Book Bites: ‘Beautiful Ruins’ by Jess Walter

This delightful novel whirls us from the Hotel of Adequate View in a tiny Italian village on the Mediterranean sea, to Rome,Hollywood and Idaho. In the cast are: Pasquale, the inn keeper, a beautiful dying starlet, the scheming Michael Deane, Richard Burton (of all people ) hopeful writers and others.

You read their letters, a first chapter and a “pitch” for a movie. Author Walter tangles their lives, and then untangles them, and a good read ensues.