Customer Reviews

Rules of Civility

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What an excellent debut. I actually found it hard to believe that this was Tovey's first novel as he has done such a believable job in evoking 1930's New York, with its sense of frivolity and decadence, as well as creating an array of memorable characters that the reader comes to care about. I really can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

Set in Manhattan, the book is narrated by Katey Kontent, a well-read secretary who along with her beautiful friend Eve gets pulled into the glamorous Manhattan social scene after encountering dapper Tinker Grey in a jazz bar one New Years Eve. The book follows the turbulent lifestyles of the three characters over the next few years and mingles in New York's high society as the US teeters on the brink of depression.

Initially we meet Katey in the 1960's as she explores an art gallery with her husband, then the plot jumps back in time thirty years and we come to understand Katey's life then and now. Generally, Katey has a strong voice as a narrator, though I have to concede that perhaps the reader doesn't get to know her as well as they might hope as she does seem quite distant from what's going on a lot of the time. You actually learn a bit more about her friends and associates than you do about her. I personally think it was the secondary characters that remained stronger in this book- including roguish Tinker and the gentlemanly Wallace. Though I have to say, not a lot happens in the novel plot-wise, so be aware of that and don't expect a fantastically paced plot. It is definitely more of a character driven book, though for me that remained part of its charm, and it was most certainly easy-reading.

Overall this was an engaging story with a likeable cast and a few good twists to keep the reader interested. If you are looking for an atmospheric, decadent read that will transport you to another place, give this a go- and make sure you have a cocktail handy and some jazz music on standby to really help you soak up the atmosphere!

This isn't the kind of book I would ususally go for, but I must say I was pleasantly surprised. It was quirky and whilst written in quite a light-hearted style it caught my attention straight away. However, the plot seemed a bit lacking after a while, so I found that although when I picked it up I wanted to carry on, some nights I couldn't be bothered to pick it up before bed. It is by no means a "chick lit" book, but I would put it in the same easy-reading kind of mood.

I decided to read "The Rules of Civility" because the blurb on the Amazon page mentioned a jazz quartet in 1937 and stated that the protagonist, Katey Kontent, knew " how to type eighty words a minute, five thousand an hour, and nine million a year and that if you can still lose yourself in the first chapter of a Dickens novel then everything is probably going to be fine". With those two lines, I had already identified with Ms Kontent, despite the fact that I have never been to New York City. If you are a male reader, please do not click away now as this is most definitely NOT chick-lit. In fact, there is plenty of drinking (Martinis and Champagne, primarily), there are cars and even a few guns here and there. Oh, and jazz.

In brief, the plot revolves around Katey and her friend Eve; they meet Theodore `Tinker' Grey, a wealthy young man while celebrating New Year's Eve in a dingy jazz club and, without giving away the story, the encounter will change their lives for ever. A love triangle is among the central elements of this story, but the triangle changes shape at one point and anyway, this is a novel with a story, rather than a plot. It's about love, of course, but also about ambition, social mobility, and that aspirational quality that is quintessential to the mythology of New York City and that will inevitably bring up comparisons with F.S. Fitzgerald's 'Great Gatsby'. Indeed, it would be hard not to see the similarities between Tinker and Jay Gatsby - young men who pretty much incapsulate the American Dream of the early 20th century at the start of the novel and who, by the end, confirm that the dream is just that: an illusion.

A lot of `new' writers are too often hailed as The Next Big Thing to then only disappoint; but on the contrary, I haven't managed to find a shred of information about Amor Towles; who is he? I am amazed at how he managed to create such believable and above all, likeable, female characters. And the male `cast' are equally memorable, none of them too perfect, none of them falling into the trappings of prince charming characterisation that could have taken this book down the pastel cover route.

I would be really surprised if 'The Rules of Civility' didn't become a literary fiction best-seller, as it ticks all the relevant boxes; great characters, gripping storyline, jazz, Martinis and a social commentary; it's peppered with literary references and quotes and I'm sure I won't be the only one reaching for a copy of Thoreau's "Walden" as a result of reading this book. And when a book makes you want to read more books, to paraphrase Katey Kontent, `everything is probably going to be fine'.

I can appreciate that this book is quite nicely written but it has no proper plot or storyline and I didn't bond with any of the characters at all. Towards the end it started to get a bit more interesting but overall I thought it was a let down.

Looking back in one's life can be triggered by a chance glance at a photograph. Visual reminders of a person or place can - if the subject of the picture was of importance - take you back in an instant to both painful and joyous times. Amor Towles first novel, "Rules of Civility" is the story of one such journey back for Katharine Kontent, who, while viewing a photo exhibit by Walker Evans in 1966, spots two pictures of a young man she had known and loved in the late 1930's. One picture in the exhibit was of the young man in prosperous circumstances and the other was of him in much poorer ones. As Kontent tells her husband about her life in those years, memories triggered by the pictures, she talks about the young man - Tinker Grey - and her best friend, Eve Ross, and the other friends and acquaintances she had then.

"Rules" is written in the first person, for the most part, and that voice is of Katherine Kontent.

Katharine was a social chameleon. Born from poor Russian immigrant parents on the Lower East Side, the reader doesn't learn til the end of the book her exact background. But Katey is a smart gal, a "comer" in terms of social advancement, and she wants very much to fit in with the Social Register crowd. She has a respected job in a law firm as a secretary and she manages to promote herself and her best friend and roommate, Eve Ross. A "meet cute" moment by Katey and Eve with Tinker in a bar launches them both into a wealthy group of 20-somethings. She meets - and melds - with many of the crowd and she tells their stories, along with hers. Most people weren't what they first seemed to Katey, but that's true of most of society. We all put on a "face" and tell a "story" of who or what we'd like to be, even if we're not quite that person.

Amor Towles writes about the same crowd the late author Louis Auchencloss wrote about. Auchencloss was a lawyer at a "white shoe firm", who wrote many novels and short stories, and Towles is an investment banker. This is his first novel. Both are very precise writers and pay attention to their subjects and their times. The only thing I think might have been lacking in Towles' book - might have been - was an examination of how easily Katherine Kontent, she of definitely murky parentage, was accepted so completely by the wealthy crowd she became involved with. That was the one part of the book that struck me as a might false, but I think it could have been a book in itself, if really taken out and looked at. Maybe Towles's next book...

"Rules of Civility" has received a lot of press and praise. As a novel, I think it deserves it.

Clever, witty and very well written, this is the tale of a year in the life of Katey Kontent, an ambitious, intelligent young New Yorker. The year in question is 1938, when the Depression is beginning to lift and war has not yet cast a shadow. Life is full of possibilities and Katey and her friend Eve are determined to live it to the full. A chance encounter with handsome, rich and single Tinker Grey is destined to change all their lives in the course of the year and set them on the eventual paths they will follow into the future.

The American Dream is encapsulated in this novel, in all its naked ambition and superficiality. To be rich, to be beautiful, to be successful - these are the things that are important. And does it matter how these things are achieved? Manhattan seems to think not, and Katey and her friends want to live the dream. Social climbing is everything and has never been more frothy or more fun - the jazz clubs, the martini drinking, the partying.

Extremely well crafted, full of `fabdabulous' language and witty, memorable turns of phrase, I enjoyed reading this book very much. Comparisons have been made to The Great Gatsby and indeed it would be hard to read this and not think of Jay Gatsby. In fact, I felt that I was making this comparison more and more as the book went on and ultimately that didn't work to the advantage of this book. Jay Gatsby has stayed in my heart for many, many years - I'm not sure that either Katey Kontent or Tinker Grey will. But I had great fun spending a little time in their company - and I'm sure you will too.

Set in Manhattan in the late 30s, this starts off really well with our heroine Katey Kontent (I *really* hated that name) seeing in the New Year with best friend Eve, no money, and their new acquaintance Tinker Grey with his cashmere coat, and his hard cash... and I'm afraid that for me it went downhill from there.

There is little plot to speak of as people walk on and off stage, and the story arc between Eve, Tinker and Katey gets derailed fairly quickly.

There seem to be so many references packed into this book - F. Scott Fitzgerald, almost inevitably; Dorothy Parker; even bits of Mad Men (despite the time lag) and The Best of Everything, ditto - that it never really has the chance to stand on its own two feet.

The start is well-written, witty and stylish, but that very style started to grate with me after a while as it seems to sit there on the surface of the book to no purpose other than sound witty and pretty with not much actually going on.

So many other people have loved this and I really wanted to - but ultimately this felt to me like an exercise in writing, all flash and surface sparkle, with very little body or substance.

Sometimes a book comes along that is not just good, but brilliant. So brilliant that you begin to recommend it to people - so good that you want to share it. This is one of those special books, that make you remember why you fell in love with reading.

When we first meet Katey Kontent and Evelyn Ross it is the last night of 1937 in New York. They are young, working girls, out to enjoy themselves. Into their lives comes Tinker Grey - also young, but obviously wealthy and from a totally different side of New York then the one they know. They become a threesome, although as everybody knows, a threesome never lasts. Not wishing to give away the plot, Eve and Tinker somehow become a couple of sorts, and Kate is left with her dead end job as Eve heads out into the life of the rich and playful.

This is really Kate's story and what a story it is. She is an intelligent, resourceful and brave heroine - willing to explore life to the full and take chances. We meet the rich of Manhattan - the power players and those who have no need to work. Kate needs her wits about her if she is not to be manipulated and as she attempts to make a life for herself, now she has been left behind.

I find it hard to believe that this is a debut book, as the writing is so self assured, wonderful, atmospheric and well plotted. And, as other reviewers have pointed out, this is not light and fluffy chick lit. Nothing could be further from that - this is a great novel and must easily be one of the best books about New York that I have read, for the city is easily amongst the characters that populate this novel. It is not a book that you read and forget or discard. It has a pride of place on my shelf, waiting for other books by this author, who is certainly one to watch. However, for now, just enjoy this and be thankful that it was written.

There may be as many as ten boring paragraphs in Rules of Civility. That's out of a couple of thousand or more. A few - less than ten - of the quick-fire lines of New Yorker repartee don't quite come off, sounding artificial, like something from a sit-com. That's out of several hundred. With those exceptions, and I note them only because they are so rare, Amor Towles' prose sparkles like diamonds. Within his text, he quotes short passages of Woolf, Hemingway and Forster; a major risk in a first novel. Woolf, Hemingway and Forster are gold and silver, but the passages quoted sit happily as a simple mounting for Towles' diamonds.

I say again, Wow!, and I don't often. Neither do I often give a book five stars.

Bracketed by a few pages of late middle-aged retrospective, the story is of a single girl in her twenties making her way in New York; the people she meets, the places they go, the fun they have, the tangles they get into. It's 1937. Seasons, dates and times are always a reference point. By the end of that one year, destiny has settled something unforeseen on each player. Yet the plot doesn't seem contrived. That's how real life so often is at a certain critical age, perhaps especially in a major city, New York of all cities.

Rules of Civility is so good, comparisons with F Scott Fitzgerald and J D Salinger are certain to abound. Given that we never previously heard of Towles, perhaps also with John Kennedy Toole. Salinger hooks his reader with lightning speed, he also gives us a very realistic New York; Fitzgerald crafted a glittering monument for a gilded age; Toole surprised with original brilliance, apparently coming from nowhere. Towles gives us it all.

You wouldn't thank me if I outlined more of the plot. The above should be enough, just so long as you don't mistake Rules of Civility for Chic Lit and are disappointed to find it is not. It's a literary novel in every sense - see again Woolf, Hemingway and Forster, and textual references to many another of the greats. But don't worry that it will be too heavy; Scott Fitzgerald is a heavier read, Salinger and Toole perhaps not.

"Old times, as my father used to say: If you are not careful they will gut you like a fish."

This book put me in mind of something the saxophone player Paul Desmond once said. Desmond played in the Dave Brubeck Quartet and wrote that famous "Take Five" tune. Talking about his cool, smooth playing style he said: "I think I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to sound like a dry martini."

Thats exactly what this book is like. It reads like a dry martini. And many of them are drunk within it!

The novel begins with our narrator, Katey Kontent attending a 1966 exhibition of photographs. This collection of photos, titled "Many Were Called", by Walker Evans, really exists. It shows New York subway passengers filmed by a hidden camera in the late 1930s.

Katey recognises a picture of a man called Tinker Grey who she used to know. Then she notices another shot taken of him at a different time. While he is dapper and clearly well-to-do in one of the photos, the other shows him shabby and down at heel. And so we follow Katey as she reminisces about New York in the 1930s, when she and her friend Eve first met Tinker, and vied for his affections.

I found this book instantly grabbed me, both in the voice of the narrator and the evocation of high-end New York in the late 30s. Its comes over almost like Sex in the City shifted by about six decades.

This is exceptional writing for a first novel, full of cool wit and brilliant subtle plotting.

"Rules of Civility" refer to an etiquette list of George Washington's which Tinker keeps to hand. It struck me as a rather dull-sounding name for the novel though, as it doesn't evoke nearly enough sparkle.

This is a really magnificent piece of work and Amor Towles is clearly a writer to watch.

I'll stick my neck out and say I think this is going to be a huge hit.

"Thats the problem with being born in New York - You've go no New York to run away to."