Oozing with charm, this snapshot of young Manhattanites in 1938 paints a colorful picture of life at the tail end of the Depression and before the second world war. Amor Towles, like in A Gentleman in Moscow and The Lincoln Highway (still my favorite) masterfully takes on a period piece again, but the difference is that Rules of Civility (which was published first) is told from a woman's point of view.
Katey Kontent and her fellow boardinghouse friend Eve Ross meet Theodore (Tinker) Grey at a jazz club, and the three become fast friends. Tinker comes across like he was "raised in the company of money and manners', and both girls become smitten. When the three are in a car accident as Tinker is driving and Eve becomes seriously injured, Tinker takes her in for her convalescence. Katey is left to her own devices while the other two appear to be forming a couple.
Katey finds herself in the company of a group of twenty-somethings for whom everything New York has to offer seems to be attainable. Unlike Katey who came from humble beginnings, her new friends seem to have "a poise secured by the alchemy of wealth and station". Perhaps her affluent friends rub off on her and lead to a memorable dining out scene: the restaurant staff where Katey chooses to use her twenty dollars to dine alone (she's going to "invest in an elegant hour that couldn't get hocked") can't quite believe that she is unaccompanied. Katey proceeds to drink too much, lose a shoe under the table, and get queasy from the rich food. However, all is done with poise, confidence, and tall Katey in high heels.
Characters shucking expectations is a theme of this novel and predictability is not. This is illustrated by Eve's eventual actions and as Katey navigates the dating world of 1938 Manhattan. She learns more about Tinker and realizes their backgrounds aren't so different after all. Katey wishes she could go back and meet him again so that she could "take him in without assumptions". She gets the opportunity as their paths cross again and Katey is captivated by Tinker a second time.
Gifted to Tinker by his mother on his fourteenth birthday, the Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation is a list by George Washington amounting to 110 (still relevant) codes to live by. Listed in the appendix, the first one states, "Every action done in company ought to be with some sign of respect to those that are present". And number 58 (a gem) reads, "Let your conversation be without malice or envy, for 'tis a sign of tractable and commendable nature, and in all causes of passion admit reason to govern". Katey eventually comes to a conclusion amidst her floundering opinion of Tinker: the matter of whether he lives by these rules versus acts them out to be perceived well by others amounts to the same thing.
The novel opens thirty years in the future with Kate and her husband at an art show. The photographs display people riding a subway showing "a certain naked humanity with their guard let down and their gaze inexact, finding the one true solace that human isolation allows". This opening sentiment, peppered with said photos, sets the stage for a beguiling story reflecting not only the naked humanity of a time in our nation's past but perhaps humanity always.
Ending by circling back to older Kate reflecting on this year of her youth and how its distractions and enticements shaped her, she has the thought that, "the piecemeal progress of our hopes and ambitions commands our undivided attention" and that she shouldn't be too hard on herself or others. This can only be realized in retrospect and with maturity and is displayed in this book through its characters. I give the captivating Rules of Civility 5 out of 5 stars.
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