I lose interest before the fat lady sings

Bel Canto
By Ann Patchett **

Terrorists in an unnamed banana republic take international hostages at a birthday fete in the vice president's mansion in Ann Patchett's hugely overrated "Bel Canto."

The title derives from the fact that a famous opera singer is among the hostages, and singing looms large in the relationship that develops between the hostages and terrorists. And the title is really the cleverest part of this book.

As the weeks drag on, it's clear the hostages won't be released soon, nor will the government cave in to any terrorist demands. Terrorists and hostages fall into a kind of detente, something like friendships develop. A little Eden, even, seems to be blossoming as the garden within the walls of the mansion becomes overgrown. It's the kind of symbol Gabrel Garcia Marquez would have known what to do with. Patchett merely sends everybody outside to weed and prune the flower beds with the mansion's fancy silverware.

Moreover, the international hostages are mostly sketchy stereotypes. The Russians smoke and tell long loud stories, the French cook, the Japanese are inscrutable, the Latino vice president is a natural at houskeeping and gardening, and the diva is, well, a diva.

There is virtually no character development here, and few emotional peaks (though Patchett does nicely capture the kind of ennui that might settle in during a long and hopeless siege). Oh, sure, when the Frenchman's wife is released, he realizes how much he's always loved her. The vice president realizes he is not really cut out for a political career. The Japanese polyglot who become invaluable to the group as a translator gains a newfound sense of worth. But nobody really questions their basic assumptions about class, humanity, gender roles or faith.

The novel is imbued with an impending sense of doom brought in periodically with the food and medical supplies by the hangdog Swiss Red Cross representative, and everything ends with the kind of bang you saw coming from the git-go.

The "surprise" bittersweet epilogue in Italy is just hokey.