Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
A book review
Rules of Civility opens in 1966 with its narrator and her husband touring a photography exhibit, a series shot on New York City subways in the late 1930s. She is startled to see a familiar face in two of the photographs.
On New Year’s Eve 1937, Katey and her friend Eve are listening to jazz in a second-rate nightclub and strategizing how to afford supper at a cheap diner, when an attractive man walks in, drapes his cashmere coat over an unoccupied chair, scans the room with evident disappointment, and suddenly realizes his coat is on a chair at Katey and Eve’s table. He blushes, apologizes, and when invited to join them, buys a round of drinks. His impeccable manners and witty repartee impress them. His evident wealth has its own attraction.
Theodore “Tinker” Grey’s sudden appearance introduces a note of conflict into what had been a warm, uncomplicated friendship. Katey and Eve are both attracted to him. His graciousness to each of them makes it seem possible to each that he might be attracted to her. Nevertheless, they seem to be settling into a three-way friendship that threatens no one’s peace of mind when a terrible accident complicates everything.
New York City on the verge of the 1940s was home to many people with old-money wealth. It was home, as well, to people like Katey and Eve who were struggling to make a living and move into better paying, higher status jobs. As Tinker introduces Katey and Eve into circles of people with wealth and status whose connections can be helpful to them, they work hard to appear comfortable among their new acquaintances. But as feigned comfort evolves into some genuine friendships, surprises emerge. People’s lives are always more complex than they appear on the surface.
An elegant novel that starts light and steadily deepens, Rules of Civility offers insights valuable in our own time about wealth, the striving for wealth, and the distortions both bring. (2011, 335 pages)