどんな厳しい修行を積めばこんな声が出せるのだろうか。彼女の声はまるで地球の真ん中から響いているようだ。こうなるまでに彼女はどれほどの努力と精進を重ねたのだろう。気持ちを集中し、ほこりや石、家の床板といった障害物もものともせずその声を自分の足もとまで引き寄せ、体中に引き上げる。彼女の体を満たしあたたかさで昇華されたその声は、ついに白ユリのようにたおやかなその喉元から発せられ、天にまします神のもとへと届けられるのだ。

   やがて、音楽以外の共通語をもたない人質58人と犯人たちの間には予期せぬきずなが生まれていく。完全に静止した時間の中で彼らの関係全体がしだいに変化をみせていく。だがいくら本書が魔術的リアリズムの可能性に富んだ創造的な小説とはいえ、もちろん最後にはそれなりの結末が待っている。しかし『Bel Canto』は非常事態を描きながらも、すべてを超越した美そして愛をやさしく語りかけてくる小説だ。（Victoria Jenkins, Amazon.com）

Product Description

Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of Mr. Hosokawa, a powerful Japanese businessman. Roxanne Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerized the international guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening -- until a band of gun-wielding terrorists breaks in through the air-conditioning vents and takes the entire party hostage. But what begins as a panicked, life-threatening scenario slowly evolves into something quite different, as terrorists and hostages forge unexpected bonds and people from different countries and continents become compatriots.

Without the demands of the world to shape their days, life on the inside becomes more beautiful than anything they had ever known before. At once riveting and impassioned, the narrative becomes a moving exploration of how people communicate when music is the only common language. Friendship, compassion, and the chance for great love lead the characters to forget the real danger that has been set in motion and cannot be stopped.

Ann Patchett has written a novel that is as lyrical and profound as it is unforgettable. Bel Canto engenders in the reader the very passion for art and the language of music that its characters discover. As a reader, you find yourself fervently wanting this captivity to continue forever, even though you know that real life waits on the other side of the garden wall. Bel Canto is a virtuoso performance by one of our bestand most important writers. It is a no novel to be cherished.

Amazon.com Review

In an unnamed South American country, a world-renowned soprano sings at a birthday party in honor of a visiting Japanese industrial titan. His hosts hope that Mr. Hosokawa can be persuaded to build a factory in their Third World backwater. Alas, in the opening sequence, just as the accompanist kisses the soprano, a ragtag band of 18 terrorists enters the vice-presidential mansion through the air conditioning ducts. Their quarry is the president, who has unfortunately stayed home to watch a favorite soap opera. And thus, from the beginning, things go awry.

Among the hostages are not only Hosokawa and Roxane Coss, the American soprano, but an assortment of Russian, Italian, and French diplomatic types. Reuben Iglesias, the diminutive and gracious vice president, quickly gets sideways of the kidnappers, who have no interest in him whatsoever. Meanwhile, a Swiss Red Cross negotiator named Joachim Messner is roped into service while vacationing. He comes and goes, wrangling over terms and demands, and the days stretch into weeks, the weeks into months.

With the omniscience of magic realism, Ann Patchett flits in and out of the hearts and psyches of hostage and terrorist alike, and in doing so reveals a profound, shared humanity. Her voice is suitably lyrical, melodic, full of warmth and compassion. Hearing opera sung live for the first time, a young priest reflects:

Never had he thought, never once, that such a woman existed, one who stood so close to God that God's own voice poured from her. How far she must have gone inside herself to call up that voice. It was as if the voice came from the center part of the earth and by the sheer effort and diligence of her will she had pulled it up through the dirt and rock and through the floorboards of the house, up into her feet, where it pulled through her, reaching, lifting, warmed by her, and then out of the white lily of her throat and straight to God in heaven.

Joined by no common language except music, the 58 international hostages and their captors forge unexpected bonds. Time stands still, priorities rearrange themselves. Ultimately, of course, something has to give, even in a novel so imbued with the rich imaginative potential of magic realism. But in a fractious world, Bel Canto remains a gentle reminder of the transcendence of beauty and love. --Victoria Jenkins