Reading is Fundamental

It’s been a good while since i was sucked into a book from the first page. Bel Canto has been on the reading list for close to a year now and till Friday, I had never even bothered to read the back cover. I bought it because I overheard several co-workers discussing it.

I flew through the book, started it late Friday night and finished it Sunday morning. Even if I hadn’t had trouble sleeping, I would have purposefully lost sleep just to continue reading.

I have this habit of skipping ahead to the end of books. It happens about 95% of the time. I never know when the urge is going to hit, but when it does, it’s so strong that I simply can’t continue reading until I know how the story ends. With Bel Canto the desire came very late into the story; I was about 20 pages from the end before I felt the familiar itch.  I was able to hold off for so long because Ann Patchett provided brief, simple sentences that foretold the ending. Some people don’t like that, but I appreceited it.

I’ve had a couple of people tell me they didn’t like that Patchett never identifies the country in which the story takes place. That’s one of things that I enjoyed about it. It let me get into the story without bringing in any preconceived notions of the country.

The ending felt a little rushed and I had to spend a couple of minutes trying to imagine how the events came to be, but they’re not entirely out of the realm of possibility. I just wish she’d fleshed it out a bit more, but that’s just me being selfish and wishing that the story could continue.