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

Great Read, Great Listen

If you ever saw a cliffside or hilltop town in Italy or elsewhere, you had to wonder how such a jumble of houses and structures could cascade all over each other and exist on their steep, often forbidding perch. Launching his story from just a setting, a seaside town in the Cinque Terre, Jess Walter crafts a jumble of characters who cascade all over each other over the course of half a century.

In 1962, a beautiful actress off the set of Cleopatra, filming in Rome with Liz Taylor and Dick Burton, arrives at a sleepy hillside town spilling down the rocky cliffs to the sea. The owner of the only hotel in town, the Adequate View, befriends her, helps her deal with her problems, and figures out how to deal with his own issues. Fifty years later, he shows up at a movie studio in Hollywood in search of his long-lost friend.

Between the bookend stories of then and now, we meet a broad set of intertwined characters -- in addition to the hotelier and actress, we delve deeply into the lives of a famous producer, a legendary actor, an aspiring screenwriter, a used car dealer who failed as a writer, a production assistant at the crossroads, an addicted rock star fallen on hard times, and a colorful cast of supporting players.

These individual stories sometimes feel as if they were written separately and then stitched together into a novel, but if true, Walter has done so masterfully. His use of metaphor and irony is impeccable, his sense of whimsy rarely flags even when things get serious, and his primary locale in Italy will make you want to go for a visit. It would have been nice for Walter to narrate the book himself, as he had done in the past, but Edoardo Ballerini is excellent.

I read this book in print several years ago and jumped at the chance to listen to it when it showed up in an Audible sale. It lived up to my expectations in every way -- a great read, a great listen. Must not have made for a good movie though -- there's a trailer online for a film adaptation by the great director Ang Lee that was supposed to be released a couple of years ago, but nothing further about it. A bomb, like 1962's Cleopatra.

imaginative, mind expanding book

This book spans fifty years in the lives of Dee Moray, Pasquale Tutzi and Martin Dean in Italy, Hollywood, Seattle and Idaho.Their lives change but they remain true to their character during the making and unmaking of the movie Cleopatra,while making responsible decisions with their lives, and finding love in the end. The concepts and language are all original but ring true. The only criticism is that the characters are all wasps. There is no ethnicity here.

good but not fantastic

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, if they didn't have anything else in their queue.

What about Edoardo Ballerini’s performance did you like?

His accents and energy were perfect. He was a joy to listen to, absolutely delightful.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No.

Wonderful

What did you love best about Beautiful Ruins?

I cannot recommend this wonderful novel too highly. I was engaged immediately by the settings, the characters, the story and the gentle compassion for flawed humanity that it conveys. Jess Walter considers the manner in which we seem to live in memories of the past or imaginings of the future. I can only say that while listening to this novel, I was entirely engrossed in my present.

What about Edoardo Ballerini’s performance did you like?

This is an outstanding performance by Edoardo Ballerini. I will certainly buy this wonderful novel in hard copy, but I cannot imagine that I will enjoy it as much without Mr Ballerini's amazingly nuanced narration.

Just loved this book - both story and performance

Really well crafted story told from point of view of the individual characters but seemlessly brought together by the author. This is one book where the narrator strikes the perfect balance between reading and performing the story. In fact, the narrator adds meaning that a reader might miss. I listen to a lot of audiobooks and this one is at the top of list.

Enjoyable listen!

Would you consider the audio edition of Beautiful Ruins to be better than the print version?

I didn't read print version.

What did you like best about this story?

Skillfully intertwines several narratives.

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

Loved the voice and hearing the Italian spoken. Really nice narration.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I could have.

Captivating cross-cultural and generational tale

Would you consider the audio edition of Beautiful Ruins to be better than the print version?

Yes. Ballerini's beautiful spoken Italian is transporting.

What did you like best about this story?

Most of all, I appreciate Walters' examination of the decisions made by, and formative events that impact, the characters in young adulthood, and how these choices and events shape their lives. His sometimes cynical, sometimes humorous exploration of the disparate cultures of an untouched Italian fishing village, the movie business, and to some extent, the modern day Pacific Northwest, is revealing and highly entertaining.

Which character – as performed by Edoardo Ballerini – was your favorite?

His portrayal of the chief protagonist, Pasquale, is very honest, vulnerable and touching.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No. The storyline is not a page-turner, though it maintains momentum and holds one's interest to the very end.

Glad I hung in there

First let me say that, overall, I liked the book. Mr. Ballerini did a very good job with the narration overall, but the men were better than the women. I had no difficulty keeping track of characters after the first half hour or so.

I will advise you, however, to hang in there for the first part of the book. I had trouble "engaging" with it but once I did -after the story moved from Italy to Los Angeles - I became interested. Although I thought there were a number of points where a bit of editing would have improved the flow, all in all, the author does a good job of setting atmosphere and moving the story along. I wouldn't call it "best seller quality." But that's just my opinion. It's not "wow" material but it's worth both a credit and the time.

Not a book I would normally buy

If you could sum up Beautiful Ruins in three words, what would they be?

Compelling, contemplative, satisfying

What other book might you compare Beautiful Ruins to and why?

Not a book I would usually listen to, so don't have a lot to compare it to.

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

Loved that he didn't sound like he was acting, just read it so low key and charmingly, yet was never boring. I would never have read the names right, and he gave me a better feeling for the hotel keeper.

If you could take any character from Beautiful Ruins out to dinner, who would it be and why?

The son, just to hear his journey and what this life has taught him, and how he would have dealt with himself if he were the parent.

Good concept but crass and profane

Any additional comments?

The best thing I can say about this audio book is that the narrator was phenomenal! I loved the concept of the story and the characters, however, I felt that the profanity and crassness took away from the potential beauty of the novel. Yes, that made it more realistic when portraying the characters, but I think that there are ways to do that without cheapening the literary quality with cussing and crudeness. I also found much of the character development to be long and drawn out with insignificant details to the point that I would get bored waiting until it got to the meat of the story.