Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book had everything I usually hate: jumping through time, crazy eyeroll-inducing events, and a multitude of characters.
And I loved it all. So well done, Jess Walter!
Although you’d think this is Pasquale Tursi’s story, Beautiful Ruins is the story of an actress, Dee Moray, and the dozen or so people who are tied to each other through her. There’s a part where you say, “Richard Burton? Seriously now?” Just realize that it could have happened and probably happened all the time, and let it roll over you. By the time I reached the halfway mark, I yearned for happy endings for at least one of the characters. (Spoiler: Burton died in 1984.)
When I finished the book on the train, I was snuffling and weepy with happy tears.
