Ever read a book you wish you had written? That’s Jess
Walter’s sumptuous Beautiful Ruins for me. A meld of settings – from present
day to 1962, from a small fishing village on the coast of Italy to Los Angeles and
ultimately to Idaho – a mix of fictional devices from narrative fiction to faux
memoir to screenplay pitches – acts of plays-- Beautiful Ruins is layer on
layer of interwoven stories surrounding the life of Dee Moray, a beautiful
starlet on the edge of fame.
From a writer’s perspective lines like this… On selling a screenplay pitch: “And now she knows where she recognizes that look from. It’s
a look she sees every day, the look of someone doing the math, of someone
seeing the angles.” On age and celebrity: “…two kinds of people always lie about their ages: actresses
and Latin American pitchers.“ One refrain: “We want what we want….” runs through the novel and sets up the middle aged and older
characters on a path of wanting the wrong thing: money and fame. But we want
what we want so we go on destroying ourselves, and almost, almost destroy others
in the process. The last chapter begins with a heart-rending quote from the
writer Milan Kundera: “There would be nothing more obvious, More tangible, than the present moment. And yet it eludes us completely. All the sadness of life lies in that fact.” Ultimately, Beautiful Ruins is a story about seizing the
moment, about being happy with what is real and near and true. It’s also a love
story -- a triumph of love, a reaffirmation of what is real in this
celebrity-driven culture. This novel beautifully ruined me. More about this must read author at www.jesswalter.com. Is there a novel that has
ruined you recently? Truly, Caroline Bock, author of LIE. |
 |
|||||
 
CategoriesBockposts Book NewsBOCKPOSTS BOOK REVIEWS BOCKPOSTS/POLITICA BOOK CLUB READING GUIDE for BEFORE MY EYES GOOD NEWS from Caroline Bock ON WRITING TEACHER'S GUIDE TO LIE TEACHER'S GUIDES TO BEFORE MY EYES YOUNG ADULT MOVIE STARS YOUNG ADULT NOVEL WRITING TIPS |
|
 |
|||
    |
|||||
