Book Review – RULES OF CIVILITY by Amor Towles
Rules of Civility Synopsis
Set in New York City in 1938, Rules of Civility tells the story of a watershed year in the life of an uncompromising twenty-five-year-old named Katey Kontent. Armed with little more than a formidable intellect, a bracing wit, and her own brand of cool nerve, Katey embarks on a journey from a Wall Street secretarial pool through the upper echelons of New York society in search of a brighter future.
The story opens on New Year’s Eve in a Greenwich Village jazz bar, where Katey and her boardinghouse roommate Eve happen to meet Tinker Grey, a handsome banker with royal blue eyes and a ready smile. This chance encounter and its startling consequences cast Katey off her current course, but end up providing her unexpected access to the rarified offices of Conde Nast and a glittering new social circle. Befriended in turn by a shy, principled multimillionaire, an Upper East Side ne’er-do-well, and a single-minded widow who is ahead of her times, Katey has the chance to experience first hand the poise secured by wealth and station, but also the aspirations, envy, disloyalty, and desires that reside just below the surface. Even as she waits for circumstances to bring Tinker back into her orbit, she will learn how individual choices become the means by which life crystallizes loss. (amortowles.com)
BOOK REVIEW
I have been hesitant to write this review for Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. Why? Because I just know that I will fail to convey how wonderful this novel is.
I was utterly captivated by this novel from the very first lines. Although not necessarily billed as a mystery, they way the story is told in reflection provides a compelling and enduring tension. Although there are many surprising twists and turns for the reader along the way, Towles so cleverly reserves the most poignant for the closing.
Amor Towles’ debut novel Rules of Civility is the best book I have read this year.
As a male author, Towles displays a remarkable talent for crafting female characters – all characters in fact. He develops a very meaningful ensemble cast with a discerning eye and delicate hand. No character is superfluous, each makes an important contribution to the tale.
In describing scenes, Towles’ observations go beyond the visual, encapsulating sounds, smells and tastes in a way that is so vivid one would think he actually lived through that time period. His use of beautiful prose is not just artful and evocative for the sake of being so – it conveys tangible mood and sentiment.
The Thirties… What a gruelling decade that was. I was sixteen when the Depression began, just old enough to have had all my dreams and expectations duped by the effortless glamour of the 1920s. It was as if America launched the Depression just to teach Manhattan a lesson.
After the Crash, you couldn’t hear the bodies hitting the pavement, but there was a sort of communal gasp and then a stillness that fell over the city like snow. The lights flickered. The bands laid down their instruments and the crowds made quietly for the door. Then the prevailing winds shifted from west to east, blowing the dust of the Okies all the way back to Forty-second Street. It came in billowing clouds and settled over the newspaper stands and park benches, shrouding the blessed and the damned just like the ashes in Pompeii.
This novel reads like a sublime cinematic experience. There is no doubting the movie rights will be highly fought over.
If you have not yet read Rules of Civility, you are missing something truly special.
BOOK RATING: The Story 5 /5 ; The Writing 5 / 5
BOOK DETAILS: Rules of Civility (Amazon); Rules of Civility (Audible) ; Rules of Civility (B&N – epub) ; Rules of Civility (TheNile – Australia)
Genre: Literature, Historical, Romance, Drama, Mystery
Author Information: Born in 1964, Amor Towles was raised in a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Yale College and received an M.A. in English from Stanford University. He is a principal at an investment firm in Manhattan, where he lives with his wife and two children. Rules of Civility is his first full-length novel. (www.amortowles.com)
- Watch video of Amor Towles discussing Rules of Civility
- Watch Hatchette Australia’s book trailer
- It is no surprise to me there was a bidding war over the rights to this novel. See who won and how much they paid.
Other reviews of Rules of Civility: Reading Fuelled by Tea ; Just William’s Luck ; Cineaste’s Bookshelf ; Chew and Digest Books ; The Guardian
* I received a copy of this novel from Penguin Group USA via NetGalley for review purposes. My receiving this book for free in no way affected my ability to express my honest opinions about it.
I am so glad you loved this book. I thought it was fantastic, which was such a nice surprise! My book club read this one and they all reacted positively to it as well. Plus it elicited a great discussion!
“His use of beautiful prose is not just artful and evocative for the sake of being so – it conveys tangible mood and sentiment.” You nailed it on the head, he didn’t just use words to be pretty or to please the literary lovers, each creates a mood, feeling, reaction, and most of brings it to life.
Thanks for linking to my blog.