Rules Of Civility, Book Review: Amor Towles' Captivating Debut

July 5, 2024, 12:13 am
Register to view this lesson. At the outset, Rules of Civility appears to be about the interrelationship between Katey, Tinker, and Eve; but then events quickly lead Eve and Tinker offstage. Besides Tinker, which relationship would you consider the most important in Katey's life: Hank, Anne, Eve, Dicky, or Wallace? Could you sympathize with them? CNN: Your narrator, Katey Kontent, is such an appealing character with a very distinctive voice. How does it apply to the novel's plot and characters, if at all? I didn't expect that from her. At times I just didn't believe her character. The novel includes many references to the melting pot that is Manhattan, and how immigrants retain their heritage while attempting to embrace all America has to offer. Rules of Civility Book Synopsis. T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is referenced in the book's preface and its epilogue.

Rules Of Civility Book Club Questions And Answers

What do you think his life would have looked like if he had known how to swim? Katey comes to appreciate his charms and values, but they do not connect romantically. Book Club: Discussion Questions for Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. Beresford Apartments. One character in the novel states, ''the trouble with being born in New York is having no New York to run away to''. My first night in the city, I got invited to a party at the home of an acquaintance. Do you think there really is such a strong distinction between classes in today's society?

A lot of folks liked the writing, though one attendee thought several of the stylistic devices were a little clunky. "Wit, humor, intrigue, sophisticated storytelling, a flawless command of style, fascinating and compelling characters, splendid atmosphere, exquisite insight into human behavior-it's all here. What did you think of the novel? In fact, not one in a million can do that. To me, there was this continuing theme of life becoming art, with every trope except Katey sitting down at the end to write the novel, Rules of Civility, at the end.

Rules Of Civility Novel

I have hundreds of influences at this stage of my life, and I am constantly collaging them into my work while still hoping to fashion something new. That's the problem with discussing books—without a strong basis in classic fiction, you are left without reference points. As a male author, Towles displays a remarkable talent for crafting female characters – all characters in fact. Before diving into your discussion, you might check out our advice on how to run a book club, and then consider asking an icebreaker question to get the conversation flowing. That story line confused me, and when it was explained in the book, I thought I had missed something. Your guide to exceptional books. The novel follows Katey, Eve, Tinker and her friends through 1938, just before the sharp lines between social stratifications were blurred by the leveling influences of World War II, as their circumstances shift and change. 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. What other authors write with his keen sense of observation and economy? For this little piece of information from Wallace told me something that I should have known all along -- that as Tinker and I had come of age, we hadn't been on opposite sides of a threshold; we'd been standing side by side" (p. 194 pb).

Why does Eve leave Manhattan for Los Angeles? It's interesting to note that the title is derived from George Washington's "Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation". What if the story had been framed around that person instead? And Jordan is the first author to be discussed twice by our in-store lit group, as Mudbound was one of our first discussions. At its outset, there is a budding love triangle between Katey Kontent, that's "kon-tent, like the state of being"; her boardinghouse roommate, Eve; and a handsome banker, Theodore "Tinker" Grey, but an unexpected accident sends the story in a more serious direction.

Rules Of Civility Goodreads

Is a little bit good? I mean "Peaches"] with Grub(? He ended up not wrote: It was sad to see people going off to fight in the Spanish Civil war. Read an excerpt from "Rules of Civility" on the author's website. What role do these motifs play in the thematic composition of the book? He is a principal at an investment firm in Manhattan, where he lives with his wife and two children. A love letter to a great American city at the end of the Depression, readers will quickly fall under its spell of crisp writing, sparkling atmosphere and breathtaking revelations, as Towles evokes the ghosts of Fitzgerald, Capote, and McCarthy. She had taken so much for granted. Like most of you I'm sure, I read different books for different reasons. TBR is a personalized book recommendation service that sends you books you'll love to read.

Rules of Civility is the tale of one woman, Katey Kontent, and four of the people who greatly influence her Manhattan life in 1937 - 1938. Monday, January 6, 7 pm: The Barbarian Nurseries, by Héctor Tobar. I'm having a brain glitch at the moment. There, I met a few people who ultimately became close friends. I too understood why Kate didn't tell Val the whole story and I felt like it kind of made sense and was true to her character that she didn't. Lots of interviews with Amor Towles on Rules of Civility can be found on this page: here. One image, taken in 1938, features Tinker in cashmere but not necessarily happy.

Discussion Questions For Rules Of Civility

I think Towles did a great job of bringing readers into the time and place. We've also got three suggested books like The Lincoln Highway for you to read next. Katey and Tinker try once again to build a relationship, but Katey can't see him in quite the same way and a newly free Tinker yearns for a modest life. Katey runs into Wallace at one such party. When I first started it I did not like it as much. Tucked among the tenements you could see the shops of other Fathers & Sons selling the reformulated fare of their home countries – their sausages or cheeses, their smoked or salted fish wrapped in Italian or Ukranian newsprint to be trundled home by their own unvanquishable grandmothers. In short a great book for those who enjoy a literary, character driven novel. Like others, I hadn't guessed the relationship between Tinker and Ann until it was shown to us. What expectations might have been on you, if you were a young adult in the 1950s? At that point, it didn't seem to matter anymore and why dredge up so many feelings that might undo others? Tinker was a willing gigolo because it provided him with the life he wanted and had lost. Update: In October 2012, Lionsgate secured the rights to develop Rules of Civility into a feature film.

Provide detailed examples. The bands laid down their instruments and the crowds made quietly for the door. As such, this period at the onset of bebop was virtually undocumented and thus the records of 1945 reflect something of a culmination of early bebop rather than its starting point. What were the various characters' dreams, and how did sustaining or giving up on their dreams affect them?

Rules Of Civility Book Discussion

Certainly, the composition of America's social strata has changed in meaningful ways since the first half of the century. I wondered again when Katey was at Ann's 'office' if there was more than the 'godmother' link. Then in my late 30s and early 40s, I wrote a novel set in the farmlands of Stalinist Russia, which I stuck in a drawer. January 11 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm$20. Over lunch when I was in my 20s, it was great fun to talk with them about their lives between the wars, when they were young adults.

But there are tens of thousands of butterflies: men and women like Eve with two dramatically different colorings -- one which serves to attract and the other which serves to camouflage -- and which can be switched at the instant with a flit of the wings" (p. 117 pb). The pace is also slow, so it's recommended for book clubs that enjoy a literary read. What do you make of the relationship between Emmett and Sally? Katey had assumed Tinker was wealthy and raised differently from her, but that had not been the case.

Rules Of Civility Book Summary

Every word had a pulse--gorgeous writing. Why do you think the author chose to constrain the story to this limited amount of time? Besides the boy's mother, Sally serves as the central female character in the book. I revised the book thoroughly three times over the next three years (mostly making it shorter); but the original constraint of a twelve-month draft proved a much more effective artistic process for me than an open-ended one.

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. I just put in a library request for A Gentleman in Moscow -- I'm #329 on the waiting list! I am curious to see if you gave it the same rating I did. Stylist 'My book of the year. The burden of expectations can be heavy. What common bonds cement the friendship between Katey and Eve? She is immediately transported back three decades to the night she first met him in 1937 – on the eve of the most memorable year of her life. When Wallace shows Katey the photograph she learns about how Tinker's family went bankrupt and Tinker was forced to leave the elite school. " Amor Towles is well known for his distinct historical novels that offer tantalizing glimpses into the lives of larger-than-life characters from the past. Towles: I certainly hope so. When Katey found it under the settee in the ladies' room, Towles does not say whether she kept it or left it. The novel shows Manhattan as a place where immigrants can blend together while also holding onto their heritage.