The Bossy Bookworm
Jun 191 min
ICYMI: The post-Depression-era city of New York is such a powerful presence in this story, it feels like a main character. I was taken by this Amor Towles story and blatantly neglected my responsibilities in order to read it.
I recently began reading Table for Two by Amor Towles, and I was reminded that I haven't posted Bossy reviews of my first two Towles reads, A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility.
In Rules of Civility, 25-year-old Katey is in a Greenwich Village jazz bar in post-Depression New York when she meets a successful banker. The chance encounter leads to a surprising turn of fortune in which Katey finds herself immersed in the highest social circles of New York.
I couldn't stop reading this--and admit to neglecting various duties in order to get back to it. I loved the old-New York setting, which was so vivid, the city felt like a main character.
The various "let me teach you about" types of asides regarding art and social constructs of the time, etc., were interesting but also extremely jarring; they didn't make sense to me when coming from the main protagonist. And sometimes the "main protagonist is inexplicably well read and savvy" types of moments made me pause.
I was completely hooked and kept thinking about this story after I'd finished it.
Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book?
Amor Towles is also the author of A Gentleman in Moscow and The Lincoln Highway.