Most of our readers know him and his work fairly well, but we never miss an opportunity to hear
Jess Walter read. Not only was he was a headlining author of EWU's
Get Lit! Festival in April, reading with Colson Whitehead as well as participating in the Comedy as Commentary panel, but he's been a longtime supporter of the literary arts in Spokane. He's the author of five novels and one nonfiction book, including
The Zero (2006),
The Financial Lives of Poets (2009), and most recently,
Beautiful Ruins (2012)
. He is the winner of the Edgar Allen Poe award, a National Book Award Finalist, and has been published in a variety of magazines, literary journals, and newspapers. His books have been sold in fifteen different countries, translated into thirteen languages, and his success won't stop with his latest publication- he already has another book on deck, a collection of short stories to be released in March 2013.
Beautiful Ruins, the novel, begins on the sun-drenched shores of an Italian coastline, featuring a relationship between a simple innkeeper and a dying American actress. Their romance, whose origins lay in 1962 Italy, are rekindled 50 years later and half a world away on American soil. History, dreams, and memories arise in the novel, which he'll read from at
Auntie's Bookstore on June 12 at 7 p.m.You won't want to miss it!
1 comment:
The author's virtuosity shines most for me in his portrayal of the contemporary Hollywood characters and culture, or lack thereof: Michael Deane, the viagra-popping aging producer; Claire, Deane's Assistant whose idealism is slipping regarding the possibility of making intelligent film as her duties center around listening to pitches for reality shows titled DRUNK MIDGET HOUSE or NYMPHO NIGHT. There's Shane, a talent-challenged writer, trying to pitch a movie based on the Donner Party, who realizes his life is being authored more by David Mamet than God. These characters come together to help Pasquale find the starlet. In the denouement, the author lists the fates of all the major and minor characters, which parallel the beautiful ruins of the starlet's life.
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