Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

Like the 1960s movie Cleopatra, which is included in the plot, this novel has a cast of thousands--well, not literally. But it does have a very large number of featured characters whose stories are told in intertwined, non-linear episodes. The players include a shy Italian hotel owner, a beautiful actress who believes she is dying of cancer, two would-be writers, an unscrupulous movie producer and his idealistic assistant, an addiction-haunted musician, and Richard Burton, THE Richard Burton. And many more.

The time period extends from World War II to "recently." The locations include Italy, Scotland, and Hollywood. The tone of the narrative encompasses romanticism, cynicism, social satire, and pathos. It is both tear-inducing and laughter-inducing. Sometimes the novel includes almost too much, but then it tells such a darn-good story that all is forgiven.

The central plot around which all else revolves concerns Pasquale, the hotel owner, and Dee, the actress. To recount the plot would almost require summarizing the entire book, but suffice it to say that it begins when the two meet and ends when they meet again 50 years later, with many unexpected twists and people in between.

What sold me on this book was its exploration of "the moment," that magical point in time when dreams seem possible, before messy reality intrudes. Pasquale says of his meeting with Dee that it was, "The moment that lasts forever." The question becomes, is it possible to recapture the promise of "the moment"? I well remember my "moment"--can't you?

I could name some shortcomings of Beautiful Ruins: it is sometimes difficult to follow as it jumps from character to character and time to time; the tone of some sections is jarring next to the tone of other sections; it is perhaps a bit too clever for its own good at times. But I liked it very much.