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Book Review of Beautiful Ruins (P.S.)

Beautiful Ruins (P.S.)
c-squared avatar reviewed on + 181 more book reviews


I don't even know where to start with this one. There's so much going on here and many other reviewers have tried to sum up what this book is about, so I'll just share a few things I loved.

This book is about people who want to be famous, to leave their mark on the world in a variety of different ways. Most are incredibly self-obsessed and yet most are likeable by the end of the book. (Most, not all.)

The structure of this book is so artful. It begins in 1962, then moves forward to the present -- basically the beginning and the end (but not quite the end) and then everything that happened to connect those two worlds is slowly revealed. It's a marvelous ride.

The last chapter was gorgeous. The way he wrapped everything together. Loved it. You have to read it for yourself.

Along with the beautiful, sad, and hopeful, Walter throws in a lot of funny...some satirical, some just straight-out funny, like the bawdy insults of Italian fishermen that made me guffaw.

He's kind of local. Walter lives in Spokane, Washington (about 200 miles north of me) and sets most of his books in the Pacific Northwest. Parts of this one take place in Seattle and Sandpoint, Idaho (with a brief trip through Spokane on the way).