Jess Walter's "Beautiful Ruins": A Captivating Novel

Kindle Customer: Toward the end of Beautiful Ruins, I was almost expecting to hear “Cut! Scene do over,” or “Action!” and it would turn out the story was just a movie.

In some respects, it would have made perfect sense. It had a beautiful American actress, a future producer, begins while the movie Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, is being filmed in Italy. Then, it makes a 50-year jump to a journey toward an unexpected reunion. It’s a good thing Burton isn’t still around, because he might have had a case for slander. You can imagine the scenes on the silver screen. For now, it is just a book.

Cue some Italian music. It is 1962. As 21-year old Pasquale Tursi works on the beach of his remote Italian island Porto Vergogna, the hiccup between more glamorous coastal villages. He has inherited the inn his father ran, which has very few customers, but he dreams that a tennis court built into the cliffs will be the attraction it needs. His mother is still in mourning, his aunt cooks the meals. The little boat pulls up to the dock and the American beauty, Dee Moore, disembarks. It was hard not to be smitten at first sight. Dee, the same age as Pasquale, is...

United States on Jul 31, 2015

Gina: I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.

It's a love story spanning over 50yrs. At the onset I'm introduced to Pasquale Tursi; an Italian, and Dee Moore; an American. At first encounter; a young Pasquale is captivated and mesmerised by Dee's presence as she gets off a boat at Porto Vergogna, a coastal village near Cinque Terre, Italy.

Jess Walter takes us on a seamless journey of the lives lived by Pasquale and Dee from the moment they meet in the early 1960s, and into their distant futures and then back into their distant past, once again, and yes you guessed it, then back to the present.

Walter's successfully captured my attention and drew me into this story like a dream that never ends, and in doing so, I didn't want to put the book down for too long, anticipating what might happen next.

I'm warmed by the idea that love can be forever eternal between two people, no matter what happens to them in between.

A good read. Highly recommended.

It's not just a chick flick, this story is a feel good story for anyone that's willing to take a glimpse into their journey.

Australia on Feb 05, 2015

Amazon Customer: Can I give 6 stars? I waited a long time to devour this book; it deserves your full attention to appreciate the sublety and deft changes of time & phrase. Couldn't put it down.
In 1960's Italy a disappointed young man sustains himself with big dreams of a different future, both for himself and his tiny cliff-top village. A beautiful American movie actress unexpectedly arrives to stay at Pasquale's hotel. From that point on, lives are changed forever.
Fast forward to contemporary California's movie business. Claire's life isn't where she thought she wanted it.The productions she's developing aren't the art form she got into films for and her boyfriend, though gorgeous, has a porn addiction. Then there's her surgically altered boss, whose morals are non-existant and whose murky past dealings bring the two stories together.
This is beautiful writing. The stories unfold before your eyes and switch seamlessly between characters, building towards a final crescendo where everything meets.
There's one chaacter who only actually appears in the book briefly, yet whose presence overshadows everybody's lives. Richard Burton's cameo appearance is vivid and masterly, like his...

United Kingdom on Jul 27, 2014

GoodGirl: This book deserves all the good reviews it has received. It's a lovely little story of how disappointment can turn into something beautiful. My only criticism was a surprising research error at the end which took some of the shine off. The books ends saying Richard Burton died of a cerebral hemorrhage after failing to wake up in his hotel. Richard was at home in Celigny, Switzerland with his wife Sally, when he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in his sleep. He effectively died in his sleep at his home with his wife at his side, although technically he was still alive when he got to Geneva hospital. Am I the only person to notice this error, even though the book has been out for over a year?

United Kingdom on Feb 23, 2014

D Furnell: I read some very glowing reviews of this novel and I admired much of the writing -- the descriptions of the Italian coastline are beautiful and some of the writing about the tranquility of the area before the 60s tourist explosion is poignant. I liked the Hollywood satire too.

The movement of the narrative in place and time was intriguing at first, although there maybe was too much variety by the end -- was the author worried about holding the audience's attention? When narratives jump around in this way, the author needs to take care not to be too cynical about withholding details from the reader purely to sustain suspense and there are instances in this novel where the narrative is a bit tricksy.

I enjoyed the book most before a point about two thirds of the way through when a revelation in the plot was revealed and the book then seemed to lose momentum -- performing a few literary hoops and turns before the denouement. And while the very ending was poignant and fitting, the 'what happened next to whom' section seemed designed to remind the reader of the author's self-regarding skill for having introduced so many characters along the way (from US GIs to failed rock...

United Kingdom on Dec 06, 2013

Bookboodle: Billed as an ideal summer read this is the first of Jess Walter's books that I've read and it was our book club choice for June. Apparently this book took the author 15 years to write!

OK, so I'll start positive with the bits I liked:

There are some lovely descriptions of Italy, of the beaches and scenery that do make you feel like Summer's here, all warm inside and will make you want to jump on a plane.

The chapters do flip back and forth through time and character, if you don't like books that do that you won't like this, there are lots of characters that intertwine and lots of points of view. I didn't mind this, I liked the variety. I did like Dee's character, in spite of her 'illness' I thought she turned out to be a strong independent character when she could have easily been written dependent and clingy.

I really enjoyed Alvis's chapter about a chance meeting in the war, in fact, this was probably my favourite in the whole book. It actually felt like a short story within the novel.

And I liked these words of wisdom from Pasquale's mother:

"Sometimes what we want to do and what we must do are not the same. Pasquo, the smaller the...

United Kingdom on Jul 10, 2013

T.Szy.: Imagine, if you will, how a jigsaw puzzle is made: an image is captured (generally a photo), enlarged, then run through an automated, computerized slicer to create hundreds of little pieces. The puzzle enthusiast then takes the time to put them all together based on various color and shape clues. The finished product is nice - art in a simple form.

But now think about creating the same beautiful finished product but NOT by starting with the whole and using technology to reduce it to pieces, but rather starting by individually creating all the intricate and perfectly crafted pieces one at at time so that by the time you are done and everything is then nicely fitted together, the final view would be much more than simple art, but it would be a masterpiece born out of creative vision, brilliance and skill.

Such is the work of Jess Walter in Beautiful Ruins.

Having read several of Jess' books now, Beautiful Ruins is, in my opinion, his best yet. My top three are uniquely different in many ways: Citizen Vince (rapid-fire page turner), The Financial Lives of Poets (engaging and hilarious), and Beautiful Ruins (profound, emotionally complex, magnum opus...

United States on Jul 13, 2012