The writer starts off with great descriptions of the Italian landscape, interesting characters and an intriguing storyline. However, the story devolves into mere soap opera when the location shifts from Italy to Hollywood.

This is a delightful read despite (or maybe because of) the multiple layers of ruin that permeate the novel - personal, interpersonal, physical, geologic, cinematic. The interwoven story lines - ranging from WWII to the 1960's to present day - are all interesting in their own right, and Jess Walter manages to create fully-rounded and compelling characters despite each of them being given only a shard of narrative time. Remarkably, the introduction of Richard Burton midway through was neither jarring nor preposterous - he seemed to fit right in and was appropriately larger-than-life as well as being on his way to his own tragic ruin. I especially liked the mixture of narrative points-of-view and styles as well as storytelling devices - standard narrative, excerpts of memoirs, monologues, and even the first scene of a play.

I wanted my time back.Formulaic, predictable and fortettable. Very little of it rings true. The prose is serviceable but bland. Mind-numbing.

Pennie's Costco pick for April 2013 - "an engaging world readers won't want to leave."

Such a great book! Couldn't put it down. Beautifully written.

An enjoyable story about various characters throughout four decades, with everything coming together at the end. Definitely a fast, easy read. If you love Italy, you'll love being submerged in a tale that blends the country's natural beauty with the human experience.

This is the story of the dazzling young starlet, Dee Moray, whose unfortunate encounter with Richard Burton leaves her forever changed. At first, they explain that Dee is apparently dying of cancer and she escapes to the remote Italian village of Porto Vergogna for the duration of her illness. There, the kindness of Pasquale Tursi, the innkeeper, impresses the young American woman and a strange friendship begins to blossom. A visiting doctor suspects the truth about Dee’s strange “illness,” but Dee has already been changed by her brief stay in the vintage hotel. Here, life and death seem poised on the brink of a precipice, where virtue and kindness are weighed against gluttony and avarice. The ending is interesting and thought provoking. Intense introspection is the crowning achievement of this rare novel. Read it – and be forever changed.

Enjoyable - but a few too many voices made it a bit disjointed.

For two-thirds of this novel, I kept wondering, “Why is this on everyone’s Best of 2012 list?” Well, the payoff came in the final third, and it was well worth my time. Beautiful Ruins is a then-and-now story. The tale begins in 1962 and winds its way to the present. Our three main characters are: • Pasquale: the young innkeeper on the coast of Italy; • Dee: the beautiful, young actress in Italy for the filming of Cleopatra; and • Michael Deane: the legendary film producer. Walter flashes readers between the past and present, teasing us with the trio’s initial meeting and then keeping us in suspense for a majority of the novel. As much as I may not have cared for the 3 main players (for the most part), I definitely needed to know if/how/when the three would meet again. I would not put this on my Best of 2012 list, but I would absolutely recommend it. If it seems slow at the beginning, stick with it! Your patience will be rewarded.

The Beautiful Ruins in this book's title could certainly refer to the ancient sites in Italy where some of this book takes place, or it could be referring to the ruins of the relationships between a series of people tangentially (or directly) involved in the filming of the notorious Hollywood bomb, Cleopatra, starring Liz Taylor and Richard Burton. Jess Walter creates a clever bit of fictional revisionist history, creating a secret love child for Burton, and a romantic entanglement that slowly unspools now fifty years later. The characters in Walter's novel are funny and extreme, but they are also lovingly drawn and relatable. By the close of this excellent summer read, you've got some lovely moments of thoughtful prose.