In fact I went back and listened to the prologue again as soon as I finished the book, just to see how Towles set everything up. I often enjoy knowing a little bit about where things will end up but not too much, and Towles does this perfectly. We know Tinker will experience wealth and poverty during his youth. We know, from the framing of the first chapter, that Katie will marry someone named Val, which lends a certain mystery to the story. And before we know it, the deck has been played out and the decisions we have just made will shape our lives for decades to come.

In our twenties, when there is still so much time ahead of us, time that seems ample for a hundred indecisions, for a hundred visions and revisions-we draw a card, and we must decide right then and there whether to keep that card and discard the next, or discard the first card and keep the second. This was anything but a simple love story. Her feelings for Tinker lead her to explore relationships with others, and it’s these relationships that really build her character. She cares about her friends but never loses sight of her own need to survive and to experience what life has to offer. There are moments when Katie is selfish or careless of other’s feelings, but then she’d surprise me with an act of graciousness, like when a co-worker leaves an important document on the train and Katie chooses to rush after her with it. I very much appreciated that Katie wasn’t a perfect character, nor a simple one, and this was true of Tinker, Eve, and the other characters in the book. Through Katie’s narration, we see the clothes, taste the cocktails, and hear the music of the time. Coming out of the Depression and on the eve of World War II, Towles never lets us forget where we are and when.

What I loved about this story, and what I imagine so many love about Towles, is the complexity of his characters and the immersion into the sights and sounds of 1930s New York. From there, the paths of these friends twist and turn throughout 1938, with friends leaving to fight in the Spanish Civil War and eventually, World War II. Katie is drawn to him, but a car crash causes him to care for Eve instead. It centers around Katie, a 25-year-old secretary who is out for New Year’s with her friend Eve, when they meet rich gentleman Tinker Gray in a club. The novel is set in New York City, beginning in the 1960s but then jumping back to the last night of 1937. Rules of Civility is the debut novel of Amor Towles, also widely known for his book A Gentleman in Moscow.

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles