Wednesday, July 11, 2012
RULES OF CIVILITY by Amor Towles
We know from the beginning that
Katey and Tinker will not end up together, because she is with her husband Val
when they come across some photos of Tinker in an exhibition at the Museum
of Modern Art. In the 1938 photo, Tinker is well-dressed and
dapper, but in the 1939 photo, although his demeanor shows contentment, his
clothes are shabby. Most of the novel is
Katey's reflection on the year 1938 and how Tinker went from riches to rags. The author makes a good case for quitting
your job the day after you're promoted.
Of course, being lead secretary in the secretarial pool at a Manhattan
law firm is exactly where Katey does not want to languish. She has a nimble mind and is well-read,
despite her working class upbringing.
Her roots don't hold her back, though, as she rolls the dice and lands a
job with Gotham,
a new magazine being launched by the publishers of Condé Nast. In the meantime,
she and her brazen friend Eve meet Tinker, whom both women have a thing
for. Then an automobile accident reduces
the threesome to an unstable couple, as Tinker applies the "you break it;
you buy it" slogan to his newfound devotion to Eve, who is seriously
injured in the accident. Katey is now
the odd woman out, but she's better company than Eve and creates other, more fruitful
liaisons. When Eve tires of being
Tinker's albatross, Katey and Tinker reconnect and embark on a tentative course
to togetherdom, until a sudden revelation shatters Katey's respect for
Tinker. All the clues should have made
Tinker's flaws more apparent, but love has a way of allowing us to see only
what we want to see. I so enjoyed going
back in time to spend a few delicious hours with these New
York denizens and seeing the city from their
perspective.
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