Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter (2012. Perennial. ISBN 9780061928178)
Italy. Richard Burton. World War II. “The Pitch”. Illegitimacy. A tiny fishing village. Cancer. Punk rock. An aging talent scout/agent. “The Deal”. Each of these concepts/settings/attributes can be found interwoven with a pretty good yarn in Beautiful Ruins.
Pasquale, an aging Italian hotelier, is on a quest to find Dee Moray, a B-list actress he once met in Italy when she was pregnant with Richard Burton’s son, the product of the acting legend’s boredom during the filming of Cleopatra when his one true love, Liz Taylor, is otherwise occupied by her husband, Eddie Fisher. If this tidbit of plot sounds like a soap opera, don’t be fooled. Walter is a gifted writer who throws in scenes from the Donner disaster and a bit of combat writing as well to keep the reader on his or her toes as he weaves a very plausible, if somewhat cliche’ (Michael Dean, the agent, is about as stereotypical a character as they come) tale of familial dysfunction, Hollywood power, and love. The settings, the rugged coast of Italy, the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, the Universal lot, and Seattle all ring true. The dialogue is crisp and believable. I found the meandering storyline and scene changes akin to watching a Robert Altman flick. And emulating Altman at his best, whether it’s Nashville or A Prairie Home Companion isn’t bad mimicry. The scenes featuring Burton at his drunken, tempestuous best, as always, steal the show.
The cover includes a blurb from one of my favorite NPR shows, Fresh Air that proclaims the book to be “a literary miracle.” That’s hype. This isn’t Lonesome Dove or Anna Karenina or East of Eden. But it’s a book well worth reading.
4 and 1/2 stars out of 5.
