Table for Two

 

Table for Two by Amor Towles

Fiction

2024

Finished on June 1, 2025

Rating: 3.5/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

From the bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway, A Gentleman in Moscow, and Rules of Civility, a richly detailed and sharply drawn collection of stories set in New York and Los Angeles. 

The millions of readers of Amor Towles are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter six stories set in New York City and a novella in Los Angeles. The New York stories, most of which are set around the turn of the millennium, take up everything from the death-defying acrobatics of the male ego, to the fateful consequences of brief encounters, and the delicate mechanics of compromise which operate at the heart of modern marriages. In Towles’s novel, Rules of Civility, the indomitable Evelyn Ross leaves New York City in September, 1938, with the intention of returning home to Indiana. But as her train pulls into Chicago, where her parents are waiting, she instead extends her ticket to Los Angeles. Told from seven points of view, “Eve in Hollywood” describes how Eve crafts a new future for herself—and others—in the midst of Hollywood’s golden age. Throughout the stories, two characters often find themselves sitting across a table for two where the direction of their futures may hinge upon what they say to each other next. Written with his signature wit, humor, and sophistication, Table for Two is another glittering addition to Towles’s canon of stylish and transporting historical fiction.

I very rarely read short stories mainly because I don't enjoy them as well as novels. I feel that by the time I'm invested in the plot, and have come to care about the characters, the finale is upon me. I did, however, enjoy Amor Towles's stories in this recent release, many of which have an O. Henry feel to them with an unexpected twist at the conclusion of the tale. 

The second half of Towles's book is a novella that picks up where his debut novel, Rules of Civility, ends. I wish I had re-read that book before reading Eve in Hollywood. Towles provides some backstory, but I would have liked more. It's been over six years since I read the author's Rules of Civility, and the details are more than a little fuzzy. Also, the ending of the novella felt convoluted, and I wish I had kept better track of the role of each of the characters. Thus, the less than stellar rating. I must say, though, that his writing is marvelous, filled with subtle wit, and vivid imagery that places his reader directly into the setting. I'm tempted to read his earlier works again!

Speaking of which, you can find my reviews for those tooks here:

Rules of Civility (4.5/5)

A Gentleman in Moscow (5/5) - read twice

The Lincoln Highway (3.5/5)

The Lincoln Highway

 

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

Fiction

2021 Viking

Finished on March 5, 2023

Rating: 3.5/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the work farm where he has just served a year for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett’s intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother and head west where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden’s car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett’s future.

Spanning just ten days and told from multiple points of view, Towles’s third novel will satisfy fans of his multi-layered literary styling while providing them an array of new and richly imagined settings, characters, and themes.

Unlike some lengthy books, I did want this one to end. The Lincoln Highway isn't a boring novel, but the slow pace and the retelling of events from multiple perspectives had me calculating how many of the 576 pages remained as I read. Towles's digressions (from the recounting of Shakespeare plays, mythological adventures, and Homeric epics to philosophical paradoxes, vaudeville acts and magic tricks) are initially inventive, but as the story progresses, I grew weary of those asides, eager to return to the adventure at hand. The tension in the final pages had me wavering when it came time to rate the novel, but in all honesty, I didn't love it. It's a good (albeit melodramatic) tale, but it's not the outstanding read, like A Gentleman in Moscow. Having said that, Towles is a wordsmith, and I especially enjoyed the imagery in this passage:

In the months of summer, there were nights marked by the roll of thunder or the whistle of an arid wind on which Emmett could hear his father stirring in the next room, unable to sleep--and not without reason. Because a farmer with a mortgage was like a man walking on the railing of a bridge with his arms outstretched and his eyes closed. It was a way of life in which the difference between abundance and ruin could be measured by a few inches of rain or a few nights of frost. [Emphasis is mine]

The Lincoln Highway is peopled with memorable characters (the wise-beyond-his-years Billy, and the childlike Woolly, both of whom stole my heart), but this folksy tale is my least favorite of Towles's novels. I understand he's working on his fourth, which I look forward to, as I remain a fan in spite of this mildly disappointing read.

Photo Credit: Author's Website

Coming Soon!

 

I loved both A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility, so I'm super excited about this upcoming release by Amor Towles. Have you read his novels? Click on the titles to read my reviews. 

Publisher's Blurb:

The bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility and master of absorbing, sophisticated fiction returns with a stylish and propulsive novel set in 1950s America.

In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the work farm where he has just served a year for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett’s intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother and head west where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden’s car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett’s future.

Spanning just ten days and told from multiple points of view, Towles’s third novel will satisfy fans of his multi-layered literary styling while providing them an array of new and richly imagined settings, characters, and themes.

Publication date: October 5, 2021

Rules of Civility

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
Fiction
2012 Penguin Books (first published in 2011)
Finished on July 3, 2018
Rating:  4.5/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

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 at the neighboring table. This chance encounter and its startling consequences propel her on a yearlong journey toward 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.

Bravo! I have a new favorite author. A Gentleman in Moscow (which I wrote about here) was my #1 read in 2017, and as soon as I finished reading it for the second time (in preparation of my book club's discussion), I knew I had to read Towles' earlier novel, Rules of Civility. I loved both stories! Towles' prose is smart and luxurious and I found myself reading slowly, savoring each sentence. I enjoyed the wit and charm of A Gentleman in Moscow and I am in awe of this author's debut novel. What talent!

A favorite passage:

Powdered with snow, Washington Square looked as lovely as it could. The snow had dusted every tree and gate. The once tony brownstones that on summer days now lowered their gaze in misery were lost for the moment in sentimental memories. At No. 25, a curtain on the second floor was drawn back and the ghost of Edith Wharton looked out with shy envy. Sweet, insightful, unsexed, she watched the three of us pass wondering when the love that she had so artfully imagined would work up the courage to rap on her door. When would it present itself at an inconvenient hour, insist upon being admitted, brush past the butler and rush up the Puritan staircase urgently calling her name?

I am eager to read another book by Amor Towles and am happy to know that he's busy working on his third novel, which sound wonderful!

I am still in the process of outlining my next book, but I suspect it will follow three eighteen-year-old boys on their way from the Midwest to New York City in the early 1950s… (Amor Towles)

Rules of Civility in a very easy way captures the casual motions of your early twenties that become both foundations and causalities--the small actions or inactions that become decisions before you realized you were deciding anything at all.... This book is filled with little moments that seem very right.... It's all the more surprising that this fictional young woman is so well caught by this man so new to the game, Amor Towles. ~The Atlantic

A Gentleman in Moscow

Update: Read again (on audio) for book club. Loved it just as much, but preferred the printed edition over the audiobook. Finished on July 3, 2018 Rating: 5/5 (Outstanding)

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Fiction
2016 Viking
Finished on December 1, 2017
Rating: 5/5 (Excellent!)

Publisher's Blurb:

From the New York Times bestselling author of Rules of Civility—a transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel

With his breakout debut novel, Rules of Civility, Amor Towles established himself as a master of absorbing, sophisticated fiction, bringing late 1930s Manhattan to life with splendid atmosphere and a flawless command of style. Readers and critics were enchanted; as NPR commented, “Towles writes with grace and verve about the mores and manners of a society on the cusp of radical change.”

A Gentleman in Moscow immerses us in another elegantly drawn era with the story of Count Alexander Rostov. When, in 1922, he is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the count is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him a doorway into a much larger world of emotional discovery.

Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.

What an outstanding novel! I first learned of A Gentleman in Moscow when I read Bellezza's glowing review in the fall of 2016. I have only read a few Russian novels (One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Anna Karenina and Doctor Zhivago) and after winning Meredith's give-away for Towles' novel, I was a little concerned that it was going to be a heavier read than I originally thought. Meredith shared some lovely passages from the book on her blog, but still. 1920 Russia. This was not going to be a beach read. I placed the lovely book in my bookcase and there it sat. When we moved to Oregon, it was gently packed amidst hundreds of other books and eventually returned to that bookcase where it continued to lurk. I'm not sure what inspired me to finally pull it off the shelf, but I am so glad I did! It was not at all what I expected (dark, dreary, dense, full of boring historical details, etc.) and I could not put it down.

I love it when a book pulls you in with its quiet prose, and your inner voice says, This is going to be remarkable. This is going to be your #1 book of the year. This is surely going to be a classic.  I felt that way about Markus Zusak's gem, The Book Thief. I felt that way about Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See. Towles' exquisite storytelling is the sort one wishes to savor, to read slowly, then turn back and re-read passages, appreciating them for their beauty and inspiration.

'Tis a funny thing, reflected the Count as he stood ready to abandon his suite. From the earliest age, we must learn to say good-bye to friends and family. We see our parents and siblings off at the station; we visit cousins, attend schools, join the regiment; we marry, or travel abroad. It is part of the human experience that we are constantly gripping a good fellow by the shoulders and wishing him well, taking comfort from the notion that we will hear word of him soon enough.

But experience is less likely to teach us how to bid our dearest possessions adieu. And if it were to? We wouldn't welcome the education. For eventually, we come to hold our dearest possessions more closely than we hold our friends. We carry them from place to place, often at considerable expense and inconvenience; we dust and polish their surfaces and reprimand children for playing too roughly in their vicinity--all the while, allowing memories to invest them with greater and greater importance. This armoire, we are prone to recall, is the very one in which we hid as a boy; and it was these silver candelabra that lined our table on Christmas Eve; and it was with this handkerchief that she once dried her tears, et cetera, et cetera. Until we imagine that these carefully preserved possessions might give us genuine solace in the face of a lost companion.

But, of course, a thing is just a thing.

and 

"I'll tell you what is convenient," he said after a moment. "To sleep until noon and have someone bring your your breakfast on a tray. To cancel an appointment at the very last minute. To keep a carriage waiting at the door of one party, so that on a moment's notice it can whisk you away to another. To sidestep marriage in your youth and put off having children altogether. These are the greatest of conveniences, Anushka--and at one time I had them all. But in the end, it has been the inconveniences that have mattered to me most."

and

Alexander Rostov was neither scientist nor sage; but at the age of sixty-four he was wise enough to know that life does not proceed by leaps and bounds. It unfolds. At any given moment, it is the manifestation of a thousand transitions. Our faculties wax and wane, our experiences accumulate, and our opinions evolve--if not glacially, then at least gradually. Such that the events of an average day are as likely to transform who we are as a pinch of pepper is to transform a stew. And yet, for the Count, when the doors to Anna's bedroom opened and Sofia stepped forward in her gown, at that very moment she crossed the threshold into adulthood. On one side of that divide was a girl of five or ten or twenty with a quiet demeanor and a whimsical imagination who relied on him for companionship and counsel; while on the other side was a young woman of discernment and grace who need rely on no one but herself.

I could have easily read this book in a few short days, but I took my time and found myself living in the world of the Metropol with Count Rostov, Anna, Nina, Sofia, Marina, Andrey and Emile. Towles has created a great cast of unforgettable characters!  

Oh, and my inner voice was absolutely right. A Gentleman in Moscow did become my #1 book of 2017. Highly recommend!

Be sure to take a look at the author's website. I could spend hours reading through all the extra material about this novel, as well as that for Rules of Civility, which I am currently reading (and loving!). Amor Towles has joined the ranks of my all-time favorite authors. I hope he's busy writing another novel!

Click here to listen to an interview with the author on NPR.