When a novel goes back and forth between several time periods and places (mostly Italy in the early 60s and present day LA) and many different characters (a lonely young innkeeper in a remote Italian village, a beautiful and naive actress, a callous producer, an alcoholic veteran and writer, an ambitious development assistant, and a middle-aged washed-up musician, among others), everything will hinge on how it all comes together. The beginning of such a novel always requires patience, but the end can be extraordinary.

As I sat reading the end of Beautiful Ruins this afternoon in Smith Canteen, my eyes filled up with tears. Like the best of novels like this, Beautiful Ruins in the end is more than just the sum of its parts. Though it doesn't play as much with form and its various chapters are much more connected, what it reminded me of most is A Visit from the Goon Squad. If that's not high praise, I don't know what is.