Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

What a great story, or series of nested stories, expertly woven together to create a wonderful summer diversion.  Yes, I think this is a book I can recommend to others as an enjoyable read. 

Take your pick of sub-plots, there’s half a dozen offered up, across space and time, in this 333-page-turner.  I found it difficult to put down; wanted to keep pressing on to the next episode.  There’s time-zones of the sixties, the eighties, and now.  There’s Love, Marriage, Hollywood, WW-II, and theater.

A few of the walk-on characters don’t make it across the time-zones, like Alvis Bender and William Eddy, Dick & Liz.  But the top six central characters all persist to the last chapter.  In order of adoration: Michael Deane (total self-love); Pasquale Tursi (Saintliness); Claire Silver (the everyman); Debra Moore (motherly love); Shane Wheeler (all our kids); Pat Bender (everyone else’s kids). 

Plot twists, which are many, don’t surprise you as they do in thrillers; instead they refresh you with new ideas from a different direction.  This is an innovative novel; no formulaic tale here.  And for me, each new directional shift was pleasantly accepted, “Why not?” or better “Why didn’t I think of that?  What a great idea!”.

Did this start as a wannabe memoir from some actor, writer, or director cast aside on their way to fame and fortune.? When is Michael Deane releasing the movie?

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Just to join in the half-a-century old, seven degrees of separation fun, I’ve attached here and will pass around for any interested, a 1964 response letter from one of Richard Burton’s staff [RB/jb] to my mother about Burton’s NYC Hamlet that year and a dropped hint about the film yet to come.

From Wikipedia:

“He then put his stage career on hold to concentrate on film, although he received a third Tony Award nomination when he reprised his Hamlet under John Gielgud's direction in 1964 in a production that holds the record for the longest run of the play in Broadway history (136 performances).^[ The performance was immortalized both on record and in a film, which played in US theatres for a week in 1964, as well as being the subject of books written by cast members William Redfield and Richard L. Sterne. Burton took the role on just after his marriage to Taylor. Since Burton disliked wearing period clothing, Gielgud conceived a production in a "rehearsal" setting with a half-finished set and actors wearing their street clothes (carefully selected while the production really was in rehearsal). Burton's basic reading of Hamlet, which displeased some theatre-goers, was of a complex manic-depressive personality, though during the long run he varied his performance considerably, as a self-challenge and to keep his acting fresh. On the whole, Burton had good reviews. Time said that Burton "put his passion into Hamlet's language rather than the character. His acting is a technician's marvel. His voice has gem-cutting precision."  The opening night party was a lavish affair, attended by six hundred celebrities who paid homage to the couple. The most successful aspect of the production was generally considered to be Hume Cronyn's performance as Polonius, winning Cronyn the only Tony Award he would ever receive in a competitive category.”