HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Rules of Civility: A Novel by Amor Towles
Loading...

Rules of Civility: A Novel (edition 2011)

by Amor Towles

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
5,1233082,099 (4.02)1 / 305
Fiction. Literature. Historical Fiction. HTML:

From the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and A Gentleman in Moscow, a â??sharply stylishâ?ť (Boston Globe) book about a young woman in post-Depression era New York who suddenly finds herself thrust into high societyâ??now with over one million readers worldwide
On the last night of 1937, twenty-five-year-old Katey Kontent is in a second-rate Greenwich Village jazz bar when Tinker Grey, a handsome banker, happens to sit down at the neighboring table. This chance encounter and its startling consequences propel Katey on a year-long journey into the upper echelons of New York societyâ??where she will have little to rely upon other than a bracing wit and her own brand of cool nerve.
With its sparkling depiction of New Yorkâ??s social strata, its intricate imagery and themes, and its immensely appealing characters, Rules of Civility won the hearts of readers and crit
… (more)

Member:StaffPicks
Title:Rules of Civility: A Novel
Authors:Amor Towles
Info:Viking Adult (2011), Edition: 1, Hardcover, 352 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:****
Tags:Lynn's Picks, Historical Fiction, American Fiction, Friendship

Work Information

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

  1. 71
    The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Cecilturtle)
  2. 60
    Atonement by Ian McEwan (BookshelfMonstrosity)
    BookshelfMonstrosity: Atonement, like Rules of Civility, paints a picture of events that instantly turn characters' worlds upside down. Also set in the 1930s, it highlights the lingering opulence of the age and how that can disappear amid tragedy.
  3. 20
    Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser (sidiki)
  4. 11
    Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray (Limelite)
    Limelite: Another look at an ambitious woman making her own way in the world and with commentary on the society of her times.
  5. 11
    The Glass Room by Simon Mawer (trav)
    trav: Slightly different time period and tone, but the writing is very similar as are the dynamics. Both Rules of Civility and The Glass Room are very well written time-period books.
  6. 00
    Lucky Us by Amy Bloom (rocks009)
    rocks009: Diverse cast of characters revolving around two central female leads, in pre-war America.
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

» See also 305 mentions

English (302)  Spanish (2)  Portuguese (Portugal) (1)  Italian (1)  Catalan (1)  Dutch (1)  All languages (308)
Showing 1-5 of 302 (next | show all)
It’s not often that I buy a book on spec these days, even if I’ve loved the author’s past work, but something told me that I had to pick up Towles’ first novel and see if his early work measured what was to come with A Gentleman in Moscow. Set during the interwar period in New York, there was infinite opportunity for glamour, grittiness, and a milieu of rich characters (in both the financial and personal sense) and Towles plumbed the city’s veritable depths to bring us a tale that spoke with an old world glamour but retained sense of nouveau (rich, if you must) that felt decidedly modern. The tale ostensibly follows Katey (of many K-aliases) as she scarpers throughout the city in search of a success that she definitely wasn’t born into. Yet, her character is far from the Dickensian poor and workaday types that she reads about in the literary classics scattered throughout her background and referenced in the story. Her drive is somehow more subtle, and more arbitrary: she has skills, but she doesn’t work too hard at them, and even though the opportunity presents itself she steers clear of even the thought of sleeping her way to the top, relying instead on some accidental planning and minor conniving to get where she wants to be. As much as I expected her to take a knife to New York at some point in the tale (were we yearning for a touch of Blair Waldorf, grown up in different circumstances? Possibly), the every day tone set by Towles works admirably at walking the tale solidly on without making the melodrama (of which there is plenty) seem cheap or tawdry. I wonder a bit if Towles saw Gossip Girl when it aired (it was out before this novel), because the male protagonist of the story takes an interesting line from a brief moment in the life of Nate Archibald - that of the well to do New York prince brought low by the follies of his father - though admittedly the motifs are all too common in the real world as well. Tinker Grey provides a perfect foil to Katey, giving us moments to wonder whether the pair will get together in the end, and many moments of charm, amusement, and poignance as his true story is finally revealed. By the time we get to the final pages, Katey has sorted her life out and seems to have gotten it all, and yet we’re still left with a sense of longing. For what, exactly, it’s unclear, but maybe that’s just what New York (and the lives and tales that play out among its streets) are meant to be - never quite at the top of the Empire State, but forever walking down the same boulevards and rediscovering the nostalgias we thought we’d forgotten. ( )
  JaimieRiella | Mar 17, 2024 |
It's 1966. A wealthy couple is drinking their way through a reception at The Museum of Modern Art celebrating the Photography of Walker Evans. Evans' used a hidden camera to capture the faces of New York City subway riders in the 1930s. The couple had lived through those times. But these faces were the down and out, not their people. As she strolls through the exhibit, she's drawn to one face. Could it be, yes it is. She knew him. That's Tinker Grey. But when she knew him, he was not down and out. Quite the opposite, he was one of the very rich, and she was just a hardworking working-class girl focused on her job in the secretarial pool of a large Manhattan law firm with her typewriter, steno pad ready to take dictation, attend depositions, type contacts in triplicate, etc. She knew Tinker very well, and her husband even knew him, sort of.

That's the setup. The bulk of the book is set in Manhattan in the 1930s, and told from her point of view. Kate Kontent, interesting name, is hard working, very often drinking, occasionally smoking, partying, hanging out and often getting in to situations. Following her roommate, Eve, and other friends, she party crashes with the best of them. They focus on upper crust types, leverage their good looks and their ability to choose clothes to fit in, especially with eager young men. They encounter the wealthy Tinker Grey and Eve immediately calls dibs on him. After he takes them in his Mercedes to the 21 Club, they spirit him to Chernoff's, more to their liking, the Mercedes is rear ended and Eve is almost killed, changing everything. Grey's guilt is overwhelming, and once Eve is released from the hospital, he takes her to his apartment in the Beresford to nurse the scarred Eve, who appears more than willing to milk the situation for all it's worth.

Grey appears to be the epitome of the boy scout, gracious, respectful, empathetic and willing to go all out. He even has a dog eared copy of George Washington's 110 rules of civility. After six months he even proposes to Eve, with an enormous diamond, who, surprisingly, turns him down flat and runs off after getting so drunk Kate needs to rescue her from the police. Eve decides to leave town and winds up in Hollywood. It takes a while, but with the field finally cleared, Kate gives in to her attraction to Tinker even though he has, respectfully, maintained his distance. So with the die cast we finally learn there's more to Mr. Grey, interesting name. He has a dark side. We also learn there's a villain, with a suite at The Plaza, who's been hiding in plain sight. Both are revealed, but you'll have to read the book to find out how Mr. Grey and the villain are really related. Needless to say not all are who they seem to be. I highly recommend it. And don't worry about Kate, she comes through with barely a scratch, see 1966. Was it fate or did she choose? ( )
  Ed_Schneider | Mar 9, 2024 |
In the last hours of 1937, Katey Kontent and her roommate Evie Ross are at a down-at-heel jazz club when they meet Tinker Grey, a handsome and eligible bachelor who may not be all that he seems. The three strike up a friendship over a New Year's toast, and for the next few weeks, they go around together as often as possible. It seems like Tinker is developing an attachment to Katey when disaster strikes -- a disaster that will shape all of their lives over the coming year.

I listened to the audiobook of this, expertly narrated by Rebecca Lowman. I fell completely into Katey's New York and thoroughly enjoyed my stay. My only complaint is that I felt the ending fizzled out just a little. I wanted more closure. (I felt the same way about A Gentleman in Moscow, so maybe it's an element of Towles' style to which I am reacting.) All in all, recommended. ( )
  foggidawn | Mar 4, 2024 |
This tells the story of Katey and Eve during the year 1938. They are out celebrating New Year's Eve 1937 and meet handsome Tinker Grey. This book follows the three of them until Tinker and Eve both move out of NYC. Then the story follows Katey and takes us through a year in her life - the losses, the wins, the heartache and the happiness.

I loved The Lincoln Highway and A Gentleman in Moscow and this one was good, but not up to the par of those two. This is more character-driven rather than plot-driven and is very well-written. ( )
  Cathie_Dyer | Feb 29, 2024 |
Towles follows Fitzgerald into New York. There is no green light that burns all night at the end of the dock. But Towles knows his way even in the dark. ( )
  ben_r47 | Feb 22, 2024 |
Showing 1-5 of 302 (next | show all)
In Towles’s first novel, “Rules of Civility,” his clever heroine, who grew up in Brooklyn as “Katya,” restyles herself in 1930s Manhattan as the more clubbable “Katey,” aspiring to all-American inclusion. As World War II gears up, raising the economy from bust to boom, Katey’s wit and charm lift her from a secretarial pool at a law firm to a high-profile assistant’s perch at a flashy new Condé Nast magazine. One night at the novel’s outset touches off the chain reaction that will produce both Katey’s career and her husband, and define her entire adult life. She’s swept into the satin-and-cashmere embrace of the smart set — blithe young people with names like Dicky and Bitsy and Bucky and Wallace — with their Oyster Bay mansions, their Adirondack camps, their cocktails at the St. Regis and all the fog of Fishers Island.
 
If there's a problem, it's this: the parallels with Breakfast at Tiffany's are perhaps a little too overt (glamorous but down-at-heel girl falls in love with wealthy but mysterious benefactor). But that's not exactly a complaint. This is a flesh-and-blood tale you believe in, with fabulous period detail. It's all too rare to find a fun, glamorous, semi-literary tale to get lost in.
 
Manhattan in the late 1930s is the setting for this saga of a bright, attractive and ambitious young woman whose relationships with her insecure roommate and the privileged Adonis they meet in a jazz club are never the same after an auto accident.
added by theeclecticreview | editKirkus Review (Jun 1, 2011)
 

» Add other authors

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Amor Towlesprimary authorall editionscalculated
Lowman, RebeccaNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Payette, MaggieCover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
—Matthew 22:8-14
Dedication
For Maggie, my comet
First words
On the night of October 4th, 1966, Val and I, both in late middle age, attended the opening of Many Are Called at the Museum of Modern Art—the first exhibit of the portraits taken by Walker Evans in the late 1930s on the New York City subways with a hidden camera.
Quotations
As a quick aside, let me observe that in moments of high emotion -- whether they're triggered by anger or envy, humiliation or resentment -- if the next thing you're going to say makes you feel better, then it's probably the wrong thing to say. This is one of the finer maxims that I've discovered in life. And you can have it, since it's been of no use to me.
The 1930s . . .
what a grueling 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 twenties. It was as if America launched the Depression just to teach Manhattan a lesson.
It turned out to be a book of Washingtonia. The inscription on the front page indicated it was a present to Tinker fro his mother on the occasion of his fourteenth birthday. The volume had all the famous speeches and letters arranged in chronological order, but it led off with an aspirational list composed by the founder in his teenage years:
Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation. . . . There were 110 of them! And over half were underlined – one adolescent sharing another's enthusiasm for propriety across a chasm of 150 years. It was hard to decide which was sweeter – the fact that Tinker's mother had given it to him, or the fact that he kept it at hand.
Squirrels scattered before us among the tree trunks and yellow-tailed birds zipped from branch to branch. The air smelled of sumac and sassafras and other sweet-sounding words.
Right from the first, I could see a calmness in you – that sort of inner tranquility that they write about in books, but that almost no one seems to possess. I was wondering to myself: how does she do that? And I figured it could only come from having no regrets – from having made choices with . . . such poise and purpose. It stopped me in my tracks a little. And I just couldn't wait to see it again.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

Fiction. Literature. Historical Fiction. HTML:

From the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and A Gentleman in Moscow, a â??sharply stylishâ?ť (Boston Globe) book about a young woman in post-Depression era New York who suddenly finds herself thrust into high societyâ??now with over one million readers worldwide
On the last night of 1937, twenty-five-year-old Katey Kontent is in a second-rate Greenwich Village jazz bar when Tinker Grey, a handsome banker, happens to sit down at the neighboring table. This chance encounter and its startling consequences propel Katey on a year-long journey into the upper echelons of New York societyâ??where she will have little to rely upon other than a bracing wit and her own brand of cool nerve.
With its sparkling depiction of New Yorkâ??s social strata, its intricate imagery and themes, and its immensely appealing characters, Rules of Civility won the hearts of readers and crit

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (4.02)
0.5 1
1 12
1.5 1
2 47
2.5 18
3 210
3.5 85
4 614
4.5 99
5 395

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,223,150 books! | Top bar: Always visible