Author: Jess Walter
ISBN:
Publisher:
Source: TLC Book Tours
Rating: Recommended
About the Book:
The story begins in 1962. Somewhere 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—blue as his eyes—and sees a vision: a slender blonde 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 it 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 fifty years before.
What unfolds from there is a dazzling, yet deeply human, roller coaster of a novel, peopled by Jess Walter’s trademark unforgettable characters: the Italian innkeeper and his mysterious beauty; the heroically cynical film producer who once brought them together, and his idealistic young assistant; and 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 pure Jess Walter—a novel full of flawed yet utterly relatable people, all of them reaching toward some impossible goal, leading us up a rocky shoreline path toward a future both distant and utterly familiar.
My Thoughts:
I'm not quite done reading this book, as I have been sick. I had a very random virus hit me and while I'm thankful no one else around me had it or caught it, I am still trying to bounce back. It knocked me out for a bit. Anyhow... I am enjoying this wonderful book and will update my review soon! If you liked Under the Tuscan Sun or any book where someone searches for someone they've barley met, but could never forget, you'll enjoy this book! It has quite the story to tell and characters to portray. It won't be long before I'm finished and I'll be able to update you!
About the Author:Jess Walter is the author of five novels, including The Zero, a finalist for the 2006 National Book Award, and Citizen Vince, winner of the 2005 Edgar Allan Poe Award for best novel. He has been a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize and the PEN USA Literary Prize in both fiction and nonfiction. His books have been New York Times, Washington Post, and NPR best books of the year and have been translated into twenty languages. He lives in Spokane, Washington
Website
I loved the movie version of Under the Tuscan Sun but I've never read the book. Maybe I'll give this one a try instead, since you say it has the same feel to it.
ReplyDeleteHope you continue to enjoy it! Thanks for being on the tour.