Rules of Civility
2011 • 368 pages
Ratings50
Average rating4
15
Ratings50
Average rating4
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.
Reviews with the most likes.
First finished book of the year! An excellent start, and only 99 to go.
Beautiful novel. Not so much the prose, which was nice, but the depiction of a breathtakingly beautiful Manhattan. It reminds me of Whit Stillman movies. Loved the female characters. While this was written by a man, it struck me that the women in this book were so much more assertive participants in their destinies than the women in books by contemporary first time female writers like Curtis Sittenfeld & Marisha Pessl. (It may have something to do with the fact that Towles is older than these women were when they published their first novels.) I recommend this to everyone and would love to loan you my copy!
7/10 rounded up.
Would re-read and maybe reccomend.
I really liked Wallace.
Oh yeah, I read it on my phone, something I'm not used to doing, so I might have missed some things. Because of that, take the rest of the review with a grain of salt!
Katey, I found, was inconsistent. Her personality failed to be strong enough to make the narration interesting, but she had some very nice moments of reflection sprinkled in that meant I couldn't despise her. An ineffective narrator, but if her personality had been sharpened a bit I think I could have liked her.
Eve was a constant reminder of the setting, and I think she is a nice reflection of 1930s ambition, but she was lacking a lot of depth.
Tinker. Idk.
I'm not sure what drew me to the character of Wallace, but he is easily the most memorable part of the book to me.
The setting was nicely developed and the plot never felt detached from it like some historical novels end up being. With the whole female authors thing, I felt like Mr. Towles was trying to make a point, but it just ended up being so weak and underdeveloped :/. It contributed to the feeling of the 1930s for sure, but something about it just felt... eh. It's a small nitpick anyways.
Now the writing style was amazing. Beautiful. Amor Towles is such a talent, I can't compliment his writing enough. Sometimes it felt like there was a bit of a style > substance thing going on in the book, and I felt like lots of plotlines weren't wrapped up properly or seemingly went nowhere.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed this a lot, and while it was nowhere near as good as A Gentleman in Moscow (which I read two weeks ago and is quickly becoming one of my favorite novels), there was a lot to love. Go read this if you haven't :)
This was gorgeous. The writing is beautiful and the story is really well done - it's very quiet overall. I don't generally care for historical fiction because it so rarely feels right, but this felt right. I loved it.
