Review: Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

Beautiful Ruins has everything I could possibly want in a great story. Much of the imagery is gorgeous and colorful; the characters are flawed, relatable and well-developed; individual stories are beautifully intertwined and the writing is sharp and witty.

The plot: One day in 1962, young innkeeper Pasquale Tursi’s life is changed forever when an American actress named Dee Moray comes to stay at his hotel in the tiny Italian coastal town of Porto Vergogna. Having always dreamed of his hotel becoming a tourist destination for Americans (trying in vain to create a  beach with his bare hands and build a tennis court among the cliffs) the naïve and sweet Pasquale is in awe of the beautiful American and can’t seem to keep himself from falling in love at first sight. He learns that she is sick and once he has a doctor come to check on her, Pasquale becomes involved in a tangled web that brings him face-to-face with a movie producer named Michael Deane, actor Richard Burton and the set of Cleopatra. Fifty years later, Pasquale has never forgotten about the beautiful Dee Moray and goes to Hollywood to look for his long lost love.

Among everything I loved about this book, I think my favorite thing was the way it connected the seemingly separate lives of all the main characters. I love being able to read about something that happened from the perspectives of different people because it helps to understand motives and provides a strong background for how events come to transpire.

With each chapter, Beautiful Ruins often shifts between characters and past and present but it is done in a way that makes it easy to follow.

In addition to Pasquale, Dee Moray and Michael Deane, the reader experiences life through the eyes of Deane’s young and jaded assistant Claire; a writer and war veteran named Alvis who visits Pasquale’s inn each year; Shane Wheeler, a young writer on his way to Hollywood to give his first pitch; and Pat, an aimless failed musician who just can’t seem to get his life together.

The whole time I was reading Beautiful Ruins, I just kept thinking how inevitable it is that this book will be made into a film. With the right director, the film could be exceptional and perhaps award-winning. I would love to see Scorsese bring this book to life on the big screen but what are the odds of that happening, really?

I really loved this book. It was an extremely enjoyable read and I highly recommend it if you are looking for something a little out of the ordinary.

My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Well, it’s Oscar Sunday, which is a big deal when you’re married to a walking IMDb. I’m off to clean the apartment and get stuff done before the big show. I’m rooting for Django Unchained and Les Miserables this year, while Damen is all about Argo and Zero Dark Thirty. Shoud be interesting!

I hope you all have a great week! Next week, we’ll talk about Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

Review: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Despite my disappointment with the lack of character development in The Graveyard Book, I recognized that Neil Gaiman is a talented writer and did not want to dismiss his work because of one book. Neverwhere sounded like it would be a more rewarding read because as an adult book, it could explore the real gritty, grotesque territory that a children’s book can only lightly brush upon.

The plot: A regular guy named Richard Mayhew goes about his everyday life until one day he sees a bleeding girl on the sidewalk and stops to help her. She begs him not to call an ambulance, so he carries her back to his apartment to take care of her. Once the girl named Door leaves, the life Richard knows begins to disappear as people no longer acknowledge his existence in the world. His apartment is sold while he still lives in it, his fiancé recognizes his face but can’t quite place a name, and his only choice is to follow Door into her world when she comes back for him. Richard embarks on a strange and ever-unfolding quest that will forever change his life, in the world of London Below where those who fall through the cracks of society go to live.

Gaiman goes all out when it comes to creating setting. The elaborate world of London Below, with its tunnels, secret doors and floating markets is so complex that I felt as lost as Richard Mayhew. Maybe this was the point, so that the reader would feel as helpless as the main character who follows the others around.

I found that my issue with this book is that I felt stuck with a group of characters that I really couldn’t bring myself to care about.

For a protagonist, Richard is pretty flat. I felt like he spent most of the book whining about going home and trying to disprove the existence of everything that was around him in London Below. I just found him to be rather boring and annoying, so it was difficult for me to stay motivated to follow him for 370 pages.

Then there is the girl who got Richard into the whole mess, Door. What makes Door so special? She can open doors that aren’t there, doors that no one else can open. Door’s abilities are central to the plot and lead the gang through a web of clues, secrets and ultimately, deception. I didn’t hate Door, I just didn’t find her to be particularly interesting or likeable.

The marquis de Carabas is probably the most interesting character in the book, but he comes and goes. When he’s not with the group, the pacing slows down painfully. I think the reason I like the marquis de Carabas is because he has no patience for Richard’s whining and he commands your attention. He’s an eccentric and charismatic leader that overshadows Richard and Door in every scene where he is present.

Hunter is another decent character. She is a strong and skilled warrior whose job is to protect Door from the two men who are trying to capture her: Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar.

Between Hunter’s strength and bravery, the marquis’s cleverness and wit, and Door’s personal quest, there really isn’t much room for Richard to serve a necessary purpose in the story, until the end when he somehow manages to be the only person who can beat a certain challenge—I don’t want to give it away, in case you might want to read it.

My rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Although this book wasn’t my cup of tea, I still don’t want to give up on reading Neil Gaiman. I am dying to check out Marvel 1602—Marvel superheroes in Elizabethan England? Yes please!—and I’ve heard that American Gods is amazing, so I will surely try reading another Gaiman work someday. For now, I think I need to change gears a bit.

Next week, I will be getting away from the dark and creepy (though I’m sure there will be more of that in the future) and reviewing Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter.

No review today

I am sorry to disappoint anyone who has been following my blog; I know I promised a review for Neverwhere, which was supposed to go up today but Winter Storm Nemo/Blizzard Charlotte (I’m still confused about what they’re calling it) put a damper on my plan to write over these last few days.

We got about two feet of snow here in our corner of CT and after two very cold nights, we finally got our power back on today! We are exhausted and have a lot of work to do around the apartment but I am relieved and very happy to finally have heat and hot water.

Although I’m not looking forward to starting another work week tomorrow after such a crappy weekend, I am really looking forward to the 4-day weekend to follow. That should give me plenty of time to write and post a review!

Well, I’m off to eat a hot dinner (store-bought rotisserie chicken because I’m too lazy to cook) and get ready to watch a new episode of Once Upon a Time tonight.

Hope you are all doing well!

– Chelsea,the bookish wife

Review: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

This is the first book I have read by Neil Gaiman. When I found out that the movie Coraline was based on his book, I knew I had to read something of his because I loved the movie. The Graveyard Book sounded like the perfect place to start, as it seemed to promise another eerie and whimsical tale of adventure.

The plot was too enticing to resist: A toddler wanders into a graveyard after his entire family is murdered by a knife-wielding man named Jack. When Jack goes looking for the boy, the ghosts who inhabit the graveyard protect him. That night, the ghosts and a guardian named Silas, who is described as “neither living, nor dead,” decide to take on the responsibility of raising him as their own child. From that day forward, the child is called Bod (short for “Nobody”) Owens. If Bod ever leaves the graveyard, he will have to face Jack.

At a glance, this book seemed to have everything going for it: a cool idea for a story, alluring characters, some pretty neat illustrations and a shiny Newbury medal on the cover.

While there were certainly moments when I was eager to see what would happen next, I was disappointed to find that perhaps my expectations were too high for the book as a whole.

I think my main issue with The Graveyard Book is that it is a book. While Gaiman is, no doubt, a masterful writer with a superb talent for creating visual elements, I felt that many characters and aspects of the story were not fleshed out enough. I think a series of short stories rather than a single book centered on Bod would have given the other (frankly, more fascinating) characters a chance to shine.

When you have a story set in a graveyard, complete with ghosts from various eras and other supernatural beings, the possibilities are endless. Unfortunately, I felt that I only got a glimpse of the characters I really wanted to know more about, like Silas, Miss Lupescu, Caius Pompeius, the Owneses, and most of all, Liza Hempstock.

Bod is an interesting character in that he was raised with no boundaries between the world of the living and the dead and as a result, picked up some odd lessons and antiquated behaviors. But the story of Bod vs. Jack just seemed kind of haphazard.

It is eventually explained why Jack murdered Bod’s family, but the explanation seemed weak and incomplete. For committing such a grisly crime, I was expecting a more elaborate and shocking revelation. There were just too many unanswered questions for me to feel satisfied with this book. I don’t want to go into details because I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who may be interested in reading it.

Personally, I found The Graveyard Book to be just okay but I could see why young readers would be interested in it and be content to follow Bod on his adventures.

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars

This book is being adapted into a film that will be directed by Ron Howard. Ron Howard is pretty awesome, so I will probably check it out and, who knows, maybe I will like it better as a film.

I did give Neil Gaiman another try after this book and decided to read Neverwhere. Come back next week for the review!