Bel Canto. 1

5 Comments:

1. The Japanese man gave a "strong and passionate" kiss to the girl and took her by surprise.
2. The French and Italians liked that kiss the man gave so they were all yelling "Brava! Brava!".
3. I think the Japanese man was shy to kiss the girl with the lights on because page 1 says the man and the girl kissed when the lights were out. Then there was a follow up question that asked if the man would of kissed the girl in a strong and passionate way if the lights were lit.
4. Roxanne Coss is like a celebrity (she is the girl that the Japanese man kissed).
5. Mr. Hosokawa (the Japanese man) and Roxanne Coss shares something in common is that they both came from a different country - they are foreigners.

4 Questions:

1. What year did the novel take place in? This is the time when Japan is poor because of the chairman of Nasei bribing people.
2. Is Mr. Hosokawa beginning to be a bit more comfortable in the new country? Pg 3 says he would not be celebrating his birthday with people he doesn't know, and yet he is doing that right now.
3. Did Mr. Hosokawa come from a wealthy family when he was young? On his 11th birthday his father took him to the opera in Tokyo and back in 1954, operas were unimaginable things - money was precious.
4. Does Kiyomi have low self-esteem about herself?

3 Vocabulary:

1. Repertoire - the list of dramas, parts, peices, opera, etc.
2. Achingly - causing physical pain or distress
3. Bourbon - a member of a French royal family that ruled in France 1589–1792, Spain 1700–1931, and Naples 1735–1806, 1815–60.

2 Literary Terms:

1. "White asparagus in hollandaise, a fish course of turbot with crispy sweet onions, tiny chops, only three or four bites apeice. in a cranberry demiglaze" [Imagery pg. 9]
2. "...wiping the dust from the leathery leaves with damp cloths, picking up the fallen blossoms of bougainvillea that rotted beneath the hedges" [Imagery pg. 9]

1 Overview:

This part of the novel takes place at Mr. Hosakawa's birthday party in a foreign country and he is having memories of the time he had when he was younger and more fortunate back in Japan.