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Beautiful Ruins: A Novel - Jess Walter
Beautiful Ruins: A Novel
by: (author)
3.81 310
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... show more
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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Format: hardcover
ISBN: 9780061928123 (0061928127)
ASIN: 0061928127
Publisher: Harper
Pages no: 352
Edition language: English
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Community Reviews
Banana's Book Blog
Banana's Book Blog rated it
5.0 Beautiful Ruins: A Novel
This book had so many characters, so many time periods, so many places, but at its heart it was a story of all of us, of our dreams, and how important it is that we allow those dreams to adapt over time. There is a lot to be said but in the end it was the dick-head Michael Deane who said it the best...
Words of a Bibliophile
Words of a Bibliophile rated it
3.5 Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
"All we have is the story we tell. Everything we do, every decision we make, our strength, weakness, motivation, history, and character – what we believe – none of it is real; it's all part of the story we tell." This was a good story indeed (and what a gorgeous cover!). But while the parts with Pa...
bryceoc
bryceoc rated it
5.0 Beautiful Ruins: A Novel
This book is flawed. It gets pretentious sometimes. It jumps around from story to story a little too much. But you know what? It's funny and moving and entertaining, topped with wit and social commentary. I can't give it less than 5.Every character is achingly real, distinct, and well-written. The d...
meganmorlok
meganmorlok rated it
Beautiful Ruins started off with such promise. I loved the setting in 1962 Italy with a man trying to build a beach and a beautiful, dying woman showing up in his small town. However, it starts to lose me once the storylines start bouncing from past to present, character to character, and all over t...
Bettie's Books
Bettie's Books rated it
0.0
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