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Loading... Rules of Civility: A Novel (edition 2012)by Amor Towles
Work detailsRules of Civility by Amor Towles
Cannot believe this is his first novel. I really enjoyed it. (  ) kriemer | May 8, 2013 |  I read this for Jane's book club. It was a very enjoyable selection and a fast read -- just read it straight through on a weekend. The background city is New York in the 1930's. But this would be the same NYC of Daddy Warbucks -- the rich (or wannabe rich) and powerful. It is the world of bankers and artists and those that want to be part of their social scene. There is lots of drinking and it would seem the whole plot takes place with gin or a martini. There does not seem to be a depression going on. You do not see the orphans or the poor of NYC in this book. It is about characters that see only themselves. And that is ok! The main character, Katie Kontent is somehow likable despite how she is living her life. She is understandable as she does not come from the same background as those she is aspiring to be like. I questioned why someone of Russian descent from Brighton Beach would want to change her life so dramatically. But why not? She is accidentally thrown into a place where she meets the careless rich and wants to become one with them. At least for a time, this is her goal. I wonder if Amor Towles would want to follow up with more on Katie's life. Of he does a bit but it seems so colorless compared to 1938. It was a short time in her life but it was very full. Towles is a good writer. I am looking forward to another book. (  ) honkcronk | May 7, 2013 | This may just be my favorite book so far this year! I will post a review on my blog after our July book club meeting. Months elapsed between reading Rules of Civility and gathering my thoughts for a review - a scenario that is far too common these days, I'm afraid. What is there to say now? -I loved this book. -I relished each and every sentence. -I will read anything Amor Towles ever writes. -In addition to the writing, I loved the atmosphere, setting, characters, and plot. A favorite book of 2012. ( ) lakesidemusing | Apr 28, 2013 | Clever, charming, rich in its view of old New York. Well plotted, what seem like sudden twists are set up often chapters before. If there was any flaw it was the characters, they are a bit staged for my liking, always shooting for the perfect aphorism, until they become just vehicles for that perspective. to its credit, their actions tend to be less neat, but there just didn't reach out to me. A fun read though, especially for structuralists. Also for fans of mysteries or book groups with split affinities, it seemed to unfold like a mystery in the play of set up and execution, what is known and what is hidden, and it played it off well in a literary fiction. (  ) EricFitz08 | Apr 27, 2013 | I was so captivated while reading this that I raced through it. It was the kind of book that I picked up every chance I got, even if I only had time to read a few pages. The main character is the daughter of Russian immigrants, raised in Brighton Beach, who moves to Manhattan to pursue a career and gets thrown in with the city's high society. It takes place in 1938, and the experience of reading it was so indulgent. It had a very similar feel, in a good way, to me as Marjorie Morningstar. although much different in terms of plot. My only small complaint is that big reveal didn't feel that big to me. I wonder if that occurred to the author as well, because toward the end he added a little twist that seemed like it was maybe supposed to make things seem more salacious, but by that point, in my internal dialogue with the book, I was more "hmmmm .... no, sorry, that ship has sailed." I think that stopped me from thinking this was a great novel, but I still enjoyed it extremely much. ( ) delphica | Apr 26, 2013 |
 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.
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