Books on Review by Jim Crescitelli Jim Crescitelli is the manager of Urban Think! Bookstore in Downtown Orlando. He has written for the Watermark since 1994, and is actually their oldest living columnist; his writing for that newspaper has won two Spectrum awards for Journalistic Excellence. Jim also does a book review column for Orlando Leisure magazine, and has also written for The Orlando Weekly. Map to Urban Think Bookstore 625 E. Central Blvd., Orlando, FL Phone: 407-650-8004

April Reviews: Bel Canto | Six of One

BEL CANTO
A novel by ANN PATCHETT
Perennial, 318 pp., $13.95
Reviewed by Jim Crescitelli

Once in a while a book comes my way which I know is going to become a staple within my personal pantheon of great reading. If I come across a title accidentally, that's one thing… a wonderful recommendation, however, links the book forever in my mind with the person who brought it to my attention.

Carla, a friend, told me that her book club was going to be reading Ann Patchett's Bel Canto, and I decided to give it a try once I read up on the plot:  two hundred men and women are taken hostage at a birthday party for a Japanese businessman visiting a poor South American country; one of the hostages is a renowned opera singer–and that was my key. I love opera, especially Italian Grand Opera. It's insufficient to say that the art form's soaring sopranos and tenors with voices of liquid gold have the power to transport me into rarefied heights normally populated by angels (both real and imagined). The histrionics, the music, the whole colorful crazy dramatic world transports me in ways that few types of music ever have.

In that respect, Bel Canto's soprano Roxane Coss is dynamic, an ethereal yet wordly central figure. She lives for me, jumping off the page with life and breath at every turn: the way she carries herself, the tilt of her chin, and-most of all-her singing voice is readily brought to life by Patchett's  prose. And what writing! It's like Patchett is whispering the story into your ear as an especially gripping anecdote related privately at a cocktail party. The wit, the phrasing, the way she tells the tale is magic… I tell you, I have not been this enamored of a book in YEARS. Impossible to set aside, Bel Canto's story will have you gasping with pleasure and re-reading certain paragraphs over and over again. You need to experience this book. It will become an unforgettable part of your literary experience.

Thank you, Carla, for sending it my way.

SIX OF ONE
A Novel by Rita Mae Brown
Bantam, 270pp., $12.95
Reviewed by Jim Crescitelli

This is one of my all-time favorite reads. Rita Mae Brown you're familiar with already: Rubyfruit Jungle, Bingo, and Southern Discomfort are titles you've no doubt read and enjoyed, but Six Of One does it for me. Sweet and sentimental, yet fun and clever, it tells the story of lovers Celeste and Ramelle and their extended family of friends and relatives. Jumping as it does across the decades, Brown weaves an enticing tale of love as it spans the years and manifests its magic on all concerned.

Purely Southern in its flavor and cast of characters, the book is hard to set aside. The casual acceptance of all things zany is so Southern; as writer Florence King once said, "build a fence around the South and you'd have one big madhouse."
      
I was also impressed with the way Brown handled the interaction among the variouis social classes, and she well delineates how those lines become blurred once everyone realizes that we're all in this big madhouse together. You'll love this book... and you'll enjoy re-reading it if it's already one of your favorites!

Read Previous Reviews:
March Reviews: A Boy Named Phyllis | Alec Baldwin Doesn’t Love Me, That’s MR. Faggot to You, It’s Not Mean If It’s True, and The Little Book of Neuroses | Faggots
February Reviews: The Lottery | Just An Ordinary Day | My Son Divine