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Wednesday, June 19, 2013

What We Thought About Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

Beautiful Ruins is a collection of stories about individuals, the choices they make and the results of those choices. Some of the lives of the characters turned out the way they wished and others, despite their best efforts, were ruined. Book club members felt like the stories were love stories, reality for the characters. However their lives turned out, it was their story to tell and to live. "Life is not like the movies."
 
Set against the backdrop of the romance of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton during the filming of the multi-million dollar movie, Cleopatra, Beautiful Ruins is a grand story about how situations affect people by either spiraling out of control or being redirected. Do events control people or do people become the masters of their fate to ensure a happy and satisfactory life?
 
These quotes from the author describe the direction of the story:
“His life was two lives now; the life he would have and the life he would forever wonder about.” ...
“Sometimes what we want to do and what we must do are not the same, Pasquale. The smaller the space between your desire and what is right, the happier you will be.”
 
The author neatly ties up all loose ends at the conclusion of the book which group members wholeheartedly appreciated. It was easy to see whose life was on the right track and whose life was ruined. The book discussion elicited many personal connections to the characters' stories and general enjoyment of the book
 
The description of the Adequate View seemed realistic, and the group would have been happy to visit the cliffside hotel and meet Pasquale, his mother, and his aunt.
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1 comment:

  1. JeanJune 19, 2013 at 3:25 PM

    The Evening Book Club met last night to discuss Beautiful Ruins. Similar to the book the discussion jumped from topic to topic as we sought to find a common thread. What was this book about and was the author trying to make a point? This may have been a book about life choices, following your desires or doing the "right thing". As always the discussion turned to how much creative liberty the author should take with a work of "fiction". In this case the life of Richard Burton was elaborated on quite a bit for my liking. I thought this book was beautifully written with the descriptions of the Italian Coast jumping off the page and most of the characters so very likable. Seriously, I know this book was about something but what? Last night after book club, thinking about the discussion and the book the only thing that made sense was that this book was one big Beautiful Ruin!!

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