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

Poetic and picturesque

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

Probably not. It's was a good and interesting story, but just not at the top of my list. A little long and and not engrossing enough, I found my mind wandering as I listened

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

When the truth about Dee's "illness" came out

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Yes

Any additional comments?

Maybe would have enjoyed it more had I read it rather than listened to it. It just really took too long to get to what wasn't even really worth getting to.

Lovely Experience

Well written story narrated by an excellent actor. I feel as if I watched this book instead of listening to it. I did feel the ending was awkward and a little cheap compared to the rest of the book.

A wonderful read!

What made the experience of listening to Beautiful Ruins the most enjoyable?

The depth of feeling that the author explored the individuals, it was a wonderful story, and wonderfully narrated!

Who was your favorite character and why?

Piscquali!

Which scene was your favorite?

The one in the dug out where they admired the sketching on the wall under the different sunlight conditions!

If you could rename Beautiful Ruins, what would you call it?

A time in Italy

Any additional comments?

My first Jess Walter book - but will look for others! I picked it based on recommendations on Audible and was NOT disappointed at ALL!

Magnificent

What did you love best about Beautiful Ruins?

The layered storytelling, different voices, unexpected twists, and the surprising appearance of places and themes that I know and love.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Pasquale. He is the catalyst without whom the story would not move forward. More than that, he's a good man. Usually, especially in drama, the good man is a cardboard cutout of a figure and the more interesting characters are deeply flawed, giving them depth and requiring much more exploration. Good characters are generally straightforward and boring. But not so Pasquale. He, like all of us, struggles to do the right thing. And it is in this struggle, completely opposite to the "cinema people" around him and so much like ourselves, that makes him so appealing. He does the right thing the first time around. He doesn't need the journey of struggle, failure and redemption. He struggles and is redeemed without needing the journey through hell. As the catalyst, and as a good man, the story can pivot around him and as readers/listeners, we cheer for him for doing the right thing and through his story, we too are redeemed.

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

The beauty and music of fluent Italian. Also a unique voice for each of the characters that somehow manages to reflect age, gender, regional accent, emotional state, etc., all without devolving into caricatures.

Having grown up in central Washington state, I know that the pronunciations of Cle Elum and Kittatas can be tricky. Even President Kennedy once mispronounced Spokane. However, I'm happy to forgive the slip of the tongue in exchange for the brilliance of fluent Italian.

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

Yes, but due to life interfering, I had to break it down into several sittings. In fact, I was thankful to get sick so that I could listen to the last half without feeling that I should be doing something else.

Any additional comments?

I highly recommend this book. It's masterful storytelling narrated by a masterful vocal artist.

enchanting story

interesting intertwining of complex characters' bittersweet lives, all of which have a common thread that weaves the fabric of meaningful and morose life experiences.

Stunning

A masterpiece. The story is charming, deep and delightful all the way through. My only complaint is that it was finished before I was ready to say goodbye. Enjoy

Jumps around too much

Any additional comments?

This book had too many insignificant characters that were given too much "screentime," for a lack of an equivalent reading/listening word. The book jumps around way too much, not just between different groups of people and not just into different times, but with different groups of people in different times. It doesn't just jump between 1962 and the present - it jumps to 2005, 1970, 1980, etc. It just gets to be too much.

A good book or movie allows you to suspend reality - no matter how strange or unrealistic the plot is. But this book was very poorly written and I just couldn't imagine anything like this ever happening.

The narrator was very good though.

What a fun book to listen to

Great story with many fascinating sub plots that intertwine and come together very well. I liked the humorous way the author builds the characters, and sets up a story involving historical events, celebrities and different time periods. I often found myself laughing out loud.

Great combo of writing and narration

What did you love best about Beautiful Ruins?

It was beautifully written and the narration was among the best. Ballerini is skillful at moving between different voices and accents in a way that brings the individual characters alive.

What did you like best about this story?

I really enjoyed all of the different story lines that converged at the end. It had humor, sadness, conflict, and resolution. A very satisfying read....or listen!

Have you listened to any of Edoardo Ballerini’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

n/a

Wonderful novel!

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

A must read or listen

Have you listened to any of Edoardo Ballerini’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This was my first listen by Edoardo Ballerini, but I will definitely seek him out.