July 2013 - California Yacht Club

April Book Mates: “Beautiful Ruins”
By BERRY WILKINSON
In May, Book Mates discussed
"Beautiful Ruins" by Jess Walter,
enthusiastically moderated by Betsy
Linn who decorated the room with
charming posters of Italy and set the
table with tempting Italian fare. Cecilia
Samartin thoughtfully donated an
autographed copy of “Beautiful Ruins,”
which was claimed by Donna Petersen,
the lucky winner of a drawing.
Walter’s novel has earned
widespread recognition and strong
accolades from high-profile media
outlets such as Esquire, the New York
Times, Washington Post, Entertainment
Weekly, Goodreads, Hudsons, Amazon,
and many more. Publisher’s Weekly
selected “Beautiful Ruins” as one of the
“best books of 2012,” and described the
book in the following summary:
“Edgar Award–winning author
Walter's well-constructed, bittersweet
romance begins in April 1962, when a
young innkeeper, Pasquale Tursi, puts up
the "ethereal" American actress Dee
Moray, who has arrived supposedly sick
with stomach cancer at the remote Italian
port of Vergogna. She has come from the
extravagant Rome location of Cleopatra
along with the philandering, tempestuous
co-stars Elizabeth Taylor and Richard
Burton (Walter's title is taken from a
description of Burton at 54). Pasquale
soon discovers that 20th Century–Fox's
chief troubleshooter, the young Michael
Deane, has in fact whisked Dee,
pregnant with the married Burton's child,
away from the public eye to avoid
scandal. Predictably, Pasquale falls in
love with the beleaguered, vulnerable
Dee, who is under pressure from Deane
and the studio to get a discrete abortion
in Switzerland. Fifty years later, the
elderly Pasquale shows up on a
Hollywood back lot looking for
information about Dee's present
whereabouts,
much to the
consternation of
Deane, now a
largely washed-up
figure. The twisty
narrative rolls on
to show what
actually became of
Dee and her son,
Pat Bender, a
middle-aged,
small-time
performer. The
Hollywood
glitterati, led by
the duplicitous
Deane, come off
looking
thoroughly jaded
and shallow
compared to the
stately, chivalrous
Pasquale in
Walter's quirky
and entertaining
tale of greed,
treachery, and
love.”
The Spokanebased,
47-year-old
author told the Los Angeles Times:
“This is about Italy in the 1960s,
Hollywood now, Hollywood then, the
Seattle music scene, the Donner party,
World War II. Hollywood is like a
giant mirror, I think, and I used it that
way in the book, reflecting characters
back to themselves. I've been
simultaneously drawn to and repelled
from Hollywood for years. I wanted to
explore how we're all defining
ourselves now. With Facebook and
Twitter, we're all our own little
publicists in a way. And the thing we
think of as Hollywood is this kind of
studio system, this thing that is sort of
fractured and not what it was. The
novel is full of shots at the vacuous
banalities Hollywood turns out.”
Three-time Oscar nominee Todd
Field is set to direct and co-write, with
the author, the adaptation of the novel.
While many Book Mates
appreciated Walter’s storytelling, his
writing style, his satirical take on
Hollywood, and the plot resolution in
the final chapter, there were several
dissenters who were critical of
perceived historical inaccuracies and
plot contrivances, and actually (tongue
in cheek) named the author as their
least favorite character of the book.
Our sincere thanks go to Betsy
for leading the vigorous discussion,
and to Cecilia for generously donating
the book.
UPCOMING MONTHS:
July
“Where’d You Go, Bernadette”
by Maria Semple
moderator Ira Teller
August
“Lady Almina and the Real Downton
Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere
Castle”
by the Countess of Carnarvon;
moderator Jacquie Kelly,
co-moderator Laverne Keesling
Thank you one and all for your
active participation in Book Mates.
14/BREEZE JULY 2013