Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter will make you laugh, cry, and ponder the meaning of life. Sometimes all in the same paragraph.

Here is a novel that moves through the lives of fascinating and flawed people. The Italian innkeeper, the famous movie star, the rising producer, the eager playwright, the drugged out musician on the make, the dignified actress, confused personal assistant, the corrupt mafioso, the World War II veteran, the charming but sad prostitute, the local theater patron … they are all here, and many more.

I’m not sure how to express the weaving of this story as it comes together. It’s as if each story within a story is yet another story.

And the writing — it’s simply amazing. Walter has a gift with both his insights and the simple way he expresses ideas, such as, “This is what happens when you live in dreams, he thought. You dream this and you dream that, and you sleep right through your life.” His understanding of the human heart is just as insightful, with such insights as, “A man wants many things in life, but when one of them is the right thing he’d be a fool not to choose it.”

The descriptions in the book will take you to new places. The Italian coastline, Rome in the early 60’s, paintings on a concrete bunker, the quaint downtown of Sandpoint, Idaho, the plastic look of an aging Hollywood producer, the massive snowfall that doomed the Donner Party, a brothel in Genoa. You see it all in this book, and you find yourself there, watching the characters in the book, wondering what they will do next, curious to see where the story heads.

Ultimately, as the book title implies, all the places and all the people are beautiful ruins. There is a melancholy in that thought, of course. But there is something deeper as well.  A ruin can only become that way when it has an amazing story to tell.

Great book. It’s a page turner you can’t put down.