Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter Published by Harper Audio, Harper on June 12th 2012
Genres: Literary Fiction
Pages: 337
Format: Audiobook
ISBN: 0061928127
ASIN: B008ARPV8Q
Goodreads
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 today, half a world away, when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio's back lot—searching for the mysterious woman he last saw at his hotel decades earlier.
What unfolds is a dazzling, yet deeply human, roller coaster of a novel, spanning fifty years and nearly as many lives. From the lavish set of Cleopatra to the shabby revelry of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Walter introduces us to the tangled lives of a dozen unforgettable characters: the starstruck Italian innkeeper and his long-lost love; the heroically preserved producer who once brought them together and his idealistic young assistant; the army veteran turned fledgling novelist and the rakish Richard Burton himself, whose appetites set the whole story in motion—along with the husbands and wives, lovers and dreamers, superstars and losers, who populate their world in the decades that follow.
Gloriously inventive, constantly surprising, Beautiful Ruins is a story of flawed yet fascinating people, navigating the rocky shores of their lives while clinging to their improbable dreams.
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Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter is a book I purchased and listened to shortly after its publication several years ago. Why you may ask, am I just now writing a review? Strange as it may sound, I awakened several days ago with the image in my head I had formed of the fictitious town of Porto Vergogna on the Italian coast which is one of the geographical settings for the book. If you enjoy traveling, Mr. Walter will take you on a world tour as the characters move from place to place in the story line. I typically illustrate my books mentally as I listen or read and I can’t think of any book whose pictures have stuck with me longer than this one. The author has written a book that has so many layers of complexity. It’s a love story, it’s a poem, it’s a play, it’s a history lesson. It’s sad, it’s hilarious, and it’s true to life while being satirical. The characters are shallow and deep, they’re honest and deceptive, they’re likable and despicable, they’re sometimes pitiable and sometimes contemptible. Beautiful Ruins isn’t just a title with two contrasting words: it is a description of the essential elements of the story and the people who populate it.
Beautiful Ruins is beautifully narrated by actor, writer, director, and film producer Edoardo Ballerini whom you may remember for his role in The Sopranos. He is an award-winning narrator and with his Italian heritage, he is uniquely qualified for the role of Pasquale Tursi. There is more to his narration than a convincing Italian accent, however; he is equally believable as the aging buffoon Michael Deane, the real-life Richard Burton, and the female characters, Dee Moray and Claire Silver. A bonus section at the end features the author himself answering questions about the book – an amazing insight into the workings of a creative mind!
I had forgotten how much I loved this book until my image of the Italian coastline popped into my head. Don’t be deceived by the whimsical cover. Beautiful Ruins is not a beach read or chick lit. From the opening chapter that reads like a romance novel to the very satisfying conclusion, Jess Walter offers his readers a full measure of emotion and social and historical commentary in a very entertaining package. Treat yourself to this gifted storyteller’s magic and you may wake up on the coast of Italy yourself!
About Jess Walter
A former National Book Award finalist and winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award, Jess Walter is the author of six novels, one book of short stories and one non-fiction book. His work has been translated into 30 languages, and his essays, short fiction, criticism, and journalism have been widely published, in Best American Short Stories, Best American Nonrequired Reading, Harper’s, Esquire, McSweeney’s, Byliner, Playboy, ESPN the Magazine, Details and many others. Walter also writes screenplays and was the co-author of Christopher Darden’s 1996 bestseller In Contempt.
Walter lives with his wife Anne and children, Brooklyn, Ava, and Alec in his childhood home of Spokane, Washington.
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