Beautiful Ruins (2012) (edit title/settings)

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Characters/People edit see section history

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• Pasquale Tursi: Son of Carlo and Antonia Tursi, owners of the Hotel Adequate View in Porto Vergogne. While studying at the University of Florence, his father dies and he returns home to take care of his mother and the family business. He dreams of modernizing the establishment, making it an attractive resort for Americans. He has cordial relationships with the others in the town, including the "coarse" fishermen, though they tease him for his education and his dreams.
• Orenzio: Pasquale's oldest friend, a wharf boy from La Spezia; later he pilots a boat for the wealthy vintner and hotelier Gualfredo.
• Antonia: Pasquale's crippled mother, sister of Valeria, wife of Carlo, already nearly forty when Pasquale was born. In grief after losing her two older sons to the war, she and Carlo sell their properties in Florence and move to Porto Vergogna to rear Pasquale in peace.
• Zia Valeria: Antonia's sister and Pasquale's aunt; she did most of the cooking for the hotel and its rare guests. She and Antonia were known as "le due streghe," the two witches. Described as "wire-haired," and "an ogre." Not overly fond of Carlo.
• Carlo Tursi: Pasquale's father, regards himself with great esteem as from the Florentine merchant class; a hotelier from Florence who moved to Porto Vergogna after his two oldest sons were killed in the war. Dreams of bringing tourism to the town and connecting it with the other cities in the Levante, but does not succeed. Upon his death, bequeaths the hotel/cafe to Pasquale.
• Tomasso the Elder: Elderly fisherman whose cousin had married an American, making him the village expert on American customs. He misses Carlo and frequently teases Pasquale and Valeria.
• Michael Deane: "Special Production Assistant" for 20th Century Fox, in Italy in 1962 to work on "Cleopatra" with Richard Burton and Liz Taylor. Later, a producer. A fictional character.
• Dee Moray (aka Debra Moore): An American actress in Rome for work on "Cleopatra" in 1962. She is brought to Porto Vergogna to stay at the Hotel Adequate View, to rest and wait for a friend. She has been told she has stomach cancer. Her first conversation in Porto Vergogna is with Pasquale and Orenzio.
• Claire Silver: In approximately 2008, Claire is Chief Development Assistant to legendary film producer Michael Deane. Struggling with "highbrow notions" about art and film and the daily realities of her job listening to pitches for movies and television shows from a wide assortment of characters. Dating Daryl.
• Daryl: Claire's boyfriend: not her usual smart, sensitive type, but instead a gorgeous, tatooed walk-on from a recent zombie movie production who has an Internet porn addiction.
• Shane Wheeler: In approximately 2008, Shane is not yet thirty, recently "divorced, jobless and broke," living with his parents in Beaverton, Oregon and aspiring to write a screenplay on the historically tragic story of the Donner Party. On a tip from a former writing professor, Shane goes to LA to pitch his idea at Michael Deane Productions and meets Claire Silver.
• Gene Pergo: Shane's college writing professor, who had "tired of being a teacher and ignored essayist" and had written a zombie thriller called Night Ravagers, sold the film rights to Michael Deane Productions and quit his teaching job mid-semester. Makes a connection for Shane in Hollywood and encourages him to hone his pitch.
• James Pierce: Director of the Museum of American Screen Culture, looking for a Curator. The museum is funded by Scientiologists.
• Signor Pelle: Huge man, represents the illegitimate "tourism guild", collecting taxes and annual fees in exchange for "protection." Acts as a strongman for Gualfredo.
• Alvis James Bender: A neatly handsome young American, who in 1952 arrives at The Hotel Adequate View in Porto Vergogna to work on his book. He is a former soldier who lost a beloved friend in the war. The son of an American car dealership owner, he goes on with his life in America but returns to Porto Vergogna for two weeks every summer to visit his friend Pasquale, reflect on his life and to attempt to write (but mostly to fail to write) his book.
• Brave Richards: Alvis's friend who served next to him in the war.
• Pasquale "Pat" Bender: Son of Dee Moray (Debra Moore), a somewhat troubled but talented young musician who has had some success with a west-coast grunge band called The Reticents but struggles with addictions. Boyfriend of Lydia.
• Skouros: 1962. An important "head" at 20th Century Fox when Michael Deane began as a publicity agent working out of the car barn. (Spyros Skouras--not a fictional character-- was a Greek-American motion picture pioneer and movie executive who was the president of the 20th Century Fox from 1942 to 1962.
• Rouben Mamoulian: An early developer of the Cleopatra film, taking over from Walter Wanger in 1958 and bringing the cast to England for filming. Fired by Skouros, his footage unused. (Not a fictional character.)
• Joe Mankiewicz: Another early developer of the Cleopatra film, brought in by Skouros after Mamoulian. Moved production to Italy, dumping the whole cast except Liz Taylor. Brought in Richard Burton and expanded the story. (Not a fictional character.)
• Lydia Parker: Lydia is the muse for one of Pat's poignant songs. After breaking up with Pat she remains loyal and supportive to Debra, later reuniting with Pat and becoming a playwright.
• Kurtis: Buddy of "Club Promoter" Joe in London; boyfriend of Umi.
• Benny Giddons: Actor playing Joe/Londoner in Lydia's play, "Front Man." Benny (no last name) was a guitar player Pat recruited for his early band, The Garys, and who stayed around and composed hundreds of songs for the bands that came after, including the Reticents. Pat regards him as the "real musician" in the group.
• Richard Burton: A Welsh actor nominated seven times for an Academy Award. Not a fictional character, Burton was born Richard Walter Jenkins in the village of Pontrhydyfen, Neath Port Talbot, Wales, the twelfth of thirteen children. He was famous for his roles in the stage production of Camelot with Julie Andrews, and later as the highest-paid actor in Hollywood. Liz Taylor was his second wife and their turbulent relationship was rarely out of the news.
• Danny Roth: Michael's producing partner
• Dooley: Michael Deane's boss when he first worked for 20th Century Fox as a publicist.
• Ron Frye: Director of an Arthur Miller play that Dee (Debra) was doing in Seattle; she had had a short affair with
• Tomasso the Elder: The communist fisherman in Porto Vergogna
• Bald Marv: Nickname Pat Bender gave the guitar teacher who briefly dated Debra Moore, Pat's mother.
• Marla: A young waitress in the play Front Man.
• Emma: The babysitter for Pat Bender.
• Debbie Reynolds: Actress
• Maggie: Character in a stage play. Played by Debra Moore.
• William Eddy: Main character in Shane's "Donner!" screenplay
• Nina: The younger sister of Maria, a young woman Alvis met during the war.
• Olivia: Add a description of this character.
• Andrew Dunne: Production assistant to Michael Deane
• Shannon Curtis
• Larry
• Woodworth
• P.E. Steve: Gym teacher, went on a date with Debra Moore (aka Dee Moray)
• Harry Wong: Owner and bartender of 1960's Trader Vic's in Seattle, Washington.
• Keesberg: One of the pioneers in the 1846 Donner party.
• Roberto
• Quentin: Role in Arthur Miller's play.
• Penny: Lydia's character in the movie version of Front Man.
• Elizabeth Taylor: Beautiful and famous screen actress
• Bruno Montelupo: Amedea's father in Florence, Italy
• Lyle
• Signor Gualfredo: Wealthy vintner and hotelier who ran the tourism south of Genoa. Bastard son of a wealthy Milan banker. His mother was given an interest in hotels in Portovenere, Chiavari, and Monterosso al Mare. A petty criminal, he enforces a tax and yearly fees collected by the "tourism guild" in exchange for "protection." Works with Signore Pelle to threaten Pasquale.
• Dr. Crane: Liz Taylor's unscrupulous doctor on the set of "Cleopatra".
• Amedea: Pasquale's love interest in Florence.
• Saundra: Ex Wife of Shane
• Donata: Amedea's sister
• Eddie Fisher: Liz Taylor's husband, whom she was married to in 1962 and stole from Debbie Reynolds.
• Aaron
• Ted
• Mona
• Maria: The woman whom Alvis Bender writes about and whom he met at the end of WWII in Strettoia, Italy.
• Bryan
• Foster: Another member of the 1846 Donner party.
• Louise Fletcher: Famous actress who appeared in "The Exorcist II" with Richard Burton.
• Slade: The name Pat Bender's character was changed to in the movie version of Front Man.
• Lugo: Married, old fisherman in Porto Vergogna.
• Dickie Zanuck: Richard Zanuck, famous Hollywood producer hated by Skouros.
• Kathy
• Dr. Merlonghi: Doctor from Portovenere who cares for Dee Moray while she's in Porto Vergogna.
• Guido: One of Pasquale's brothers.
• Darlene: Debra Moore's sister
• Keith: Artist friend of Pat Bender, Lydia and Debra Moray in Sandspoint, Idaho.
• Cleopatra
• Anna
• Keseberg
• Marilyn Monroe
• Marc Antony
• Umi
• Hitler
• Bender Chevrolet
• Arthur Miller
• David Mamet
• Tommaso
• Darryl Zanuck
• Robert Burton

Quotes edit see section history

• “....as if the scene ended when they left it, the world stopped when they closed their eyes.”

• “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 all part of the story we tell. But here's the thing: it's our goddamned story!”

  Alvis Bender

• “Pat suddenly saw his best songs as ironic trifles, smart-ass commentaries on real music, mere jokes. Jesus, had Pat ever made anything . . . beautiful? The music these kids played was like a centuries-old cathedral; Pat's lifework had all the lasting power and grace of a trailer. For him, music had always been a pose, a kid's pissed-off reaction to aesthetic grace; he'd spent his whole life giving beauty the finger.”

  Pat Bender

• “Beautiful, too, though she didn't see it--which was the key to her attraction, that she looked the way she did with no self-consciousness, no embellishment. Other women were like presents he was constantly disappointed in unwrapping, but Lydia was like this secret--so lovely beneath her baggy dresses and low-brimmed Lenin cap.”

  Pat Bender

• “...he was part of a ruined generation of young men coddled by their parents--by their mothers especially--raised on unearned self-esteem, in a bubble of overaffection, in a sad incubator of phony achievement.”

  Saundra

• “"Sometimes, she said, "what we want to do and what we must do are not the same. "Pasqo, the smaller the space between your desire and what is right, the happier you will be."”

  Antonia

• “Pasquale considered his friend's face. It had such an open quality, was such a clearly American face, like Dee's face, like Michael Deane's face. He believed he could spot an American anywhere by that quality - that openness, that stubborn belief in possibility, a quality that, in his estimation, even the youngest Italians lacked. Perhaps it was the difference in age between the countries - America with its expansive youth, building all those drive-in movie theaters and cowboy restaurants; Italians living in endless contraction, in the artifacts of generations, in the bones of empires.”

  Pasquale Tursi

• “Words and emotions are simple currencies. If we inflate them, they lose their value, just like money. They begin to mean nothing.”

  Alvis Bender

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Sandpoint, Idaho
• Hollywood
• Portovenere
• Porto Vergogna: A town designated as Port of Shame, "a remnant from the founding of the village in the seventeenth century as a place for sailors and fishers to find women of . . . a certain moral and commercial flexibility." "...a tight cluster of a dozen old whitewashed houses, an abandoned chapel, and the town's only commercial interest--the tiny hotel owned by Pasquale's family.... Isolated by the cliffs behind and the sea in front, the village had never been accessible by car or cart...."
• La Spezia: An inland town in the Cinque Terre region, where there are canneries providing jobs for many people in the area. Pasquale was sent to La Spezia for secondary school, and there met Orenzio, his first real friend.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Redemption: Describe this theme.
• "beautiful ruins"

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Jess Walter (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 813

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Jess Walter's website