by Jess Walter, 2012
I got this book from a Little Free Library (I think the one on Smith Street). I LOVED IT! It’s set in Italy on the Cinque Terre, a little village called Porto Vergogna, Port of Shame. The main characters are Dee Moray and Pasquale Tursi. Dee is a beautiful American actress in Italy for the movie, Cleopatra. It is 1962. She is sick and thinks she is dying of stomach cancer, so has been sent to this little village for rest and is supposed to go on to Switzerland for treatment for her supposed stomach cancer. Pasquale is a young Italian who has returned to his father’s hotel on the cliff-side above the sea, trying to make a go of it. His father has just died, his mother is wishing she was dead, Pasquale has dreams of building a tennis court on the cliff side and a sandy beach and having a hotel full of rich, American tourists.
The book starts in 1962 when Pasquale is in the ocean tossing boulders to try and build a wall to protect his little beach. He sees the boat approach with the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen.
The book continues through 50 years of Dee’s and Pasquale’s lives. Dee was not dying of stomach cancer, she was pregnant! With Richard Burton’s child! Richard Burton and Liz Taylor are falling in love but Richard uses Dee when Liz won’t have him. Dee is hopelessly in love with Richard Burton. He’s a “Beautiful Ruin,” a hopeless drunk – he drinks alcohol from morning until night, is a womanizer, but such a talented actor. Wayne says Night of the Iguana is Richard Burton’s movie – playing himself. I just finished Anthony Hopkins’ memoir in which he wrote about Richard Burton, who lived in the same Welsh town as Anthony Hopkins – Anthony told about how he drank from morning until night, and died at the age of 58. This novel brought Richard Burton to life for me. There’s a chapter when Pasquale takes an all-day journey from Porto Vergogna to Rome to find Richard Burton and take him back to Dee – Richard is one bottle after another after another after another. It’s painful.
But Pasquale is faced with a choice – he can stay with Dee, the beautiful American who is pregnant with Richard Burton’s child, and marry her and raise her child as his own. OR – he can return to Florence and marry the mother of HIS son. He makes the right decision.
There are other wonderful characters in this book:
Claire – the young, beautiful, smart production assistant for Michael Deane Productions. She has a porn-addicted boyfriend who sleeps til noon, watches porn all day, and goes to strip clubs at night. She isn’t sure what to do with her life – quit her job and her boyfriend and work on the film museum of a cult? Or give her job and her boyfriend one last chance. Maybe today will be the day…
Michael Deane, the Hollywood publicist turned producer who saved Cleopatra from being a total failure and goes on to make one success after another. He is about 70 years old but his face has been lifted so many times, he looks really strange – this unlined face on a 70 year old man. But, he really understands people and knows what they want. They want what they want. That’s the key to his success. And he has a good heart.
Shane Wheeler – a young man who has been coddled and spoiled all his life and is recently divorced and back living in his parent’s house. He reads Michael Deane’s book about how to pitch a movie, and shows up to pitch his movie, Donner!, on the same day Claire is trying to decide whether to quit or not.
Alvis Bender – an American GI stationed in Italy at the end of WWII. He is a hopeless drunk, trying to write a novel. He goes to Porto Vergogna and stays in the little hotel every year, ostensibly to write his novel, but he only gets one chapter done. It’s a beautiful story, that one chapter. He is a drunk, too. He ends up marrying Dee Moray and raising her son, Pat (Pasquale), as his own. He dies tragically when he is in his car and Dee is in her car, next to each other at a red light – joking around – he guns his engine when the light turns green, and gets slammed by a pick-up running through the yellow light.
Pat (Pasquale) Bender: Dee and Richard Burton’s son. He is a precocious child, handsome and charismatic. He has no idea his father is Richard Burton. He founds rock bands. He is a drunk, an addict. When he is 40 and at the end of his rope – stuck in London, no money, beat up, he calls home and talks to his ex-wife Lydia who is taking care of his sick mother, and he realizes he needs to grow up. He gets control of his life, returns to his ex-wife and sick mother. They live in a cool 4-story house that Dee designed and built in the forest by a lake in Sandpoint, Idaho. They have a little theater company in Spokane – Dee runs it – she is really dying of cancer now, Lydia has written a play about Pat’s life called Front Man, and Pat is an actor playing himself. It’s a profoundly moving play. In the end, Michael Deane, Claire, Shane, and Pasquale come to find Dee and watch the play and are all deeply affected by it. They are taken to Dee’s cabin in the woods and Dee and Pasquale are reunited after 50 years. Pat finds out his real father is Richard Burton. Claire gets promoted and gets to make real movies and convinces her porn-addict boyfriend to get counselling. Shane realizes he needs to grow up and become an adult. Tries to get back together with his ex-wife, but she won’t have him. He repays her for all he took from her and eventually a young girl falls head over heels in love with him.
Dee and Pasquale reunite after 50 years – Pasquale’s beloved wife, Amedea, has died of Alzheimer’s. They had 40 good years together, children and grandchildren. His son, Bruno, the one he did right by when he decided to marry Amedea rather than Dee, convinces him to go and try and find Dee now. He shows up in Hollywood at Michael Deane’s office, lost and alone, Shane Wheeler can speak a little Italian and he has shown up at the same time to pitch his movie. These 4 people, Claire, Michael, Shane, and Pasquale begin an adventure to find Dee Moray and Richard Burton’s son.
There are fishermen in Italy, thugs in Italy, an old and crazy Aunt in Italy.
It’s a beautiful bunch of ruins – stories of beautiful, broken people, and love and dreams, growing up, doing the right things. Loved this book.
Here’s one quote from Alvis Bender talking to Carlo, Pasquale’s father, about what to name his hotel. Carlo wants to call it “The Number One Quiet Inn with a Most Beautiful View in the Village of Cliffs.” Alvis says that may be a bit long. “And sentimental.” Carlo asks what sentimental means. Alvis answers: “”Words and emotions are simple currencies. If we inflate them, they lose their value, just like money. They begin to mean nothing. Use ‘beautiful’ to describe a sandwich and the word means nothing. Since the war, there is no more room for inflated language. Words and feelings are small now–clear and precise. Humble like dreams.””
So, Carlo calls his hotel, “The Hotel Adequate View.” Pasquale inherits this little hotel.
Dee and Pasquale return to Italy 50 years later and take a boat to the village, which is now in ruins. The end of the book, Dee and Pasquale are starting to hike to the beautiful ruins to see if the paintings in the gun bunker from WWII are still there. This is the last paragraph:
“They finish their breakfast in Portovenere, go back to the hotel, and put on hiking boots. Dee assures Pasquale that she’s up for this, and they take a taxi to the end of the road, crowded now with cars and walkers and the bicycles of tourists. At a turnaround, he helps her out of the cab, pays the driver, and they set off once more on a trail along a vineyard leading into the park, up into the striated foothills that serve as backdrop to the sea-scraped cliffs. They have no idea if the paintings have faded away, or have been spray-painted with graffiti, or if the bunker still exists–or, for that matter, if it ever existed at all–but they are young and the trail is wide and easily traveled. And even if they don’t find what they’re looking for, isn’t it enough to be out walking together in the sunlight?”