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

I want to step outside my typical writing and share something I have never shared before – two novels, an author, and the most poignant understanding of personal human endeavors, loss, and life within historical context that is so penetrating, I slow my reading for fear the novel will end.The author is Amor Towles. The two books I read of his in wrong descension was his latest first, A Gentleman in Moscow, and his debut – perhaps last, Rules of Civility. The cadence of his novels is not ruled by dialogue, but intent on sharing the characters convictions, their philosophies, and their trials. The intensity with which he delves into the persona is beyond anything I have read. Interspersed with wit personified in Agatha Christie, and the poignancy of Walden and Dickens, he unveils the human spirit like no other.That combination seems well suited to today’s conflagrations of betrayal and ineptness and ignorance. It revels in the spirit of human dignity and self worth given the circumstances of the era – revealing that every era of time is in its own tapestry of a painting whether along the Seine or the trials of personhood in the Soviet Union or America. They are the inner struggle for self – and love.The words spill across the pages like a violin. Each note reverberating a different soliloquy to be embraced and coveted lest it be lost in a singular second of time. Never to be grasped again.I have never felt so moved by an author as I have with these novels. Fictional in their rule, historical in their setting and societal ambiance. Seductive in the worldly sense without the necessitation of overtly candid sex, this author has grasped the gift of tale. And the diction of words in a melodious composition just as reminiscent of an opera as a jazz quartet or a dance routine of Fred Astaire.Amor provides a glimpse into what was to see what is today. From a place of society within the frame of the political eras that existed in this time frame he portrays. The politics of which are integrated but not judged. Simply presented – as an historian might.His main characters are seemingly devoid of one common anomaly – family. And thus traverse the rails of trains traversing the countryside – devoid, yet desperate to create this fulcrum of court. Of a purpose. Of a life outside of life apparent.I finished the second – albeit debut novel today – and feel a sense of vacancy. As though I need him to fill more of the vacuous void that has eclipsed our society in such tragedy we cannot find a leveled jutty from the mountainous cliff. I personally shared the experiences of wonderous persons who have come in and out of my life through the resonance of time and situation. Leaving a mark. A memory. Long gone. Never forgotten.The basic instinct of the novels being to revel in each and every moment as a punctuated gift from God or Angels. Each person brought to us in our lives was placed there for a valuable purpose – sometimes good and sometimes bad – but always for purpose. And nothing is coincidental or random.Good Night My Friends -

The novel is set in the 1930's-50's Manhattan, when women were tasting freedom as flappers through post -WWII as careers called girls to the Big City. Towles device for his heroine uses her name to suggest social class, emphasizing Katy Kontent is Katy Kon-tent'. She comports herself well by day doing office work. Her roommate, high-spirited Eve, a wannabe to society, results in their befriending waspy Tinker Grey for adventures in posh supper clubs and jazz spots. Eventually a freak accident changes their relationship, revealing secrets of the three key players. Katy, in her dithering way, finds love, works her way up in a publishing house and not-too-realistically, bests a female rival. Eve reaches high society, yet runs from it. I found the female characters unrelatable, except for Anne, the antagonist who goes directly for what she wants . Tinker is somewhat sympathetic, though weak until he rejects his false image. The setting is well drawn, but what compromised my investment most in the novel was the appendix listing the actual "Rules of Civility." It speaks to Katy's establishing herself as a prolific reader, elevating herself through literature and its applying to life. It strikes me her reality is shallow, equal to her changes of dresses in youth to her re-reading "Great Expectations" in the end, downing hard booze in her shabby apartment.

Amor Towles is a new discovery for me. Have enjoyed this one and A Gentleman in Moscow.

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.