I can’t read at night. If I do, I find myself awake in the wee small hours of the morning with my eyes glued to the page. Or I find myself awake in the wee small hours of the morning thinking about what I’ve just read. Neither is ideal because both mean that Roz isn’t sleeping. And, for the sake of the world, Roz needs to sleep.
To accommodate work, life, school and reading, I’ve devised this brilliant plan: get up before the sun and start my day with a chapter or two.
Beautiful Ruins – Courtesy of JessWalter.com
This morning, I woke up even earlier than usual because I was desperate to finish Jess Walter’s Beautiful Ruins. It completely engulfed me with its layered narrative, compelling plot line and empathetic characters. It’s the perfect summer read.
The novel begins in Italy in the 1960s (how much more summery could it get?). Pasquale is trying to amp up tourism on his tiny island and fulfill his father’s dream of owning a hotel at which Americans stay. As fate would have it, the doomed Elizabeth Taylor-Richard Burton movie Cleopatra is being filmed not too far from Pasquale’s oasis and an beautiful, dying American actress comes to stay.
Right off the bat, this book combined things I love: 1) Books 2) Hollywood 3) Italy.
The next chapters switch vantage points and time periods. We meet a Hollywood producer dealing with his fading star and terrible plastic surgery; his assistant deciding whether to stay in her thankless job or curate a museum; a musician coming to terms with his less-than-successful career and a life tainted by addiction; two writers, one a novelist struggling to write more than a chapter about his WWII service and the other pitching a screenplay about the Donner party; and the inhabitants of Pasquale’s Italian island, including his sharp-tongued mother and aunt. Richard Burton makes a cameo appearance, which is awesome. Everyone is lovable in his or her own way, though each has a flaw which proves to be his or her downfall.
Now, I don’t want to reveal too much, but Walters does a fantastic job of interweaving the stories of these seemingly disparate people (Shades of Mrs. Dalloway). The stories deal with love and loss, sex and scandal, success and failure – and there’s a little Italian sprinkled in for good measure. Each is poignant and uniquely touching though never overtly sappy or preachy – I appreciate all of that. (It’s best that I finished this one in the morning. Now, I have all day to mull it over.) I think my favorite part of Beautiful Ruins is the way Walter deals with life becoming something you didn’t expect or plan, how things can turn out okay even when life goes off the rails. It’s a reassuring truth that Walter handles genuinely. There are an inordinate number of dog-eared pages for a non-school novel in Beautiful Ruins because I found much of Walter’s prose to be worth remembering either for its truth or its humor or a combination of the two.
The novel reads like a movie. Walter paints cinematic pictures that would be at home on the big screen. It’s romantic with the perfect meet-cute, but one could also find bits of Italian neo-realism scattered throughout a sarcastic dramedy. Walter takes shots at Hollywood in a big-brother-teases-a-little-sister kind of way; it’s all done with good humor and admiration. (See the Donner party screenplay)
It is a magnificent read and perfect for whenever, summer especially. You’ll want nothing more than to sit on an Italian beach with a cold drink in one hand and Beautiful Ruins in the other.
Or, you know, at 5 AM in your room with a cup of coffee. That works, too.
Roz Writes 