#59 [2024/CBR16] Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

My husband and I were married in 2022. We decided to both read a book in honor of our anniversary. We would pick the book together, finding something that reminded us of the past year. So far we've picked books based on places that we've traveled. The first year we had vacationed in Florida, and we picked Swamplandia!. It was well written and memorable, but it was also weird and disturbing. This year, we were lucky enough to go to Italy, and after some google searches, we decided on Beautiful Ruins (2012) by Jess Walter. It had good reviews and was one of NYT's 100 Notable Books. 

I think we chose well this year. Beautiful Ruins was easy to read, interesting, insightful and memorable. Both my husband and I really enjoyed it. Even the cover is the same as a picture we have of the two of us in Cinque Terre. It's like it was meant to be.

Beautiful Ruins begins in 1962 in Porto Vergogna--a fictional, tiny little nothing of a fishing town down the coast from the famous Cinque Terre. Since his father's death, Pasquale runs an almost entirely empty hotel there with his aunt and mother. Usually the only guests stumble onto the town by accident, thinking they're going somewhere else. But one day, a beautiful, American woman is dropped off. She is sick, and Pasquale is told that she has cancer. Her name is Dee Moray.

Dee Moray is an actress on her first job, filming Cleopatra in Rome with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Michael Deane, a cutthroat producer sent her out to Porto Vergogna in order to get her away from Richard Burton--a man she'd been having an affair with.

The next time we see Michael Deane is present day (2012). He is a famous, powerful producer with most of his good work far behind him. His assistant, Claire, is unhappy with her boyfriend and her job and looking for something new. However, one day, Pasquale shows up in Los Angeles, looking for Dee Moray. It's been almost fifty years, but Michael Deane immediately jumps into action, hiring a private detective to track her down. Shane Wheeler, a man who used to be privileged and optimistic is reeling from his recent divorce and book failure. He's roped into this whole thing when he goes to Los Angeles to pitch a screenplay to Michael Deane and becomes the Italian translator for Pasquale.

Another important character that ties into the plot is Alvin Bender. He is a World War II veteran who was stationed in Italy at the end of the war. Surviving the war when others did not haunts him, and he copes by drinking tremendous amounts of alcohol. After stumbling on Porto Vergogna one summer, he now comes back every year to work on his book. It's been many years now, and he has still written only one chapter.

Walter uses a number of techniques to tell this story. The chapters jump back and forth from Claire, Shane, Pasquale, Michael Deane, and others. In addition, one chapter is the first chapter in Alvin Bender's book; another chapter is Shane Wheeler's move pitch; another is the unpublished first chapter of Michael Deane's book; and one of the later chapters is the first scene in an original play. This technique reminded me a little of A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, and I thought it was well done in both books.

In the end, this book is about love in all its imperfection. All of the characters mess up, but they are trying and in the end they do extraordinary things for each other--even though it's not perfect. Michael Deane may be the only character who won't or can't experience love. All of these love stories are tinged with loss and heartbreak, which makes them feel especially real and moving. I was very impressed by Walter's writing. His characters feel real, and his descriptions are clear and often even funny. Definitely recommended.