Beautiful Ruins

By Jess Walter

This book has all the elements of a summer read/romance and it is not a sappy romance, but it is lifetime movie material. Nothing wrong with that.

This beautiful American, Dee, appears on a boat that carries her to a remote inlet on the Italian coast.  She is seen approaching by Pasquale who just happens to own the only hotel in the village.  This village is literally dying with all the young people going off to bigger cities in Italy.  Of course Pasquale is enamored with this beautiful woman who turns out to be an actress in the movie Cleopatra being filmed in Italy.  This isn’t just a version of Cleopatra; it is THE version of Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. She gets “sick” and is told by the doctor that her symptoms seemed to be similar to someone with Cancer and the producer then has her whisked off to somewhere remote where she will then be taken to Switzerland for “treatment”. 

She and Pasquale develop a friendship. But they end up going separate ways and so it is unclear what might have happened.  Fast forward fifty years and the story picks up in Hollywoods and the States. It is not as predictable as I thought it might be but there are not all that many surprises either.  It does make you think about things that may have been different if you had stayed with someone you met when you were younger. I thought the characters were well developed and the story flowed well with just a few slow spots.  It is worth reading.