Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Published 2003 · 336 pages · 84,000 words · about 9 hours at an average pace · Literary Fiction, Romance
How hard is Bel Canto to read?
Bel Canto scores 44 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it moderately challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 38 out of 100
- Opera vocabulary with Latin American setting.
- Sentence structure: 42 out of 100
- Patchett's lyrical, flowing sentences.
- Abstraction: 45 out of 100
- Art, love, and captivity explored.
- Information density: 45 out of 100
- Dense with opera and siege detail.
- Narrative indirection: 45 out of 100
- Multiple perspectives on siege.
- Symbolic density: 55 out of 100
- The voice, captivity, love carry weight.
- Ironic distance: 40 out of 100
- Patchett writes with evident sympathy.
- Resolution withholding: 45 out of 100
- Tragedy comes; love transcends.
- Structural complexity: 40 out of 100
- Ensemble narrative across siege.
How Bel Canto is regarded
Bel Canto holds a literary regard score of 61 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.