Beautiful Ruins

By: Jess Walter

Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini

Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Audie Award Nominee, Fiction and Best Solo Narration, 2013

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 50 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.

©2012 Jess Walter (P)2012 HarperCollins Publisher

How ruins may become beautiful

I read from 80-90 books a year (half audio, half paper). I record my thoughts about each and assign it a grade (A+ to D- and even a few Fs. In the last 10 years (936 books) only 21 have been A+ ; this is one of them. A compelling story of various lives, doled out in beautiful piece meal fashion by Jess Walter. Some reviewers have found this style off-putting but I believe it enriches the experience. The narrator Edoardo Ballerini is superb. A good narrator can capture different characters with his/her voice, can pronounce non-English words successfully. A great narrator is invisible to the listener. By the third sentence in this audio book, I was no longer aware of the narrator but only of the characters, settings and story. Like a great performing musician, Ballerini does not so much interpret the work, but leads you into the composer's world. This book is not a "page-turner" but is enriched by slow savoring.

One of my least favorites

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Although this book is getting rave reviews it was one of my least favorites. The story line seemed to drag out and go off on unrelated tangents.

Boring!!

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would not recommend this book because it takes so long to get to the story I was bored out of my mind with numbing prose with no obvious purpose.

Good story

The language was raunchy at times but the storyline was well developed and not predictabke.
I like the author's style of moving bac and gotten in time. He did well in describing the human condition; its beauty and its flaws.

Vacations

Listening to the story felt like being on a vacation in Italy and Hollywood. Most enjoyable and relaxing.

Beautiful ruins is a beautiful read.

Where does Beautiful Ruins rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It certainly ranks in the first 10 so far.

What did you like best about this story?

I liked the setting. I loved the characters and it was certainly well read by Edoardo Ballerini.

What does Edoardo Ballerini bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Well the voice was soothing and kept me going just wanting to come back to the audiobook again and again.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The book was poignant in places. The characters were almost real. It made me sad in parts but I liked the end very much.

Any additional comments?

This book is a good read. I didn't regret buying it at all. It was well written and well read.

This was OK

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Overall the book was only OK, it did not grab my interest from beginning to end

Immersive

What did you love best about Beautiful Ruins?

It was a story of redemption and sacrifice. The richness of the characters made them believable. I also enjoyed how the story switched from the past and present, yet was written in such a way that the story weaved together.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Beautiful Ruins?

The moment Pasquale made the sacrifice to do the right thing. He was left to wonder about the life he could have had, but chose a different path.

What about Edoardo Ballerini’s performance did you like?

Oh, the voices! So rich and memorable. Michael Dean was staccato and Pasquale was fluid. It was easy to visualize the characters by listening to the narration.

Who was the most memorable character of Beautiful Ruins and why?

The depth of Pasquale was memorable and the most typical answer, but I think that Dee/Deb was probably who I will dwell on the most. What she gave up and what she became. In the end, she found value in her life despite all she had lost.

Any additional comments?

This was a most enjoyable book, made better by the narration.

Enjoyable story.

Would you listen to Beautiful Ruins again? Why?

The story line and characters were engaging. I thought it was a poignant and thought provoking book that stayed enjoyable throughout.

Too much hype in marketing left me disappointed

Yes, this was a beautifully written novel. I did find myself enjoying some of the characters deeply. On the other hand, Richard Burton and the Hollywood hangers-on left me completely flat. Edoardo Ballerini as narrator was the highlight.

Author Jess Walter has a gift for intertwining disparate characters in different decades and different continents, but unless the next novel is free of household names (behaving badly), I won't be back.