Book Review: Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
Amor Towles’s debut novel, Rules of Civility is a sparkling masterpiece. Reminiscent of The Great Gatsby and Breakfast at Tiffany’s, this novel will send readers back in time to a glamorous New York City set in the 1930s.
Since I had enjoyed A Gentleman in Moscow so much, my expectations were high, but I was in no way disappointed by Towles’ earlier novel. Though there are many similarities between the two, I found that there were distinctive strengths and weaknesses to both books. For one thing, I found Rules of Civility had a much quicker pace and its plot was far more linear. In comparison to A Gentleman in Moscow, Towles’s earlier novel is far less tender and sentimental. It’s plot and its characters rely on a much sharper tone, distinctive to the social ladder that they climb.
What it’s About
The highs and lows of protagonist Katey Kontent (and yes, there is plenty of significance in the name) dominate the novel. Though she is not from money, Katey and her best friend Eve meet wealthy socialite Tinker Grey at a party on New Year’s Eve, and their lives are changed drastically. Through the book, we follow Katey’s every move, watching as she makes tiny decisions that have a ripple effect on the entire course of her life. Towles makes a statement about how changeable and full of possibility the lives of young people can be, and how free they are to set their own destiny. Readers may glimpse a variety of endings as they work their way through Katey’s story, yet possible endings are often discarded in favor of a new path.
Who should read it:
Anyone who enjoyed The Great Gatsby will like Rules of Civility. The two books share many of the same elements: star-crossed love, a glamorous socialite society, commentary on wealth and success, and of course dazzling prose. While I mentioned above that there is not the same sentimentality to Rules of Civility as there is in A Gentleman in Moscow, Towles still exhibits a sort of nostalgia for another age, which he depicts brilliantly. To those who are fascinated by the 20th century in America or looking to get lost in another time, I highly suggest this novel.
Rating: 5/5
So, what is it that makes this novel so enticing? For one thing, the characters have the elusively convincing human complexity that is so rarely achieved in the literary world. Their flaws and aspirations are not always as clear as we might want them to be. I for one often caught myself wondering whether or not I even liked the characters in the novel. For me, this is Towles’s greatest success. He doesn’t hand his readers the characters on a silver platter. In reading the novel, one must work for a relationship, an understanding of the surprisingly complicated people who populate the novel.
In this story, there is plenty to unpack. Readers will be rewarded for a closer reading, which is a quality I always appreciate in literature. Though it is not necessarily a “novel of ideas”, Towles is certainly trying to tell his readers something about one’s path in life. As with A Gentleman in Moscow, Towles uses the seemingly mundane day-to-day of his characters to craft an intricate, slowly evolving plot. His story is slow growing, yet somehow demands the reader’s unwavering attention from the first page to the last.