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RULES OF CIVILITY

by Amor Towles ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 25, 2011

An elegant, pithy performance by a first-time novelist who couldn’t seem more familiar with his characters or territory.

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.

Towles' buzzed-about first novel is an affectionate return to the post–Jazz Age years, and the literary style that grew out of it (though seasoned with expletives). Brooklyn girl Katey Kontent and her boardinghouse mate, Midwestern beauty Eve Ross, are expert flirts who become an instant, inseparable threesome with mysterious young banker Tinker Grey. With him, they hit all the hot nightspots and consume much alcohol. After a milk truck mauls his roadster with the women in it, permanently scarring Eve, the guilt-ridden Tinker devotes himself to her, though he and she both know he has stronger feelings for Katey. Strong-willed Katey works her way up the career ladder, from secretarial job on Wall Street to publisher’s assistant at Condé Nast, forging friendships with society types and not allowing social niceties to stand in her way. Eve and Tinker grow apart, and then Kate, belatedly seeing Tinker for what he is, sadly gives up on him. Named after George Washington's book of moral and social codes, this novel documents with breezy intelligence and impeccable reserve the machinations of wealth and power at an historical moment that in some ways seems not so different from the current one. Tinker, echoing Gatsby, is permanently adrift. The novel is a bit light on plot, relying perhaps too much on description. But the characters are beautifully drawn, the dialogue is sharp and Towles avoids the period nostalgia and sentimentality to which a lesser writer might succumb.

Pub Date: July 25, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-670-02269-4

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2011

HISTORICAL FICTION

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by Amor Towles

edited by Amor Towles ; series editor: Otto Penzler

THE NIGHTINGALE

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 3, 2015

Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.

Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.

In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring  passeurs : people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the  Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.

Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3

Page Count: 448

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014

HISTORICAL FICTION | FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP

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by Kristin Hannah

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BOOK TO SCREEN

SEEN & HEARD

by Roy Jacobsen ; translated by Don Bartlett & Don Shaw ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 7, 2020

A deeply satisfying novel, both sensuously vivid and remarkably poignant.

Norwegian novelist Jacobsen folds a quietly powerful coming-of-age story into a rendition of daily life on one of Norway’s rural islands a hundred years ago in a novel that was shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize.

Ingrid Barrøy, her father, Hans, mother, Maria, grandfather Martin, and slightly addled aunt Barbro are the owners and sole inhabitants of Barrøy Island, one of numerous small family-owned islands in an area of Norway barely touched by the outside world. The novel follows Ingrid from age 3 through a carefree early childhood of endless small chores, simple pleasures, and unquestioned familial love into her more ambivalent adolescence attending school off the island and becoming aware of the outside world, then finally into young womanhood when she must make difficult choices. Readers will share Ingrid’s adoration of her father, whose sense of responsibility conflicts with his romantic nature. He adores Maria, despite what he calls her “la-di-da” ways, and is devoted to Ingrid. Twice he finds work on the mainland for his sister, Barbro, but, afraid she’ll be unhappy, he brings her home both times. Rooted to the land where he farms and tied to the sea where he fishes, Hans struggles to maintain his family’s hardscrabble existence on an island where every repair is a struggle against the elements. But his efforts are Sisyphean. Life as a Barrøy on Barrøy remains precarious. Changes do occur in men’s and women’s roles, reflected in part by who gets a literal chair to sit on at meals, while world crises—a war, Sweden’s financial troubles—have unexpected impact. Yet the drama here occurs in small increments, season by season, following nature’s rhythm through deaths and births, moments of joy and deep sorrow. The translator’s decision to use roughly translated phrases in conversation—i.e., “Tha’s goen’ nohvar” for "You’re going nowhere")—slows the reading down at first but ends up drawing readers more deeply into the world of Barrøy and its prickly, intensely alive inhabitants.

Pub Date: April 7, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-77196-319-0

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Biblioasis

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020

LITERARY FICTION | HISTORICAL FICTION | FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP

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by Roy Jacobsen ; translated by Don Bartlett & Don Shaw

by Roy Jacobsen translated by Don Bartlett & Don Shaw

by Roy Jacobsen & translated by Don Bartlett & Don Shaw

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Booklover Book Reviews

Rules of Civility, Book Review: Amor Towles’ captivating debut

Rules of Civility , Amor Towles’ wonderful debut was an international bestseller. Read my book review to find out why and learn about the latest on the anticipated movie release.

Rules of Civility  Book 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.  

Genre: Literature, Historical, Romance, Drama, Mystery

Disclosure: If you click a link in this post we may earn a small commission to help offset our running costs.

BOOK REVIEW

I have been hesitant to write this review. Why? Because I just know that I will fail to convey how wonderful this novel is.

I was utterly captivated by Rules of Civility from the very first lines. Although not necessarily billed as a mystery, the 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.

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.

Amor Towles’ Rules of Civility is the best book I have read this year.

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.

Movie rights

This novel reads like a sublime cinematic experience. There is no doubting the movie rights will be highly fought over. Update: In October 2012, Lionsgate secured the rights to develop Rules of Civility into a feature film.

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

Get your copy of Rules of Civility from:

UPDATE: Amor Towles’ long-awaited second novel A Gentleman in Moscow  was released in September 2016. And we have now had the opportunity to review his third novel The Lincoln Highway (2021).

More captivating historical fiction: Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann  /   Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier  /  Of Love and Shadows by Isabel Allende  /   A Room with a View by EM Forster  /   Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

More Rules of Civility reviews

“In the crisp, noirish prose of the era, Towles portrays complex relationships in a city that is at once melting pot and elitist enclave – and a thoroughly modern heroine who fearlessly claims her place in it.”  — O, the Oprah Magazine

“ wonderful debut novel…Towles with some of the great themes of love and class, luck and fated encounters that animated Wharton’s novels.” — The Chicago Tribune

“Amor Towles’s tale of cocktails, silk stockings and retro-chic is redolent of all the best New York films and novels.” – The Guardian

Favourite Book Quotes – Rules of Civility

“If we only fell in love with people who were perfect for us…then there wouldn’t be so much fuss about love in the first place.” 

“I’m willing to be under anything…as long as it isn’t somebody’s thumb.” 

“Because when some incident sheds a favorable light on an old and absent friend, that’s about as good a gift as chance intends to offer.” 

About the Author, Amor Towles

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. Check out Towles’ official website which includes a great timeline showing key actual New York events during period the book is set.

• ‘Spectacular Now’ Writers Set to Adapt ‘Rules of Civility’ ( Hollywood Reporter )

* 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.

A booklover with diverse reading interests, who has been reviewing books and sharing her views and opinions on this website and others since 2009.

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Rules of Civility

Written by Amor Towles Review by Pamela Ferrell Ortega

As a debut novel, Rules of Civility is a tour de force. Breathtaking in its capture of 1938 New York City, both its wealthy gentry and nouveau riche, and its evocation of two unusually intelligent secretaries who find themselves swept up into the rarefied world of Wall Street bankers, elite publishing houses, jazz clubs and Long Island house parties, it takes the reader into a world that most of us have only glimpsed in old black and white movies. This removal to a world long disappeared is seamless and elegantly told. The writing has already been compared to that of Fitzgerald, Capote and Edith Wharton. Given the wealth of period details and the depth of characterization of New York society at its best and worst, I’d have to make the comparison with Wharton, had she lived a generation later.

One of the remarkable aspects of this hugely successful novel is the fact that it’s told in the voice of one of the two main characters, a young woman, Katey Kontent, the daughter of Russian immigrants. What makes that so remarkable? The author, Amor Towles, is a man. He has created and told his story through the voice of one of the most intriguingly thoughtful and believable heroines in recent years. The understated portrayal of these years of Katey’s life and loves and of the impact of choices she and others make is mesmerizing, resonating long after I’d finished reading. Towles will be hard-pressed to equal his debut achievement, but let’s hope he tries.

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Amor towles’ rules of civility is a novel of many charms.

I am not the first reviewer to compare Rules of Civility to The Great Gatsby. Both are period dramas set in the glamorous worlds of high society of New York with a doomed romance at their center.

It’s probably literary blasphemy to say so, but I found Rules of Civility infinitely preferable. I never did have any patience for the story of the purposeless life of the bored rich and their poor life choices. Maybe I didn’t care for the romance, or perhaps I need to go back and read it appreciate the finer points of social commentary. Rules of Civility, on the other hand, was such a joy to read.

It’s New Year Eve’s 1938, and two young women drink up their last drink in a seedy jazz bar waiting for something to happen before midnight. Just on cue appears prince charming in the shape and form of Tinker Grey, a good-looking, rich young man, clearly a New York blueblood. This chance encounter changes the lives of these three people forever.

Photo Credit @chrisbair on Unsplash.com

Our heroine, Katey Constant, is obviously very much into Tinker Grey, but before anything materializes between, a sequence of unexpected events lands Eve and Tinker together. Eve was the other young woman in the bar that night.

But this is not just a love story. It’s really the story of Katy Constant and her fateful year in New York City that started at midnight in that seedy jazz bar. To put distance between herself and the new couple, Katy focuses on her career. She works as a secretary in a law firm, and while she is excellent at what she does, her real ambition is to work in publishing. Her attempt to work with a successful literary critic follows through, and she is then introduced to the world of elite editorial assistants. Basically, rich college-educated girls passing the time before they marry and take up a house in the Hamptons.

While her acquaintance with Tinker lets Katy through the door of the rich and famous, it’s really the new job that brings her into the inner circle of the WASPs. During the day, she is a diligent secretary working for a cranky and eccentric boss in the posh offices of Conde Nast. In the evening, she roams the fancy clubs and house parties with her aimless  but rich friends.

And in between, she tries to get over Tinker. The closest she comes to finding a real friendship is with another rich ye gentle soul, Wallace Wilcott. He is a great companion, friend and an excellent shooter. He further broadens her horizons in the upper circles of New York society. When Wallace ships to Spain to fight Franco, Tinker finds his way back into her life.

If we only fell in love with people who were perfect for us…then there wouldn’t be so much fuss about love in the first place.

Katey and Tinker’s relationship never reaches its logical conclusion. Tinker is not able to live up to George Washington’s Rules of Civility, his guidebook on behaving in civil society. He couldn’t meet the expectations that the city foisted upon him and breaking away is his only choice. Katey, on the other hand, survives the glitz and glamour of New York.

That’s the problem with living in New York. You’ve got no New York to run away to.   

Rules of Civility is not an entirely unique novel. It’s a coming of age story of sorts, about a young girl who finds her way through New York society. The beauty of the book is in it’s telling. Towles recreates New York of the past with great conviction, and it’s a joy to follow Katey around Manhattan. Towles also acknowledges the migrant melting pot that New York already was as we hop about Russian, Jewish and Chinese neighbourhoods.

The writing is elegant and engaging with an almost effervescent quality. It’s a straightforward novel to read, yet it’s deeply textured. Eve, Tinker, Nathan, A bittersweet thread runs through the pages as we live through the friendships, loves and heartbreaks of this young girl. The threat of war is looming on the country but it is not any more than background noise.

I know that right choices by definition are the means by which life crystallizes loss.

Reading Rules of Civility is like flipping through a black and white photo album, remembering the places and places of the past, with a fond nostalgic eye.

For more book recommendations, read here.

Vipula is a culture and travel blogger from Los Angeles, California. She completed her MBA and currently works full time in a Fortune 10 company. She is a avid reader and loves traveling around the Globe. You will find her tips and reviews on best travel destinations, books and movie/tv shows on Shades of Words.

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It’s Katey Kontent…not Konstant!

Oh my god – thank you! There is the whole discussion about her name too in the book – i think this may be the case of auto-correct!

What makes the book so enjoyable is the author is a master of the English language. He considers every punctuation mark, every thought ,every word, before putting it to paper. He makes his thoughts our thoughts. Every word draws you into the story. There is very little filler to fill up a novel sized tome.

I agree completely. I found his writing very fluid and engaging. Am planning on reading A Gentleman in Moscow next

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Book Review :: Rules of Civility

This is precisely how I felt while reading Towels’ 2011 debut novel. In fact, after my first sitting, I took to Twitter to try and describe how I already felt:

This will likely be the best book I read in 2017.  I adored A Gentleman in Moscow, and people warned me that  Rules of Civility is very different. And while they are right, what makes a book great for me – richly developed characters, their flawed relationships and a perfectly drawn time and place – is served up with precision and expertise. Again.

Rules of Civility begins with Kate and her husband at an art gallery. It’s the premier of a photography exhibit – portraits taken twenty-five years earlier, captured stealthily on a New York subway. Kate recognizes one of the subjects and further realizes he appears in two photos. But so dissimilar is his appearance in the second, only a close observer would see the redundancy. In the first, he’s gaunt and disheveled, in need of a shave. It’s an accurate portrait of the realities of the City. In the second, he is impeccably dressed, the epitome of promise and an equal truth of what the City can offer. 

The dichotomy of the portraits, and the understanding that they don’t depict a tale of rags to riches but one of opulence to obscurity, ushers in Kate’s story of 1938, when on the eve of the year, she and her boarding house roommate meet a dashing stranger named Tinker Grey. With this chance encounter comes a year of opportunity among the City’s elite and those striving to be so. And the lesson that the difference between the two is often tough to distinguish.

I forced myself to take more than a week to finish it. The story begs to be discussed. To delve into the complexities of the characters and swap favorite quotes that cut poignantly at the human condition or just perfectly capture a common regard.

Balmy breeze, turquoise seas, Caribbean rum, these are well-established aphrodisiacs. But so too are proximity and necessity and the threat of despair.  Not only did they have manners, they thought them worth preserving . [I]n moments of high emotion…if the next thing you’re going to say makes you feel better, then it’s probably the wrong thing to say. Most people have more needs than wants. That’s why they live the lives they do. But the world is run by those whose wants outstrip their needs. 

And while I could go on and on, I would rather you spend the time finding a copy for yourself.

Update: I got to hear Amor Towles speak live and talk about A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility . You may be interested in that post here .

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Book Summary and Reviews of Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

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Rules of Civility

by Amor Towles

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Book summary.

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. Elegant and captivating, Rules of Civility turns a Jamesian eye on how spur of the moment decisions define life for decades to come. 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.

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"Starred Review. [A] smashing debut... remarkable for its strong narrative, original characters and a voice influenced by Fitzgerald and Capote, but clearly true to itself." - Publishers Weekly "An elegant, pithy performance by a first-time novelist who couldn't seem more familiar with his characters or territory." - Kirkus Reviews "A romantic look at the difficulties of being a New Yorker. But not, as the publisher suggests, reminiscent of Fitzgerald... This novel would, however, make a nice (contemporary) companion to novels like The Great Gatsby and is thusly recommended." - Library Journal "[T]he best feature of Rules of Civility is its fast pacing and irresistible momentum. The language is snappy, too, full of period idiom and witty one-liners." - The Telegraph (UK) "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." - The Observer (UK)

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Amor Towles Author Biography

Amor Towles is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Lincoln Highway, A Gentleman in Moscow , and Rules of Civility . His novels have collectively sold millions of copies and have been translated into more than thirty-five languages. Towles lives in Manhattan with his wife and two children.

Link to Amor Towles's Website

Name Pronunciation Amor Towles: A-more tolls (first syllable of first name rhymes with hay)

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Thoughts on books, reading, and life, review: rules of civility.

Rules of Civility , Amor Towles. New York: Penguin Books, 2012.

Summary: The year that changed the life of a young woman in New York, remembered when photographs trigger a flashback twenty-eight years later.

Katey and her husband Val are part of the social elite at an exhibition opening at the Museum of Modern Art in 1966. For the first time, photographs taken by Walker Evans on New York’s subways in the late 1930’s are on exhibit. Among those photos are two of him. One elegantly dressed, a portrait of subdued power. The other, more gaunt in the tattered clothes of a laborer, but with a smile. Tinker Grey. And it brings back the year in between and how Katey’s life changed, beginning her rise from a working class immigrant background.

At the end of 1937, Katey and her roommate Eve decide to do the town for New Years. Eve is from the midwest with high hopes. Katya, now Katey Kontent (accent on the second syllable) is working in a secretarial pool for a New York law firm, living by her wits and struggling to make ends meet, but also enjoying the city. They are in a jazz club and in walks Tinker Grey in a cashmere coat. They end up ringing in the New Year, and Tinker leaves his monogrammed lighter behind, giving them a chance to see him again. A subsequent night on the town ends in an accident leaving Eve with leg injuries and a scar. Tinker offers his home to recover. They fall in love, and Katey is nudged out.

It’s a story that traces Katey’s year of 1938 in her voice, one that is whip-smart and shrewd. Both her external and internal dialogue make this book, a feat for a male writer. We see her rise from the secretarial pool to editorial assistant for a new magazine launched by the publisher of Conde’ Nast. She recounts the nights at the clubs, the jazz of the Thirties, and her relationships with Wallace Wolcott and Dicky Vanderwhile, the latter on the rebound from one with Tinker Grey after Eve refused to marry him and went to Hollywood. One of the most interesting characters is Anne Grandyn, whose wealth helped make Tinker. She made him in other ways, and unbeknownst to Katey, helps make her as well. Instead of being a rival for Tinker, in an odd way, she is an ally.

Meanwhile Tinker’s life unravels. From Central Park, he moves to a flop house, in some ways following his late artist brother–and hence that second picture in the gallery. And yet the move in his life is from a learned upper crust civility, schooled by George Washington’s The Rules of Civility to rediscovery of the New York he loved best.

Not only does Towles do a masterful job at writing in a woman’s voice, he captures the resurgence of New York on the eve of World War Two as the country climbed out of the Depression. He explores questions of class and upward mobility. Both Tinker and Katey rise from modest beginnings on their wits, yet come to different ends. We wonder if the 1966 Katey, confronted with the images of Tinker, wonders about the life she’s embraced. Or perhaps she was reminded of the year in which her life turned, the gains and the losses, and the course that was set.

I went back to read this after reading Towles’s masterful A Gentleman in Moscow earlier this year. It is hard to believe this is a first novel. So often, we just live our lives. In both of Towles’s works, we see characters who not only live their lives, but, through circumstances, are brought to reflect upon their course and what they’ve meant, inviting the reader to do the same.

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Polly Castor

Fostering a new renaissance through creativity, authenticity, spirituality, and art, rules of civility (book review).

Since I loved the book A Gentleman in Moscow , I’ve had this other novel of his on my to-be-read list. I’m glad to now have read Rules of Civility , which is a sophisticated, retro-era novel of manners, in homage to New York City. As someone who lived in New York City for seven years in my twenties, this may have heightened my enjoyment of this novel.

This is a flashback story of a woman thirty years later, looking back at the New York City of her own twenties. That was 1938 for her, which was a time of art deco, jazz clubs, gin and martinis, Adirondack “camps” and Long Island mansions, all enveloped in Billie Holiday’s sinuous voice. This book is earnest but ephemerally dazzling, like jazz is itself, both warm and rich like a contralto, while remaining cool and languid as a saxophone.

I’d compare it more to City of Girls , or The Great Gatsby , but liked it far more than either of them. The atmospheric writing here is better, and the main character, Katya, daughter of a Russian immigrant that reinvented herself as Katey Kontent, is far more likable and genuine. She is level-headed, quick-witted, enterprising, and kind. We admire her pluck and tranquility, a combination, rarely fused, but so effective when they are.

Here are some of the things Katey says to give you an idea of her:

• “As a quick aside, let me observe that in moments of high emotion….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.”
• “I have no doubt that they were the right choices for me. And at the same time, I know that right choices by definition are the means by which life crystallizes loss.”

One of the other things to like about Katey is that she is a working girl; she is more of a blue stocking than a blue blood. Yes, she is out for self actualization, but would just as soon stay in and read, than go to a glamorous party. She is not a social climber so much as she’s looking for her own level. She finds companionship with great authors of every stripe. Her conversation is often filled with bookish references– everything from Chekov, to Charles Dickens, to Agatha Christie.

For example , “So long as a man is faithful to himself, everything is in his favor, government, society, the very sun, moon, and stars” is quoted from Henry David Thoreau in Walden , which is Katey’s favorite book. As another example, the title of the novel echoes one of the same name by George Washington (see photo below), which is recommended to Katey by someone who utilized it. I enjoyed all the quotes and themed allusions to other books throughout this novel. Also, Katey’s bookishness is a vehicle that contributes to her character’s steady, wise personality.

Here are a few other pertinent quotes from this novel:

• “One must be prepared to fight for one’s simple pleasures and to defend them against elegance and erudition and all manner of glamorous enticements.”
• “Anyone can buy a car or a night on the town. Most of us shell out our days like peanuts. One in a thousand can look at the world with amazement. I don’t mean gawking at the Chrysler Building. I’m talking about the wing of a dragonfly. The tale of the shoeshine. Walking through an unsullied hour with an unsullied heart.”
• “We give people the liberty of fashioning themselves in the moment – a span of time that is so much more manageable, stageable, controllable than is a lifetime.”

This author is spectacular at description, and in communicating both aura and ambiance through dreamy, lyrical prose. The writing is dense yet easily fluid, and the dialogue masterfully shows contrasting social strata beyond stereotypes. Not often do I feel a male writer is successful in constructing a believable female character, but this author manages it with impressive agility, finesse, and assurance.  I look forward to what he writes next, especially since both of his books are so different, while uniquely captivating.

This book is about the struggle of  individuals to find their place in society, to find trade-offs that they can live with, all while grasping the right things and the right people. It seems like it is about how much people expose or hide their true, authentic selves, gauging and manipulating the extent of deception or reality, but in the end, it is simply about choices. Somewhere between Anne Grandyn on the one hand, and Wallace Wolcott on the other, there is a midway point that needs to be discovered. We cheer for Katey as she quite circuitously does just that.

I can relate to Katey looking back on her twenties with both regret and compassion. You do the best that you can to make the most of the time and place, while still remaining true to yourself. It was an imperfect path, but it got you to where you are.

I recommend Rules of Civility , and give it a quiet five stars.

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O.k. Better than the Great Gatsby? Which I consider one of the best things written in the last century? Could it be current events make one starve for civility? I loved “PRESENT LAUGHTER” with Andrew Scott , much because of the civility of the 30’s.❤️ Plus great acting and the book reimagined for our current culture.

[…] 1.  Rules of Civility […]

[…] loved this author’s previous two books (see my review of The Gentleman in Moscow here) and (see my review of the Rules of Civility here) both of which I gave five stars. This one is remarkable too, but I related to the other two […]

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Rules of Civility

52 pages • 1 hour read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-4

Part 2, Chapters 5-7

Part 2, Chapters 8-11

Part 3, Chapters 12-14

Part 3, Chapters 15-17

Part 3, Chapters 18-19

Part 4, Chapters 20-23

Part 4, Chapter 24-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Summary and Study Guide

Published in 2011, Rules of Civility is American author Amor Towles’ acclaimed debut novel. Set at the end of the 1930s during The Great Depression, the narrative follows spunky roommates Katey Kontent and Evelyn Ross as they make their way up the social ladder in New York society. Though much of the narrative takes place at the end of the 1930s, the preface and epilogue are set in 1966 and provide a bookended point of historical reference via a Walker Evans photography exhibit. Themes of identity, class struggle, love, betrayal, choice , friendship, and wants versus needs are explored in the noirish prose of Towles’ story. This New York Times Bestseller has been praised by many publications, including O, The Oprah Magazine and The Wall Street Journal , with both publications awarding the novel Best Fiction 2011.

When Katey and Eve—best friends and roommates—visit a jazz bar on New Year’s Eve in 1937, they have no idea how this seemingly mundane act will forever change the course of their lives. The girls are trying to beat their own path in New York, and on this night, have a measly budget between them for drinks, food, and entertainment. Before long, they’ve spent their money on drinks. That’s when Tinker Grey , a wealthy, handsome, and shy bachelor enters the bar. Eve calls dibs, though it’s clear that Tinker and Katey also have a connection. The girls note his demeanor and clothing, instantly sizing him up as a potential windfall for them. Tinker is mysterious from the outset, with his gold lighter that displays his initials and crude date markings, and his mention of his brother Hank Grey , whom he believes Katey would get along with. The three soon form a fast friendship which, as the old owner of one of their favorite spots says later, can’t possibly last long.

When a horrible accident leaves Eve disfigured, the lives of Eve, Katey, and Tinker change forever. Because Tinker was driving, his guilt is so deep that he remains by Eve’s side, effectively ending any chance at a romantic relationship with Katey. Eve must hang on now to ensure a place for herself in society. When Tinker calls Katey one night to watch Eve while he “goes to work,” the three are thrust back into a game of chance and choice. As Eve and Tinker grow closer, Katey pushes away any and all feelings for him. She also begins her own upward climb through the social ranks, thanks to changes in employment and her group of friends. Katey is introduced to both old and new money, and she makes friends and alliances with both types as she ascends.

One early morning, Katey is visited by the police and must bail a drunken Eve out of jail. Tinker proposed to Eve, but she turned him down. The two never loved each other, and Tinker only proposed because Eve was pregnant (she had an abortion while in Paris). Eve later takes a train to Los Angeles and never returns to New York. With Eve gone, Katey and Tinker rekindle their friendship—and love relationship—but with dire consequences. Katey takes a leap in falling for Tinker, but is rewarded with deceit and embarrassment when she finds out just how far Tinker has gone in the same game of upward mobility. With no one around she can trust, Katey briefly unravels until she finds friendship and advice in the strangest places (her younger, immature lover, and Tinker’s older brother Hank). When she realizes that she’s judged Tinker impartially, she tries to right the wrong. Can she and Tinker successfully navigate the rules of civility they choose to be bound to, or will they decide in the end to dance to another’s—or their own—drum?

Related Titles

By Amor Towles

A Gentleman in Moscow

Table for Two

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Rules of Civility: About the Book

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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.

If you’re interested in seeing one of my original presentations on the book you can find the speech here and the Q&A here .

“This very good first novel about striving and surviving in Depression-era Manhattan deserves attention…The great strength of  Rules of Civility  is in the sharp, sure-handed…evocation of Manhattan in the late ‘30s…  Advance reviews of Mr. Towles’s novel have rarely failed to bring up F. Scott’s name. Who needs such burdensome comparisons? On the evidence of “Rules of Civility,” being Amor Towles should be plenty good enough.” – Wall Street Journal

“With this snappy period piece, Towles resurrects the cinematic black-and-white Manhattan of the golden age of screwball comedy, gal-pal camaraderie and romantic mischief…Towles characters are youthful Americans in tricky times, trying to create authentic lives.” – The New York Times Book Review

“A fizzy, finely observed tale of an ambitious young secretary from Brooklyn who falls in with a crowd of upper-class bright young things in late 1930s Manhattan.  It’s also…a loving evocation of the chance social alchemy of Village jazz joints, Wall Street coffee shops, Midtown Champagne palaces, and Lower East Side former speakeasies.”

–“Inside the List,”  The New York Times Book Review 

“Put on some Billie Holiday, pour a dry martini and immerse yourself in the eventful life of Katey Kontent…[Towles] clearly knows the privileged world he’s writing about, as well as the vivid, sometimes reckless characters who inhabit it.” – People

“Brilliantly realized…A sharply stylish debut…the period details…are precise and evocative…but they never detract from the characters.  Their issues are the eternal ones of identity and self-worth, set in stark relief in a troubled world.” – The Boston Globe

“[A] wonderful debut novel…Towles [plays] with some of the great themes of love and class, luck and fated encounters that animated Wharton novels such as  The House of   Mirth  and  The Age of Innocence .” – The Chicago Tribune

“Even the most jaded New Yorker can see the beauty in Amor Towles’  Rules of Civility , the antiqued portrait of an unlikely jet set making the most of Manhattan.” – The San Francisco Chronicle

“Glamorous Gotham in one to relish…a book that enchants on first reading and only improves on the second.  It’s a novel of manners, though it’s also a love letter to Manhattan on the eve of World War II, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the way certain people lived back then, or how we like to imagine they did through the smoke-and-gin filter of great books, movies, and indelible images.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer

“The new novel we couldn’t put down…in the crisp, noirish prose of the era, Towles portrays complex relationships in a city that is at once melting pot and elitist enclave – and a thoroughly modern heroine who fearlessly claims her place in it.” –O, the Oprah Magazine

“It’s how Towles shades in the story that’s most interesting, elegantly drawing a picture of a time and place seldom depicted in the current culture…what’s also impressive is the (male) author’s command of the strong, first-person female voice.” – USA Today

“The sleeper novel of the summer…With writing so sharp you could stab your finger on it,  Rules of Civility  draws the reader into an exploration of love and timing, friendship and betrayal, class and money, all played out among brilliant dialogue and quick plotting…the writing is so luxurious, veering from playful to piercing, that the reader slows to savor every sentence…Brilliantly, Towles captures a specific era in pre-war Manhattan, burnished with universals of youth and promise and the world awaiting.  Rules of Civility certainly flashes a Dorothy-Parker-ish zip, but what give it soul is a hovering Fitzgerald-like maturity, at once pensive and poignant. – The Cleveland Plain Dealer

“If you are a reader who picks up “Rules of Civility” by Amor Towles and the book doesn’t make it onto your Top Five list of novels read in the past three years, I’m going to be very worried about you.

This book is simply magnificent.  A magnificent debut, for the first time author Towles, but more than that:  just a truly creative, brilliant, different book – one that succeeds at feeling both like a throwback to a Jamesian era of well-developed sentences undergirding fully-formed thoughts, and completely fresh…[Towles] writes like a novelist on his 10 th  book, not his first.” – The Buffalo News

“Towles’ sleek debut novel, set in the glittering and gritty New York City of 1938, nods smartly to Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Dorothy Parker, Henry James, Edith Wharton…Central to this elegant book’s plot is that American-as-apple-pie pastime:  reinventing the self (and doing one’s best to hide the old one).  Pretty much none of the people in  Rules of Civility  are what they seem, and just how they misread each other – and we misread them – makes for a fascinating dance…Towles has a lovely way with language and a deft wit, and his characters are that rare thing, both convincing and surprising.” – St. Petersburg Times

“This book feels special. Divided into quarters, it beautifully evokes each season in Manhattan and that city’s fortunes in the crack of light between economic recovery and a nation being dragged into a world war; a metropolis that can lift you up when life is going your way but lose the compass when you’re at an ebb. Towles was born to write.”  –The Age (Melbourne, Australia)

“Glittering…filled with snappy dialogue, sharp observations and an array of terrifically drawn characters…Amor Towles’ stylish, elegant and deliberately anachronistic debut novel transports readers back to Manhattan in 1938…like the literary touchstones he evokes–F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edith Wharton and Louis Auchincloss…Towles writes with grace and verve about the mores and manners of a society on the cusp of radical change.”  –NPR.org

Rules of Civility … is a book of amazing depth. In this, his first novel, Amor Towles reveals an exceptional flair for character development. Whether unveiling fresh insights into protagonists like Katey or Tinker or evoking the inner lives of secondary characters like Nathaniel Parish, the gentlemanly, old school editor who gives Katey her start in the publishing world, Towles’ command of human dynamics never falters.  – California Literary Review

“ Rules of Civility  is a love letter to [the] seemingly random choices that 20-somethings make, but it’s also a paean to the post-jazz age and the city itself…[the novel] is infused with [contemporary parallels], deliciously evoking both a New York that will never again be in tandem with a New York that is unchanging, whether the power players live in an Upper East Side brownstone or a Bedford Avenue railroad apartment…a judgment-free, glorious romp that casts an egalitarian light on elegant and cruel social climbers; poor but pretentious artists and shy, quirky millionaires whose lives organically intersect in the only city where such a thing has always been possible.” –thedailybeast.com

“Brilliant…Towles does a stunning job here, unleashing powerful ideas about women, class, and the American dreams of the Greatest Generation.  Devoted to creating a true and full picture of 1930s New York, he plants endless rich details – obscure, historical, humorous – into Katey’s story, giving depth to even the most minor of characters and locations.” –thedaily.com

“It’s the Depression, and a gal Friday with a mouth like Dorothy Parker’s is dallying with the smart set…turns out she’s not the only climber.  A joyride through the ups and downs of 1930s high society.” – Good Housekeeping

“Part love story, part social observation, 100 percent absorbing.”  – Redbook

“A smashing debut…remarkable for its strong narrative, original characters and a voice influenced by Fitzgerald and Capote, but clearly true to itself.” – Publishers Weekly

“The characters are beautifully drawn, the dialogue is sharp and Towles avoids the period nostalgia and sentimentality to which a lesser writer might succumb.  An elegant, pithy performance by a first-time novelist who couldn’t seem more familiar with his characters or territory.” – Kirkus Reviews

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Rules of Civility: A Novel Paperback – June 26, 2012

From the #1 New York Times -bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and A Gentleman in Moscow , a “sharply stylish” ( Boston Globe ) book about a young woman in post-Depression era New York who suddenly finds herself thrust into high society—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 society—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 York’s social strata, its intricate imagery and themes, and its immensely appealing characters, Rules of Civility won the hearts of readers and critics alike.

• Print length 368 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Penguin Books
• Publication date June 26, 2012
• Reading age 18 years and up
• Dimensions 1.1 x 5.5 x 8.4 inches
• ISBN-10 0143121162
• ISBN-13 978-0143121169
• See all details

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About the author, excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved., product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books; Reprint edition (June 26, 2012)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0143121162
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0143121169
• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.8 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 1.1 x 5.5 x 8.4 inches
• #130 in Coming of Age Fiction (Books)
• #269 in American Literature (Books)
• #402 in Literary Fiction (Books)

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Customers say

Customers find the story wonderful, alluring, and entertaining. They also find the book insightful, full of life's lessons, and thought-provoking. Readers praise the writing quality as well-written, exquisite, and readable. They appreciate the detailed descriptions of an exciting period in history. They find the novel engaging and entertaining, and say the characters are interesting.

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Customers find the story wonderful, delicious, and alluring. They describe the book as entertaining, absorbing, and good fiction. Readers also mention the author tells a great story effortlessly.

"...This was an excellent book as well . Towles' turn of phrase is to die for...." Read more

"...He tells a great story effortlessly .However, the binding did not hold three sections of the paperback. With careful use, it came apart...." Read more

"...So in spite of its shortcomings, this book is worth the time it takes to read it and I do recommend it although with the caveat that you will..." Read more

" Great read ! The characters really made an impression and have stayed with me, like I’m curious what they are doing now...." Read more

Customers find the writing quality of the book well-written, exquisite, and readable. They appreciate the clever phrasing and overall depth. Readers also mention the dialogue is entertaining and authentic for the period. They also appreciate the agility and sensuous prose.

"...Amor Towles’ descriptions capture a character or situation, with humor and depth . I plan to read Lincoln Highway after I finish Rules of Civility...." Read more

"...He also writes some unexpectedly beautiful prose in many of his desciptions and has a great gift at penning some very amusing exchanges between the..." Read more

"...What a beautifully succinct way to set the time and arrogantly optimistic American mindset for the book!..." Read more

"... Intelligent writing and a compelling plot. Highly recommended." Read more

Customers find the characters interesting, finely drawn, and strong. They also appreciate the voice of the main character and the richly described supporting cast.

"... He is amazing , and I will be reading anything he writes." Read more

"...Now for a few of the things I really liked: I loved the voice of the main character ...." Read more

"Great read! The characters really made an impression and have stayed with me, like I’m curious what they are doing now...." Read more

"...Katey is such a great character ; so full of independence and courage. You feel that she can do and conquer anything...." Read more

Customers find the book engaging, entertaining, and charming. They say it's beautifully written and satisfying. Readers also appreciate the wonderful prose with lots of dry wit, attention to details, and cleverness. They mention the book is not fluff, it'll be lengthy and dense with characters.

"...The men in Katey's life are very interesting . Tinker was not my favorite. I enjoyed Wallace and his journey to find himself outside of his family...." Read more

"...The novel offers much to think about while maintaining its entertainment value ...." Read more

"...The book was not the great read that I thought it would be. I think it was convoluted for what actually happened...." Read more

"This book is readable and entertaining , but is essentially a "Great Gatsby" knock-off, including the exploitation of ordinary Americans'..." Read more

Customers find the book thought-provoking. They appreciate the evocative, captivating, and appealing characters. Readers also appreciate the descriptive prose and imagery. They say the characters are the perfect vehicles for memorable themes. They also mention the lyrical backdrop and references stir their hearts.

"...but there were a few pages that I really loved and spoke truths about the human experience ...." Read more

"...I felt like I had been there. And my favorite part was the descriptive prose and imagery . On one of the first pages, this caught my eye:"..." Read more

"...About midway through, however, the plot started to disinterest me as threads of the novel started coming loose from the story's tapestry...." Read more

"...Even better the second time around. Such clever phrasing and overall depth . Love his writing." Read more

Customers find the book exciting and beautifully written. They say the plot is superbly characterized and gives a glimpse of life back then. Readers also mention the sense of period is excellent and the daily reality and fated events are believable and intriguing. They also say the book meanders in a relaxed way and gives an unusual insight into the 1930s.

"I love his work. To escape into a fascinating world is so magical ." Read more

"...Intelligent writing and a compelling plot . Highly recommended." Read more

"...was great, someone you would like have known and the 30 year plot was superbly characterized and so beautifully written...." Read more

"...I especially loved The Lincoln Highway". Interesting history about the highway ." Read more

Customers find the book insightful, with a keen intellect. They say it helps them consider what's important and gives them an opportunity to explore life. Readers appreciate the attention to details and clever life observations. They also say the book is a learning experience and engages individuals with struggles, trials, and insights.

"...It was better the second time around... new insights and understandings . Intelligent writing and a compelling plot. Highly recommended." Read more

"...orphan of Russian immigrants, apparently statuesque, quite pretty and smart ...." Read more

"...Katey is such a great character; so full of independence and courage . You feel that she can do and conquer anything...." Read more

"...It's American and NYC because it's tough and ambitious and the crossing stars are entirely of the character's own making, no fateful long term..." Read more

Customers have mixed opinions about the twists and turns in the book. Some mention it's well-researched, with unexpected plot twists. However, others say they're dissatisfied with the ending, saying it feels like it missed a climax.

"...The very ending made sense , but Tinker's desires and goals could have been woven better into the rest of the novel so that the ending would seem to..." Read more

"...characters stopped developing, the action lagged and then the story ended abruptly followed by a few pages (on my kindle) of post-1938 summary,..." Read more

"...There’s not much in the way of an intricate plot. There are no mysteries , echoes of mafia pistols, dramatic sobs of dismay, or deep philosophical..." Read more

"... Kate was great , someone you would like have known and the 30 year plot was superbly characterized and so beautifully written...." Read more

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