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Beautiful Ruins

3.78 of 5 stars 3.78 · rating details · 23,798 ratings · 4,232 reviews

The story begins in 1962. On a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies an apparition: a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying.

And the story begins again...more

ebook, 368 pages

Published June 12th 2012 by Harper (first published 2012)

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Apr 30, 2013 Richard rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: pearl-ruled

Pearl Ruled

Rating: 2.5* of five (p88)

Story of romantic love at first sight ranging from 1962 to the present, and involving a staggering amount of cluttered narrative and facile, stereotypical characters.

The writing is perfectly serviceable, though without any distinguishing characteristics. It's like those MFA bores all are. I put this down three hours ago, and already I had to look up the main characters' names: Pasquale and Dee Moray.

In 10 minutes, I won't remember either one.

That is a big pr...more

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May 18, 2013 Jason rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: for-kindle, wine-club, 2013, reviewed

Preconcetti sventato ancora una volta!

Whoever designed the cover of this novel and came up with its title (because I refuse to believe either of these disasters were Jess Walter’s doing) must have had one thing in mind: make this book appear to be as much of a chick-lit beach read as possible. And yes, while there are certainly elements of the chick-lit beach read here—some tender relationships, a sprinkle of sentimentality, a romance or twelve—it would be highly unfair to categorize it as so, b...more Preconcetti sventato ancora una volta!

Whoever designed the cover of this novel and came up with its title (because I refuse to believe either of these disasters were Jess Walter’s doing) must have had one thing in mind: make this book appear to be as much of a chick-lit beach read as possible. And yes, while there are certainly elements of the chick-lit beach read here—some tender relationships, a sprinkle of sentimentality, a romance or twelve—it would be highly unfair to categorize it as so, because this book smashes that label to pieces and even transcends whichever other label one might try to apply to it. Beat that, labels!

Walter is a skilled writer. For such a short book with its surprisingly large cast of characters, including (believe it or not) Richard Burton, Walter manages to do draw out each of them fully and beautifully, flaws and all. Traversing from post-war Italy to modern-day Hollywood and back again, the plot is expertly constructed. Though it does, at times, meander into predictable territory, it never stays there long, and the care with which Walter crafts the relationships among his characters—whether it be between a mother and her son, a young man and his comrade, or a widow and her never-forgotten flame—is a care reminiscent of that shown by Krauss in The History of Love. In fact, I think both novels succeed on a similar level (besides shattering my preconceptions), which is to address the often competing themes of desire and responsibility, imagining the possibilities of a life-that-could-have-been while ultimately reconciling it with the life-that-is.

But also, yes. It is a love story:

And the robot loves his master, alien loves his saucer, Superman loves Lois, Lex, and Lana, Luke loves Leia (till he finds out she’s his sister), and the exorcist loves the demon even as he leaps out the window with it, in full soulful embrace, as Leo loves Kate and they both love the sinking ship, and the shark—God, the shark loves to eat, which is what the mafioso loves, too—eating and money and Paulie and omertà—the way the cowboy loves his horse, loves the corseted girl behind the piano bar, and sometimes loves the other cowboy, as the vampire loves night and neck, and the zombie—don’t even start with the zombie, sentimental fool; has anyone ever been more lovesick than a zombie, that pale, dull metaphor for love, all animal craving and lurching, outstretched arms, his very existence a sonnet about how much he wants those brains? This, too, is a love story.

And also, yes. Parts of it do take place on the Italian Riviera.

Get over it.(less)

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Mar 06, 2013 Diane Yannick rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book started with such promise. Pasquale was a great character and I would have enjoyed following his story. The Italian setting was lush and Dee Moray's story was interesting until it got crushed by all the random characters and story lines. Richard Burton and Liz Taylor? Really? Just seemed like a mishmash of people who were trying too hard to convey messages.

I could not wait to finish this book and escape from these people who make life so damned complicated for themselves and others. F...more

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Feb 22, 2013 Steve rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In 2006, Janet Maslin of the NY Times said, “Jess Walter is a ridiculously talented writer.” That’s been a blurb on every book he’s written since. I can see why, especially since I happen to agree. This, his most recent novel, showcases these talents well. The writing is effortless, the plot is engaging, the characters are memorable, and it’s full of fun and insight. The social commentary is awfully good, too, meaning I approve of the targets he pokes at.

The story begins in the early 1960’s in...more In 2006, Janet Maslin of the NY Times said, “Jess Walter is a ridiculously talented writer.” That’s been a blurb on every book he’s written since. I can see why, especially since I happen to agree. This, his most recent novel, showcases these talents well. The writing is effortless, the plot is engaging, the characters are memorable, and it’s full of fun and insight. The social commentary is awfully good, too, meaning I approve of the targets he pokes at.

The story begins in the early 1960’s in a remote fishing village just beyond Italy’s fashionable Cinque Terre. Young Pasquale, fresh out of college, has come back home to run his family’s small hotel. A beautiful American actress named Dee arrives (mistakenly?) as a guest. She was originally in Rome for the filming of Cleopatra. Though Pasquale’s English is not great, and he’s also a bit shy, his earnest good intent makes an impression. But she’s sick (dying?). We then cut to contemporary America – Hollywood – the epicenter of both glitz and schlock. Claire is a film-loving assistant at Michael Deane’s studio. Deane, a cheeser of some repute, began his career as a production assistant for Cleopatra, later became a big-time producer, then fell off the pace awhile before getting his groove back via reality TV. (Walter’s skewering of this broadcast idiocy is something all but the lowest of brows can appreciate.) Anyway, Claire is about to give up when two visitors show up. One is a young writer hoping to pitch his sensationally bleak movie idea and the other is an older Italian gentleman there to see Michael.

So that’s how it sets up. We then get the back story that brings us up to the present. And what a story it is. One of the characters is an American writer (a car salesman, really) who visits Pasquale’s hotel annually with the intention of writing a book, but in practice to drink wine. He did manage a chapter, though, and the truth is it’s very good. We also witness some touching scenes where Pasquale and Dee connect, if only briefly, at soul level. Then there was the whole Cleopatra circus. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton (or Lizard as I like to think of them in this era of Brangelina) took some managing, and Deane was the man tasked with the job. The Welshman was a handful with his unslakable thirsts. His cameo role was one of the highlights of the book.

Fast-forwarding a few decades we meet Pat who is all about wine, women and song. At least the song part had at one time provided an income. He’s in rather dire straits when we meet him, though. Naturally, his story connects with the others. Back in Hollywood, agendas are identified and actions are taken. Now, in the time-honored tradition of keeping important plot points to one’s self, I hereby button my lip.

I’ve been a Jess Walter fan for several years now. He’s one of those writers who’s found the sweet spot between flourishes and flow. He never appears to be trying too hard while giving us bright, shiny nuggets in an entertaining way. Richard Russo identified this talent early in Walter’s career, which is meaningful since Russo is another writer I’d put in that category. My expectations for a Walter book are high. In fact, I may have rounded down from 4.5 stars to 4 because I know his capabilities. The shortcoming in this work, I felt, was in his character development. He tended to trade depth for breadth. With as many as 8 POV characters, it would have been nice digging deeper into a select few. But hey, let’s end this on a positive note. This is a very readable book — by a ridiculously talented writer.
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Mar 19, 2013 Gary McTiernan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Beautiful Ruins is a revelation. It contains shimmering prose and a life-affirming message. Spanning 50 years and two continents, it asks some tough questions about how to define success and happiness in our media-driven, celebrity-obsessed culture. It artfully encompasses such disparate events as the filming of Cleopatra in the 1960's and the tragedy of the Donner Party over 100 years earlier. It skewers the modern entertainment industry for its preoccupation with ratings and admonishes us t...more

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Nov 19, 2012 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: italy-theme-setting, contemporary-fiction, usa-contemporary, read-2012, best-of-2012

I got a table at the Rainbow Room
I told my wife I'd be home soon
Big ships are approaching the docks
I got my hi-fi boom box
Mashed potatoes in cellophane
I see my life going down the drain
Hold me baby and don't let go
Pretty girls help to soften the blow

Palm trees; the flat broke disease
And LA has got me on my knees
I am the bluest of blues
Every day a different way to lose

The Go Getter
I'll be the Go Getter
That's my plan
That's who I am
The Go Getter
Yeah the Go Getter

The Go Getter The Black K...more

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Mar 04, 2013 Marialyce rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: march-2013

Wonderful, book that keeps one totally engaged from the beginning to the turning of the last page. There was not a dull or uninteresting section in the entire three hundred plus pages. I loved the intertwining of the characters and their stories as they played out their lives against the backdrop of Hollywood during the Cleopatra days of Liz Taylor and Richard Burton, to the tiny Italian town where so much of the action of the life of this book took place. The characters were wonderful, so human...more

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Aug 10, 2012 Kristilyn (Reading In Winter & Winter Distractions) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: physical-book, read-in-2012

I had been hearing so many wonderful things about Jess Walters’s Beautiful Ruins that when HarperCollins Canada tweeted that they’d be having a Twitter chat for the book, I just had to pick up a copy. The idea of Italy mixed with that beautiful cover made it a pretty easy sell for me.

Of course, when I finished the book and sat down to write this review, I was stuck. The entire book was a mix of SO MANY THINGS. First of all, there’s travel, music, books, movie pitches, acting, movie stars, relati...more I had been hearing so many wonderful things about Jess Walters’s Beautiful Ruins that when HarperCollins Canada tweeted that they’d be having a Twitter chat for the book, I just had to pick up a copy. The idea of Italy mixed with that beautiful cover made it a pretty easy sell for me.

Of course, when I finished the book and sat down to write this review, I was stuck. The entire book was a mix of SO MANY THINGS. First of all, there’s travel, music, books, movie pitches, acting, movie stars, relationships, Hollywood, Italy, Italian thugs — just to name a few. Second of all, there’s romance, humour, sadness, whimsy, longing, love, etc. And third of all, there’s a HUGE cast of characters.

Now, one would think that there would be way too many things to keep track of, but in a weird way, it all works. From the first few pages of the book, when I met Pasquale, a young Italian man with dreams of building a beach in front of his hotel, I was hooked. I loved the dreamy quality of Pasquale’s character. He’s a lover of life, a big dreamer. In fact, a lot of the characters in the book are big dreamers — at least, all the main characters are. That’s one of the wonderful things about the book — not only does it take the reader away to a different place, to different scenery, but it forces the reader to dream along with the characters, which is an amazing thing.

The thing that really got me with this book was the fact that every single character had a role — an important role — and even though the cast was huge, it wasn’t hard at all to keep track of who everyone was. There was also a really wonderful blend of romance and whimsy, hilarity and sadness — all of which fit together so perfectly and which really made me want to turn the pages faster.

Jess Walter is a pretty amazing writer. I loved how he constantly kept me on my toes as he flipped from Italy in 1962, to Hollywood in the present day, to a book chapter, to a play, to … so many other things! At every chapter end, I didn’t know what to expect next. The passing of time, the mix of old-time whimsy with new-age conveniences, the constant message of patience — it just all worked. Ultimately, the best story of the book – to me, at least — was the story of Pasquale, which was the most romantic and dreamy story of them all.

Honestly, I wish I could read more books like this! When I turned the last page, I was so happy to feel content. No loose ends — but just one question left hanging in the air. Of course, if you want to know that, you’ll have to read it yourself!

Read more reviews on my blog, Reading In Winter:

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Apr 03, 2012 switterbug (Betsey) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After looking up various images of the 1963 movie, CLEOPATRA, the film that critically bombed but was lit up by the scandal of Liz Taylor and Richard Burton, I saw a coastline of Italy that looked exactly like the cover of this book. It is a most felicitous cover that captures the mood and time that this novel begins, in 1962. A parochial innkeeper, Pasquali Tursi, lives in a rocky coastline village called Porto Vergogna (Port of Shame), a place the size of a thumb between two mountains, and ref...more After looking up various images of the 1963 movie, CLEOPATRA, the film that critically bombed but was lit up by the scandal of Liz Taylor and Richard Burton, I saw a coastline of Italy that looked exactly like the cover of this book. It is a most felicitous cover that captures the mood and time that this novel begins, in 1962. A parochial innkeeper, Pasquali Tursi, lives in a rocky coastline village called Porto Vergogna (Port of Shame), a place the size of a thumb between two mountains, and referred to as "the whore's crack."

One day, Pasquali is stunned by the vision of a young, striking, blonde American actress, Dee Moray, from the movie set, and baffled why she is staying at his inn. He learns that she is sick, and waiting for the famous publicity agent, Michael Deane, to take her to Switzerland for treatment. She stays at the ramshackle inn for a few days. Walter depicts their friendship with exquisite wistfulness and beauty. Her Italian and his English are as rocky as the cliffs surrounding the village, but a meeting of the souls eclipses language. On an outing together, they climb the cliffs high above the Ligurian Sea so that Pasquali can show Dee five frescoes painted on the wall inside a machine-gun pillbox bunker left over from World War II. At this scene, I almost wept. These frescoes become the most poignant visual metaphor of the book.

Alvis Bender, an American writer with writer's block, traumatized from his experience in the war, stays at the inn annually, and has left his one devastating chapter in the drawer in Dee's room. It is an astonishing chapter, one of the highlights of the novel. It is a treat to witness the variety of stories that make up Walter's one larger story.

The novel alternates non-linearly from 1962 to contemporary time in Hollywood, Calfornia, where Claire Silver, a scholar of film archives, works for the now legendary film producer Michael Deane. Claire is on the cusp of quitting her job and leaving her boyfriend, and is suffering from several regrets. She is braced for another insipid film pitch when she receives a surprising visitor.

In this pensive, reflective, aesthetically pleasing, and geographically stunning story, we meet a disparate cast of characters that are ultimately linked. There's also a washed-up rock musician, a frustrated screenwriter, and a cameo appearance by a certain alcoholic son of a Welsh coal miner--a brief but rollicking insertion of a true-to-life legend that is so spectacular and credible, it almost outshines the rest of the book. But the rest of the novel is exquisite, so that the scenes in repose combine with eye-popping chapters, and give the book a sublime balance.

The story has an undulating, timeless presence. Patience is rewarded, as it ascends toward its peak with a languid pace. The outcome may be a little too neat for some readers, but it is a minor flaw that is incidental to the mature and subtle elegance rendered on every page. As time passes, it continues to echo with its alluring characters, resonating themes, and delicate visual beauty and symmetry.(less)

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Jan 26, 2013 Keith rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, ebooks, fiction, alternative-history

Beautiful Ruins is an astonishing work of literary creation. A lonely Italian hotel owner has his first American guest. He catches sight of her arrival and falls deeply and hopelessly in love. It is 1962 and she is Dee Moray, an actress in the lumbering money pit that is the Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton production of Cleopatra. Dee Moray becomes the center of this novel and over five decades the novel will chart her effect on five men: Pasquale the hotelier, Alvis Bender, an American writ...more Beautiful Ruins is an astonishing work of literary creation. A lonely Italian hotel owner has his first American guest. He catches sight of her arrival and falls deeply and hopelessly in love. It is 1962 and she is Dee Moray, an actress in the lumbering money pit that is the Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton production of Cleopatra. Dee Moray becomes the center of this novel and over five decades the novel will chart her effect on five men: Pasquale the hotelier, Alvis Bender, an American writer, Michael Deane, a movie producer, her son Pat, and Richard Burton. The back stories of all of these characters, including several more, are lovingly detailed by Walter. What was most amazing to me was the facility with which he switched to scenes from 1962 Italy, to 1980s Seattle, to 1944 Italy and then to the present day.

The novel seems most pertinently a deep reflection on time and fate, although the desire for fame is clearly present. The problem of time and of destiny is clearly underlined throughout the book. Missed chances, lost opportunities, the eternal wonder if one had done this instead of that. Two sample quotes illustrate this

“I think so, too. I know I felt that way. For years. It was as if I was a character in a movie and the real action was about to start at any minute. But I think some people wait forever, and only at the end of their lives do they realize that their life has happened while they were waiting for it to start.”

“This is what happens when you live in dreams, he thought: you dream this and you dream that and you sleep right through your life.”

There are some incredibly poignant set pieces on the novel. A reflection on the power of the movies to move us as one, to be a truly unifying religion. A pitch for a movie on the ill-fated Donner Party, titled, of course, Donner! nevertheless turns into a sad allegory on time and fate.

Over and over again Walter's characters discover and exclaim on what might be the theme: "Life is a blatant act of imagination."

In the book, producer Deane (whose physical description alone is worth reading the book for) cites the Hollywood credo that everything in life is a pitch, not just for a movie idea but everything. This is an excellent book that no doubt someone is pitching even now. No doubt it was make a truly terrible movie but in the end there is this wonderful book.

For completeness, the movies as religion quote:

“Weren’t movies his generation’s faith anyway- its true religion? Wasn’t the theatre our temple, the one place we enter separately but emerge from two hours later together, with the same experience, same guided emotions, same moral? A million schools taught ten million curricula, a million churches featured ten thousand sects with a billion sermons- but the same movie showed in every mall in the country. And we all saw it. That summer, the one you’ll never forget, every movie house beamed the same set of thematic and narrative images…flickering pictures stitched in our minds that replaced our own memories, archetypal stories that become our shared history, that taught us what to expect from life, that defined our values. What was that but a religion?”
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Mar 07, 2013 Suzanne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This sounds silly, but Pasquale had me from "Hello," so to speak as he heaved rocks, a Syssiphean task, to create a tennis court for his newly acquied hotel, An Adequate View. His courtly attention to Dee Moray contrasted with Michael Deane's lack of attention and Richard Burton's childish forgetfulness and Pasquale's own cowardly treatment of his own "lover."
Pasquale's childhood friend, the drunk American Alvis Bender writer/car salesman, Shane Wheeler, an American ne'er do well writer and Pat...more This sounds silly, but Pasquale had me from "Hello," so to speak as he heaved rocks, a Syssiphean task, to create a tennis court for his newly acquied hotel, An Adequate View. His courtly attention to Dee Moray contrasted with Michael Deane's lack of attention and Richard Burton's childish forgetfulness and Pasquale's own cowardly treatment of his own "lover."
Pasquale's childhood friend, the drunk American Alvis Bender writer/car salesman, Shane Wheeler, an American ne'er do well writer and Pat Bender a recovered addict musician/writer all have stories to tell. It's never easy for any of them.
Wheeler pitches a movie called Donner. It's a metaphor for much of life. Then and now, brave people, hopeful people, spouses, children, rich and poor, strong and weak set out to cross the mountain. Lots of adversity! Many don't make it. Some scheme against others. Some are cannibalized. Sometimes friends valiantly come together and defend and share. Yet many die.
Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins which features a tiny Italian cove, Porto
Vergogna, Port Shame, and Hollywood, port shame, bounces between 1962 and the present with flashbacks to WWII fluidly.
Dee, Liz(yes, The Liz), Lydia, Claire, Amedea are all beautiful accomplished women who allow themselves to be abused by their men. Eventually their strength is revealed.
Alvis Bender begins his novel at the end and never is able to get past it. He tells young Pasquale, "Imagine the truth as a chain of great mountains, their tops way up in the clouds. Writers explore these truths, always looking for new peaks...Stories are people...Our stories go in every direction, but sometimes, if you're lucky,our stories join into one, and for awhile, we're less alone."
For me, The Beautiful Ruins are the young lives which are crippled by drugs, liquour, fame,and bad choices. Happily Walters has a magic wand and he fantastically sets some of his characters lives so that they are able to move forward. Others, like most in the Donner party do not make it over the mountain.(less)

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Jul 08, 2012 Trish rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, fiction, italy, funny, author-i-d-most-like-to-meet

A favorable review today in The New York Times said Jess Walter’s new book is like a film script, but to my way of thinking it is more like Walter as a one-man performance artist, who suddenly pulls all kinds of horns, drums, bells and other props out of his bottomless pockets to illustrate a point, to make us laugh, to break into our attention and to declare: “are we entirely mad?” His work is brilliantly interpreted and performed by Edoardo Ballerini on audio, and to hear the thick and heavy t...more

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Aug 29, 2012 Mark rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I would never have suspected that a novel about a small town actress, a decrepit Italian hotel, an ambitious writer, a crass Hollywood producer and Richard Burton would have me turning to grab this book at every spare opportunity, and allow me to stretch my lunch hour without guilt to finish the book.

In the early 60s, Pasquale has taken over his family's completely out of date hotel in a village so small that tourist boats never come there -- except one day, when one does, and deposits a beautif...more

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Dec 26, 2012 Elaine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

A fast fun read that dabbles, mostly successfully, in a multitude of voices, genres and times. I found it consistently fun, if never more deeply meaningful. The book seemed to want to say something profound about love, hope, doing the right thing, and (centrally) I think, about knowing our place in life - not wanting what is more, in love or career, than we are "meant to have". (Perhaps the most profoundly Italian thing about the work). Nothing quite got to the heart level for me, I was amused o...more

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Apr 21, 2013 Liesl rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013

Absolutely lovely! I very much enjoyed this lush tale spanning multiple decades as well as following the intertwining lives of the characters. The filming of Cleopatra as a backdrop for the 60's portions immediately grabbed me and I relished the peek behind the curtain at the wild, unpredictable world of the movie industry both in the past and present. Walter does a nice job using the jumps in time between chapters to bring up subtle new revelations about his characters that feel completely orga...more

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Sep 05, 2012 Kris Dinnison rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

About half-way through Beautiful Ruins, I had a moment when I felt elation as a reader paired with a tiny bit of despair as a writer. Walter's new book, out on June 12th, is a delicious read, full of both the humor and heartbreak his readers have come to expect. Set in both the early sixties and the near present (as well as a few moments in between) Beautiful Ruins tells the story of a young Italian man, Pasquale, trying to carry on his dead father's legacy by running a hotel in a tiny town on t...more

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Mar 23, 2013 Sharon Styer rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am a true fan of Jess Walter. Not only a savvy writer who can take you there into any world his is spinning; but, he lives in Spokane, WA. The rival town to Tacoma, WA where I live. The town that is passing Tacoma by.
Beautiful Ruins opens in the 1960's in the Mediterranean Italian island. And with this, we enter the culture of Italy, loyal to Mama, shaken and wounded by WW II. It's a strong portrayal of this culture with its limitations, naive views, and a true, deep life.
Enter a wounded Ameri...more

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Jan 14, 2013 Joyce rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, humor

How could I not love a book that is at the top of so many best lists, in print and in audio? I don't know. Perhaps my mood, and if I tried it again... So much to love: the unpicturesque Italian seacoast village and a hotel named Hotel Adequate View, the gossipy back story of the Cleopatra set (my high school Latin class convinced our teacher that seeing this would be the perfect field trip!!! she never trusted us again), the gossipy back rooms today and how films get made, the stories within sto...more

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Apr 10, 2013 Jeff rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's rare that a book makes me laugh out loud but it's happened a couple of times already. I love the structure... A period romance nestled in a Hollywood satire. A great surprise read so far.

OK now I'm finished. In addition to the laughter, the book also had me a bit weepy at the end. I am always surprised when a book has that effect on me - it is very rare and honestly, usually happens with books that are, in my opinion, a bit better than this one. Other books that I remember caused me to cry...more

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Mar 27, 2013 Andy Miller rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The novel starts with a young, upcoming actressrole in "Cleopatra" being sent to an isolated hotel in small Italian fishing village by the movie producer after being told she has stomach cancer. The young owner of the hotel is a romantic, but also a man of integrity and his role in this "scandal" is one of the highlights of the book.

The novel then jumps forward to present day Hollywood with an appearance by the now older Italian who meets another character with integrity, an assistant to a movi...more

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Aug 08, 2012 Jaclyn rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A couple weeks ago a friend told me that Jess Walter's "Beautiful Ruins" was the book of the summer. I walked straight to Barnes & Noble after we finished lunch to buy it. The man at the checkout counter said that all sorts of people had been buying this book. After all, it combines Italy in the 1960s with Hollywood then and now. It deals with love, disappointed expectations, responsibilities, movie magic, tragedy - the whole gamut of human drama.

And yet, it's not love for me. There wasn't...more

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Mar 11, 2013 Afton Nelson rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult

I loved the scenes from 1960's Porto Vergogna, Italy. I loved the characters--even self-absorbed, self destructive Richard Burton. The discussion between Pasquale and his aunt about the "whore in small bedclothes" was one of the best scenes I've read since the Diarrhea scene in "Truth in Advertising." I think the book I was hoping for would have focused just on Dee and Pasquale and 1960's Italy. While I see what the author was doing with THIS book, there were just too many side stories going on...more

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Oct 31, 2012 Cook Memorial Public Library rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-fiction, love-stories, 2012-staff-favorites

When a beautiful young American starlet arrives in 1962 at a remote Italian fishing village, young Pasquale Tursi is smitten. Dee Moray, an actress in the movie “Cleopatra’’, has been whisked away by movie publicist Michael Deane to stay at Pasquale’s humble inn. Dee has been told by the movie set doctor that she is dying, which isn’t really the case.

Fifty years later, an elderly Pasquale travels to Hollywood to find out what happened to the starlet who stole his heart so long ago. Is she alive?...more When a beautiful young American starlet arrives in 1962 at a remote Italian fishing village, young Pasquale Tursi is smitten. Dee Moray, an actress in the movie “Cleopatra’’, has been whisked away by movie publicist Michael Deane to stay at Pasquale’s humble inn. Dee has been told by the movie set doctor that she is dying, which isn’t really the case.

Fifty years later, an elderly Pasquale travels to Hollywood to find out what happened to the starlet who stole his heart so long ago. Is she alive? Is she happy? Pasquale seeks the help of the movie publicist who first brought Dee to his village. Michael Deane, now a legend in the movie industry, is in a serious slump and worried about his legacy. When the old Italian shows up, Deane feels a twinge of guilt about how he treated Dee Moray so long ago, and agrees to help find her.

Readers meet the incredibly talented but alcoholic Richard Burton, who has fallen in love with volatile co-star Elizabeth Taylor on the set of “Cleopatra’’. The young Pasquale is inspired by Burton’s moral flaws to do the right thing in his own life. He remembers his mother’s advice: “Sometimes what we want to do and what we must do are not the same. Pasquo, the smaller the space between your desire and what is right, the happier you will be.”

Other entertaining characters along the way struggle with finding success using their artistic talents. Alvis Bender is a hard-drinking car salesman who dreams of being a great writer. Claire Silver clings to her goal of producing a truly great movie before she leaves her Hollywood aspirations behind forever. Shane Wheeler hopes his pitch about the infamous cannibalistic Donner Party will entice Michael Deane to produce a blockbuster movie. Washed-up musician Pat Bender battles his addictions while trying to make a living.

The ending of “Beautiful Ruins’’ is especially satisfying because author Jess Walter reveals what ends up happening to all these fascinating people. He effortlessly weaves the lives of a flawed cast of characters into a funny, poignant story.

--Recommended by Jo

Check our catalog: http://encore.cooklib.org/iii/encore/...
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Mar 31, 2013 Matt Brady rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“Stories are people. I’m a story, you’re a story … your father is a story. Our stories go in every direction, but sometimes, if we’re lucky, our stories join into one, and for a while, we’re less alone.”

The Story of Beautiful Ruins has two pretty simple beginnings – the start and the end, if you will. At the start, it is 1962 on the Ligurian coast of Italy and Pasquale, the young owner-operator of his tiny town’s only hotel has a new and unexpected guest, a mysterious American film star who is d...more “Stories are people. I’m a story, you’re a story … your father is a story. Our stories go in every direction, but sometimes, if we’re lucky, our stories join into one, and for a while, we’re less alone.”

The Story of Beautiful Ruins has two pretty simple beginnings – the start and the end, if you will. At the start, it is 1962 on the Ligurian coast of Italy and Pasquale, the young owner-operator of his tiny town’s only hotel has a new and unexpected guest, a mysterious American film star who is dying of cancer. In the second, it is modern day LA, and the same Pasquale, now an old man, has come to America to find out what happened to the very same film star he fell in love with during that summer fifty years ago. And in the telling of the Story, of American actress Dee Moray and her brief sojourn in the hotel of Pasquale Tursi, there are the stories; Michael Deane, the slick and sleazy Hollywood producer with a near-religious belief in himself and his abilities; Alvis Bender, the troubled war veteran with writer’s block; Pat Bender, an ageing rocker struggling with addiction and his own failures; Curtis, a wannabe screenwriter struggling to adapt to world he wasn’t equipped to navigate; and half a dozen others, stories that criss-cross with the Story of Dee and Pasquale and the connection they share, sometimes joining into one, other teems careening off on their own, interacting and colliding with a dozen other stories, each life branching out in a thousand different ways, all of them connected, stretching from 1845 to the present day, from Liguria to Hollywood, and London, and Seattle, and Edinburgh and so on. Beautiful Ruins is about the stories that are people’s lives, and how they affect each other, intertwine and branch out, forming ties, forging connections, building communities, creating common shared experiences that can bring people together.

And it’s pretty damn good.

The narrative can be somewhat erratic. Each chapter jumps back and forth in time, location and character, and that might be frustrating for some people. It’s hardly straight-forward, but I thought it was pretty masterfully done, with Jess Waters showing you all the moving pieces and the parts before he reveals exactly how it all fits together. It’s also more than just a clever writing exercise. Like David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas (which this vaguely – but only vaguely – reminded me of), the individual stories all pack some genuine emotional punches. It’s a story about stories, but it’s also just a story, one told with humour, sadness, tragedy, triumph, and real sincerity.
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Aug 06, 2012 Cheryl rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: e-book, america, italy, literature, literary, fiction

“Se non è vero, è ben trovato. . . .” “Even if it is not true, it is well conceived."
Indeed it is.
This old Italian proverb is tucked away on the copyright page, without any translation. (“Beautiful Ruins is a work of fiction. Characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination, and any real names or locales used in the book are used fictitiously. Se non è vero, è ben trovato. . . .”)
I saw it only on finishing the book, and it was like a final and unexpected small rewar...more “Se non è vero, è ben trovato. . . .” “Even if it is not true, it is well conceived."
Indeed it is.
This old Italian proverb is tucked away on the copyright page, without any translation. (“Beautiful Ruins is a work of fiction. Characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination, and any real names or locales used in the book are used fictitiously. Se non è vero, è ben trovato. . . .”)
I saw it only on finishing the book, and it was like a final and unexpected small reward from the author to the reader.

Beautiful Ruins is a cinematic book --I couldn't stop seeing it as a movie in my mind. Wonderful scenery (eg,small fishing village in Italy, early 1960s, vs studio lots of present day LA), old-fashioned movie star glamour and present day Hollywood drek from an insider view, heart-warming plot lines (love, lost love, redemption etc), great array of characters, and good supply of memorable quotes and snappy dialogue. Does Walter already have the screenplay halfway done?

The story switches between Italy and America, hopping amongst the decades from the 1960s until the present. The author matched his voice to the temporal setting. Scenes in present day Hollywood were funny, ironic, hectic. But he drops the tone for the old Italian stuff in the 60s. It is slower, more reflective

“I’ve been thinking about how people sit around for years waiting for their lives to begin, right? Like a movie. ...But I think some people wait forever, and only at the end of their lives do they realize that their life has happened while they were waiting for it to start.”

One of the characters is an aging movie producer — botoxed and surgerized into a plastic simile of a human face (George Hamilton is the image that comes to mind),—and his guiding philosophy, his key to understanding human nature and thus the secret of his success, is: “We want what we want.”
And what we want is not always what we say it is. The story knowingly basks at times in sentimentality, maybe because readers (many) want that, even if we say we don't. Satirical humour helps sharpen up the edges of the threatening sentimentality.

One great scene sounds like it could have been from a Humphrey Bogart movie:

“A writer needs four things to achieve greatness, Pasquale: desire, disappointment, and the sea.”
“That’s only three.”
Alvis finished his wine. “You have to do disappointment twice.”

All loose ends at the end of the story are not only fully accounted for, they are thoroughly tied up, and the package is very much finished.

“The smaller the space between your desire and what is right, the happier you will be.”

Great read, well-paced, wonderful prose, smart and funny when it needs to be. Recommended ++.
How long before the movie version?(less)

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Jul 02, 2012 su rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow! Virtuoso writing. You can tell Jess Walter is a master craftsman because he has molded this trifling of a tale into a work of art using no sleights of hand or fancy costuming. Instead, he uses the simpler but heftier tool of good old fashioned insight. What he accomplishes through extraordinary characterization compels the reader into a heart rending journey of nothing less than what it means to be human.

The story itself: a 20-something Italian man living an overly sheltered life in remote...more

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Jun 27, 2012 Joe rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: general-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. SMILING HERE...ear to ear and feeling SO good, just finished "BEAUTIFUL RUINS"
What a wonderful feeling, reading this Beautiful story!

From the moment I saw the cover, I knew I wanted to read this story.
Who says you can't judge a book by its cover! HAHA

From the first page, 1962, Italy, I knew I was hooked on a great story/adventure.

I fell in love with the locale, Porto Vergogna, and then meeting Pasquale building his sandy beach and dreaming of bigger things for his Hotel Adequate View. The char...more

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Feb 10, 2013 Jessica rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Beautiful Ruins kept me entertained over the three days it took to read it. The narrative is "postmodern lite," alinear, atemporal, intersecting, but populated by easy characters: attractive men and women talking, falling in love, making choices, and messing up. Men and women with "sea-blue eyes" and "whiskey-brown eyes" and "a pair of eyes framed by bursts of black lash, like two lines of oil smoke." On Italy's gorgeous Ligurian Coast. So. There were some hilarious moments (I loved the "Donner!...more

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May 02, 2013 ☮Karen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was not at all what I expected it to be, but that's OK. It was well constructed, and many times Jess Walter's humor just made me smile. Usually I'm not bothered by the alternating chapter trick of going back and forth in time, but in this case I was impatient and irritated by it, wanting to know so badly what would happen next!

My favorite characters were Dee and Pasquale; everyone else was very secondary. The last chapter spent a lot of time telling us what happened to ALL the characte...more

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Sep 08, 2012 Sherri aka SDMomChef rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: best-books-2012, books-that-make-me-ignore-the-kids, chick-lit, books-by-my-favorite-authors, good-for-book-clubs

This is a rare book that reminds me why I love books. The story isn't one that I would ordinarily read: and the description of the story turned me off. However thanks to Jeanette's review I decided to give it a try.

I am glad that I did give this book a try. It has historical fiction elements that I love. It has great characters that are ripe for discussion at a book club. It is a book that's did not want to end. But end it did and I am still remembering the story and the characters and wishing...more

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About Jess Walter

Jess Walter is the author of five novels and one nonfiction book. His work has been translated into more than 20 languages and his essays, short fiction, criticism and journalism have been widely published, in Details, Playboy, Newsweek, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe among many others.

His books:
Beautiful Ruins, 2012.
The Financial Lives of the Poets, 2009.
The Zero, a...more

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“Sometimes what we want to do and what we must do are not the same. Pasquo, the smaller the space between your desire and what is right, the happier you will be.” — 41 people liked it

“A writer needs four things to achieve greatness, Pasquale: desire, disappointment, and the sea.”
“That’s only three.”
Alvis finished his wine. “You have to do disappointment twice.” — 23 people liked it

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