The Centre County Reads pick for 2015 is BEAUTIFUL RUINS by Jess Walter. If BEAUTIFUL RUINS is typical of his work, Jess Walter is an exceptionally gifted author and one I will be adding to my must read list.
The plot line may be a little difficult to summarize because this is a story told on many different levels with complex characters and a time span of about fifty years. The locations include a very small fishing village in Italy, modern Hollywood, the lavish movie set of Cleopatra and various small towns and cities in America and Europe. Sound confusing? Trust the author because he will have you hooked from the opening scene.
In 1962 on a very isolated beach, a dying actress arrives by boat to stay in the Ad-e-quate View Hotel. The hotel’s young owner, Pasquale, is trying to create a beach so that wealthy Americans will come to his little part of Italy.
We soon learn that Dee Moray, the American actress, is in Italy as part of the cast of Cleopatra and that she is not dying of cancer but is pregnant. The doctor, Liz Taylor’s personal physician, has told Dee that she has cancer because the truth would be very bad for the publicity of the picture...especially if the father’s name would become known.
Jumping to the present, we meet Claire, assistant to a big-has-been movie producer/publicist. Her job is to listen to want-to-be script writers pitch their ideas for the next block buster film. Her boss, the legendary Michael Deane, has been reduced to producing reality shows for television. The pieces of what actually happened in 1962 start to come to light.
At first, BEAUTIFUL RUINS reads as a collection of short stories. We see glimpses of different characters at various times of their lives. At first, we see little to connect these people, but soon their stories start to pull together.
Jess Walter has given us a novel full of wit, irony, pathos, and characters to remember...some to love, some not so much. The scenes in Hollywood scream satire. We are not surprised by the fact that movies that feature walking zombies or reality shows about drunken midgets being forced to live in the same house have become so popular. We can sympathize when Claire has trouble finding a script that tells an actual story.
The intrigue of getting the public relations right so that a multi-million dollar movie, that really stinks, can make it at the box office rang true. It did help that the stars of the picture were having a very hot, very well publicized affair despite their well-know spouses.
I do have some problems with authors who use a historically famous person and drastically fictionalize his actions. Plotwise, it worked in this case and there was an air of authenticity to the characters. I especially felt that Richard Burton’s cameo rang true.
The final chapter, chapter 21, bothered me a bit. It was actually an epilogue that summed up all of the characters in the novel and everything was resolved happily.Too happily. I liked the ending at chapter 20 and the book could have ended at this point. There was a poignancy to it that was just right.
It is true that in chapter 21 we once again are a witness to the humor that comes out of irony proving why Jess Walter is considered by many critics to be one of America’s top comic writers.
I am pleased that the committee of Centre County Reads introduced me to BEAUTIFUL RUINS.
I had much the same reactions. I do not care for "fictionalized' stars being inserted to add color or glitter to a book. Jess is an excellent writer and could have had a great book without those star appearances. However, I still would call it a good read and the characters, Dee, Pasquale and Claire are memorable.
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