Claire Silver, Chief Development Assistant to legendary movie producer, Michael Deane, is trying to leave her LA office when two men show up.  One is a small elderly Italian man who can barely speak English and the other is Shane Wheeler who is extremely late for his pitch meeting scheduled earlier that day. Claire, bored and disillusioned by the constant stream of mediocre movie pitches wants to just leave, but her relationship with her boyfriend is on the rocks and they are due for “the talk,” so she chooses the lesser of two evils and sits down to listen to these two men.

As expected Shane Wheeler pitches a Donner Party remake that seems so far from the movies that that she thought she would be making when she left school that Claire can hardly contain her disgust.  The Italian gentleman, however is a different story. With the help of Shane, who unexpectedly proves useful as an interpreter, Claire discovers that the elderly Italian is not here to pitch a movie but on a mission to find a young actress named Dee Moray who stayed at his hotel in 1962.  He pulls out a business card with Michael Deane’s name and with Michael’s handwriting on the back saying to contact him any time.

Intrigued, Claire begins to unravel the story of Dee Moray, who was part of the cast of “Cleopatra,” starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor and the role that her boss, Michael Deane, played in containing costs and getting “Cleopatra” back on schedule.

Walter’s character’s are intriguing and multidimensional and the historical context and the small role that Richard Burton plays as a character ground the story in reality. Her descriptions of the Italian coast and the the small fishing village reminded me of my own trip to Italy and the many little villages I saw along that sun dappled coastline.

Shifting between the present and 1962, Beautiful Ruins is a story about the unexpected ways our history can both inform and guide our future as well as hold us back from what we envision our life could be.  Each character and each story line, allows us to see the historical scope of their lives and the repercussions that reverberate throughout their lives because of their choices and connections.  As one of the characters says; ” All we have is the story we tell. Everything we do, every decision we make, our strength, weakness, motivation, history, and character-what we believe-none of it is real; it’s part of the story we tell. But here’s the thing: it’s our goddamned story!”      

Brenda’s Rating : **** (4 Stars out of 5) 

Recommend this book to: Sharon, Marian and Lauren

Book Study Worthy?: Yes, with Italian food and wine!

Read in ebook format.