Tedious & Brief: Book and Film Reviews

Rules of Civility - Amor Towles
Viking - 2011
335 pages

       At a 1966 exhibit of photographs taken in the late 1930's, Katey Kontent (Kon-tent) recognizes a man in two of the photos and points this out to her husband.  The man in the photographs is Tinker, a friend of hers she met December 31, 1937.  The contrast between the man's look in the two photos (one looking well-to-do, the other looking lean and down on his luck) makes her explain the story of how she met him.

       On that New Year's Eve, Katey, the daughter of a Russian immigrant to New York, and her best friend/roommate Eve, a young transplant from Indiana, are sipping away the old year in a small, dark jazz club.  They are secretaries to a New York law firm counting their pennies and living in an all-female boarding house.  While waiting for new year, a handsome young, apparently wealthy man sets his coat down at their table while looking for his brother.

       The three quickly form a friendship and attraction to each other; which quickly changes once a freak accident changes their lives and there reactions to each other.  The story follows their friendship and ups and downs over the 1938, mostly following Katey.


       I know it is still early in the year; however, I'm fairly confident that this may be the most pretty cover of a book I will read this year.  Or if not the than one of the.  It actually is why I picked it up from the library in the first place.  The cover photo appears to be one taken by Walker Evans, the artist whose exhibit Katey was at in the beginning (and other of his photos are shown at various times in the novel).  I remember seeing someones review saying that they wished they could live in this picture, and given the luxury of the chair and setting, I think it would be hard to disagree.

       But, as seemingly every elementary teacher says, you can't judge a book by it's cover.  It is what's inside that counts.  And this novel......is as good as its cover.  The author tosses in just a bit of time-appropriate details to make you feel like you're there and picture the setting without overwhelming the reader.

       To say simply that for a first novel this is good would make it sound like it was only passable because it was a first attempt, but that would not be correct.  This was a good, enjoyable novel. Between Warm Bodies, Snowdrops, and Rules of Civility, I've read three good first novels pretty much in a row.  Hopefully the run of enjoyable books will continue!


Rating: 4.5 out of 5.