Rules of Civility in Around the World in 80 Books

Jan 22, 2012 Sera rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audio, favorites, library, literary-fiction

I really enjoyed this story told from the perspective of a 20-something woman living in NYC in 1938. Towles is a wonderful writer who is able to capture the mood of the city during that time and what life was like between the haves and have nots. Katie Content (yes, like the content that means happy) is a very likeable protaganist. My only criticism is that the book ended a little bit abruptly, but I guess since that was part of the point, to capture the lives of these characters for a brief mom ...more

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Nov 23, 2020 Mansir rated it it was amazing

I really enjoyed this book - most of the sentences were a joy to read - concise, poetic and well crafted. Every once in a while there was a sentence that tickled me with particular beauty or wit and that I read twice or three times to fully enjoy it. A lot of this book feels quite classic to me with perhaps a slight pinch of modernity with its structure where characters and elements of the story (such as the Rules of Civility) overlap and repeat as a theme of sorts - fun and fresh.

I wouldn’t sa ...more

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Nov 11, 2019 Astrid Lim rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: america, historical-fiction, new-york, women

4.5 stars!

This is a book that definitely will stay with me for a long time. I love the setting (NYC in the 30s? Give me more!!), the narrator (bookish, complicated but without over dramatic girl), the reference of food culture, music and books. The glamorous life of New Yorkers and how much you would pay to be on the top of the world.

Amor Towles is amazing. It totally has different theme and style than his second book, Gentleman in Moscow, but totally has the same vibes. This longing, bitterswee ...more

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Apr 25, 2021 Ra rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook

This book comes with lots of pedigree behind it. The author is a Harvard graduate, and he has a command for language, but all the beautiful writing did not make me love this book, it was just ok and I am happy it is finished.

The main character Kate (born Katya to Russian immigrants, and thus a working-class background), is a smart and well-read woman trying to find her place in the upward mobile society of New York City. The story is about her, her friends and lovers and the choices she makes i This book comes with lots of pedigree behind it. The author is a Harvard graduate, and he has a command for language, but all the beautiful writing did not make me love this book, it was just ok and I am happy it is finished.

The main character Kate (born Katya to Russian immigrants, and thus a working-class background), is a smart and well-read woman trying to find her place in the upward mobile society of New York City. The story is about her, her friends and lovers and the choices she makes in her life.
If you love New York and are fascinated by its mixtures of lifestyles that teeter precariously between abject poverty, bohemian freedom, and lavish extravagance, then read this book.

In my brief time in New York, I found it fake and pretentious and this was my impression of the book and its characters too. The titular rules of civility are a reference to a slim volume George Washington wrote in his youth and it is so preoccupied with class and stature that it is simply laughable.

The only interesting parts for me were Kate's "reviews" of the books she reads. This will lead me to read Walden, for example, and to re-read Agatha Christie, whose stories as the main character tells us are always tied up nicely in the end, and everyone gets what they deserve. I am not sure whether I had the same sense in this book, or perhaps it was populated with characters that I could not relate to. The only character I found likeable was a rich guy, who was slightly uncomfortable with his privilege but he was a gun aficionado, and that ruined the whole image, but perhaps justified the outcome of his life. Another character said that those whose wants are much larger than their needs are the ones who become successful, and this definitely the ethos of New York, at least the way I felt it. If you are greedy enough, and ruthless enough then you will make it. The main character did, in the end, but to me she came across like a social climber, guilty of many of the vices she found shocking in others. At times I felt the women in the book were undistinguishable from the men the way they behaved, but perhaps that was the main thrust of this era of emerging women's liberation.

Another positive are the small philosophical insights reproduced in the important quotes, about the choices we make in our lives and how they shape our future.

It is a quiet book, with rambling narrative and not too much action. But it offers a slice of society in an emerging New York prior to the US involvement in the second world war. ...more

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Jan 20, 2020 Andy Plonka rated it really liked it

Shelves: src

Interesting look at New York City during the 1930's from the twenty to thirty somethings. ...more

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Mar 13, 2017 Susan rated it liked it

I read this because I absolutely loved the author's book, A Gentleman in Moscow. This is not as engaging or well written, altho it did keep my interest. (Probably because I kept waiting for some of the type of writing in his other book). The characters were a bit flat and the events after the first half of the book seemed like they were just fillers to get to the ending. ...more

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Sep 17, 2012 Jessica rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, new-york-city

Towles does a very nice job of highlighting an oft-ignored historical moment here, and his love affair with NYC comes through clearly. But more than anything, I find Katey to be an intriguing character that's well-balanced between being influenced by other characters but also an independent actor in her own right. ...more

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Mar 21, 2019 Julie rated it really liked it

I understand why so many people love this quiet, thoughtful, and yes, civil, book. It is sweet and meaningful with characters that are going to stay with me. #MountTBR #travelingreader

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