First sentence: When the lights went off the accompanist kissed her.

The First Monday Book Club met on the second Monday this month so the Tigers fans among us could watch the championship game last week. (And here it is Thursday already! I’ve been crazy-busy!) That extra week seemed to help, because we had a good group of folks and everyone had finished “Bel Canto,” which was a good thing, because we talked about the ending first.

In short: We hated the epilogue, but we loved the book.

Ann Patchett has crafted a wondrous novel of art and guns, with so many unlikely pairings and subtle, sometimes humorous, insights into the characters’ personalities that you are quickly enamored, even if a little anxious.

Based loosely on a months-long hostage ordeal in Lima, Peru, the story begins at the vice president’s mansion in a South American country that is trying to woo a Japanese businessman with a party in honor of his birthday. Katsumi Hosokawa, who has an obsession  for opera and no plans whatsoever to build a factory in this country, is lured to the party by the carrot they’ve dangled before him: His favorite opera singer, Roxane Coss, has been secured to sing. The elegant party, filled with diplomats and other important people from many countries, is interrupted by terrorists bent on kidnapping the country’s president, only he’s not there, having bowed out at the last minute to watch a pivotal episode of his favorite soap opera. Unprepared for this development, the terrorists take all 191 guests hostage.

The terrorists soon release the women and children, the ill, and the lesser-known of the diplomats and businessmen, leaving a house full of powerful men in expensive tuxedos and the famous American opera singer as bargaining chips. In the months that follow, unlikely friendships and even love develop between the hostages and the terrorists, two of whom are soon revealed to be young women. It helps that the captives and the captors are now looking at life with the certain clarity one has when faced with one’s own mortality. They find beauty in everything.

The celebrity of the mansion is clearly Roxane Coss, whose singing is so beautiful she is loved by everyone. They allow her to sing every morning, and it is through her gift that others begin to find their own talents and dream of what they could be when this ordeal is over. But the main character, and our favorite, is Gen, Mr. Hosokawa’s expert translator, who speaks several languages fluently and becomes indispensable in this house of hostages that resembles a meeting of the United Nations with a daily floor show. Not only does he facilitate negotiations, but he shares with the guard Carmen the intimate task of sneaking Mr. Hosokawa into Roxane Coss’ bedroom.

Gen goes from being “invisible” — the mark of a good translator — to a fully realized being in his own right, a teacher to many, an intelligent negotiator who comes to think of the hostages as “his people.” And Gen, who has so far only declared the love of others to others, comes to know it himself during his 2 a.m. language lessons with Carmen in the china closet.

But the other characters are also well-drawn by Patchett, whose ability to convey the human psyche through witty observances is uncanny. There’s Ruben Iglesius, who became the vice president by virtue of being nearly 1 centimeter shorter than the president, and who feels compelled to be a good host, even though he is the highest-ranking person there; Father Arguedas, the long-suffering, under-appreciated priest, who upstages the monsignor and volunteers to stay with the hostages, delighted that he finally will be of some use; the French Ambassador, who becomes the house chef in a kitchen with no knives; and the Russian, whose only goal is to muster enough courage to proclaim his love to Roxane Coss, wanting nothing in return.

***SPOILERS BELOW***

We know from the beginning that the situation can only end badly, and we are prepared, but not completely. It is hard to say goodbye to those we have come to know, those whose inner desires have been laid out before us and have just begun to be thought of as attainable, whose goodness overcomes their lesser demons, whose lives held so much hope. But then it’s over, and among the dead are Carmen and Mr. Hosokawa, who died trying to save her.

And now, the epilogue. It took one person at our book club table to say she hated the epilogue to unleash a vocal swell of agreement. A few months after the hostages are freed, Gen and Roxane are married. Gen and Roxane. It seemed so unlikely that some wished the epilogue had been left out entirely. It seemed unfaithful on Gen’s part, to both Carmen and Mr. Hosokawa. On Roxane’s part, it just seemed wrong. 

Yes, we understand about the survivor theory, and how after their ordeal no one else would ever really understand or be part of their world completely. One book club member allowed that maybe that was the only way each could hold on to the loves they lost. And maybe we could have accepted it if it was eased into, but after such lovely, prolonged description in which it takes an entire page for someone to walk down the stairs, Patchett dispatches the epilogue in four pages. It almost seems an afterthought.

***END SPOILERS*** 

But that doesn’t stop me from pressing this book into friends’ hands regulary and saying “read this.” It is a beautiful book. Patchett’s writing is both lovely and sly, and I appreciate her research into opera, the subtle references of which make the story more authentic and grand. In an essay about opera in the back of the book, Patchett has this to say, which seems a fitting end note:

“Through the human voice we are lifted up, temporarily transformed, and for that we owe it our gratitude. Opera reminds us of the enormous beauty we are capable of, and if there’s a good cathartic sob at the end, well, we probably needed that too.”

This month we’re reading one of my all-time favorites, “The God of Small Things” by Arundhati Roy. (My book club friends are still indulging me while I wrap up my Comm Law class. Thank you!) Read along with us and chime in with your comments. Because we’re getting a late start this month, we’ll meet on the second Monday in May. If this becomes a habit, we’ll have to change our name…