Book Review - Rules of Civility - Amor Towles
‘Rules of civility’ by Amor Towles starts in 1938 and girls about town, Eve Ross and Katey Kontent, are ringing in the new year in a jazz club in Greenwich Village, when a well dressed man called Tinker Gray sits down close to their table. Soon they are in conversation, starting a chain of events that leads to a tumultuous year in their lives.
Amor Towles
The chance meeting between the three sends us on a journey that takes place among the socialites of a beautifully imagined New York City. One of the great pleasures of ‘Rules of civility’ is to take in the smoky jazz clubs, the streets and the apartments. (I kept thinking of ‘Mad Men’ which takes place a bit later, but also lovingly recreated.) I thought on a number of occasions of making myself a martini. Such is the power of Amor Towles’ writing.
Katey is such a wonderful character to spend time with - smart, sassy and quick witted. Some of her descriptions and one liners constantly made me laugh. It’s a good sign of a book when you really miss the character after you turn the last page, and I really wish I could have spent more time with Miss Kontent.
Tinker
There is something of Gatsby to the character of Tinker - enigmatic, charming and wealthy. The relationship between him, Katey and Eve is very much the beating heart of the book. ‘Breakfast at Tiffanys’ is another influence here, but it never felt derivative, rather just inspired by the city.
Rules of Civility Summary
Amor Towles’ prose throughout is stylish and elegant - there is something of a cinematic quality to some of the scenes, in the way the descriptions seem to roll past. Writing that seems this easy and flows so effortlessly takes serious talent to pull off. By the end, there is something incredibly poignant and intriguing about this book.
It’s the end of 2022 and one of the greatest gifts of books is to transport you to another time and place, so ‘Rules of civility’ and New York in the 1930’s with these flawed, beautiful characters was just what I needed.
‘In that sense, life is less like a journey than it is a game of honeymoon bridge. In our twenties, when there is still so much time ahead of us, time that seems ample for a hundred indecisions, for a hundred visions and revisions - we draw a card, and we must decide right then and there whether to keep that card and discard the next, or discard the first card and keep the second. And before we know it, the deck has been played out and the decisions we have just made will shape our lives for decades to come.’
Book review - Rules of civility by Amor Towles
337 Pages
5/1/2021 Sceptre Publishing
By the same author - The Gentleman of Moscow