Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
Narrator: Rebecca Lowman
Source: Audible
Finished: 2/8/12
Rating: 8 out of 10
Publisher: Viking
Pages: 352
Published: 2011
Challenges: 2012 Audio Book Challenge
Synopsis (from Amazon): Set during the hazy, enchanting, and martini-filled world of New York City circa 1938, Rules of Civility follows three friends–Katey, Eve, and Tinker–from their chance meeting at a jazz club on New Year’s Eve through a year of enlightening and occasionally tragic adventures. Tinker orbits in the world of the wealthy; Katey and Eve stretch their few dollars out each evening on the town. While all three are complex characters, Katey is the story’s shining star. She is a fully realized heroine, unique in her strong sense of self amidst her life’s continual fluctuations. Towles’ writing also paints an inviting picture of New York City, without forgetting its sharp edges.
Overall Impression: Rules of Civility is a book to get lost in. Towles decadent descriptions of life in 1938 reeled me in and I found myself just falling into the story. Towles has an incredible gift for writing beautiful language, and Rebecca Lowman’s soft, elegant narration did it justice in a way that made me wonder if I would have missed it had I read it in book form. It was all just so lush and thick and delicious. This was, by far, my favorite part of the book — seeing how Towles crafted his sentences and paragraphs. Gorgeous.
The plot got off to a somewhat rocky start for me (it felt a little contrived), but then it sort of flattened out into a more even, realistic story. It’s truly a story of a woman’s independence and coming of age, a little later in life than most. I found myself loving the subplots more than the main triangle of friends — particularly Katey and Wallace and Katey and Anne. These two stories felt particularly timeless — they could have happened any time, but I was lucky enough to read about them in 1938.
This could have been a knock-it-out-of-the-park stellar book if it was not for one thing — I have a hard time when men write female characters. Towles did an admirable job, but there were still parts that didn’t feel distinctly feminine, though, of course, I couldn’t put my finger precisely on it. Maybe it’s that Katey didn’t quite have the emotions that would be spot on for pretty much all women — for the most part, I find that we care about certain things more. Other than this, though, it was an excellent book.
Positives: Towles! Write more beautiful things! Please! I will read them!
Negatives: Katey was missing…something. I can’t put my finger on it, though.
Narration: Rebecca Lowman was wonderful — a little timid in some places, but overall she did an excellent job.
Other books I’ve read by Amor Towles: none
Other books I’ve listened to narrated by Rebecca Lowman: Vaclav and Lena (review)
Other blogger opinions:
books i done read: “We have a heap of Theme and Nuance in this corner, and then a pile of Genuinely Enjoyable Read over there. And underneath the diving board I believe I spied some Humor.”
Devourer of Books: “Perhaps the real problem for Rules of Civility was simply that it fell victim to my as-yet undiagnosed general dissatisfaction with historical fiction based in America, despite my love for American history.”
Reading with Tea: “Well worth the read. Get your hands on a copy if you can, and even better if it’s in audio!”
I’m so glad it was good in audio – I read it on the Kindle and kept thinking how much better it would have been in audio. So I’m happy to be vindicated! Lush is just the right word for the language.
Yes, I am very glad I listened to it. Sometimes I think I have a hard time speaking language like that in my own head properly. Lowman did an excellent job narrating it.
I just finished this one and I listened to it too. Wow! I just loved the descriptions of the city. Like you, I think the female voice wasn’t quite right, but overall I loved it.
p.s. I really wanted to go to some swanky place and order a gin martini while I was reading it.
Ha! A gin martini would have been perfection.
Ooo – I’m going to add this to my this on my “to read” list right now!
Do it! :)
What a GREAT review — I’m always looking for book suggestions, and as a freelance writer by profession, I can see myself LOVING a book written by someone who uses words beautifully!
Thank you. :)
Thanks for stopping by! I really did think Towles had a knack for beautiful language. :)
This was a great book, but you’re so right that Katey was missing something! I loved her relationships with the other characters, but for all that she was experiencing with those people, she just didn’t seem to feel enough-betrayl, heartbreak, desperation. None of it seemed valid or deep enough. Glad I stumbled on your blog!
Yes! It was just not quite enough. So close…but not quite. I’m glad you stumbled here, too! :)
I’ve been hearing so much about this one lately! It’s going on the ever expanding list of books to read.
Great review!
Thanks! The reason it made my TBR list was because it’s been everywhere :)
sounds great but for the danger of reading it causing me to alter my behavior in terms of degrees of civility…I mean…you didn’t say one thing or give one example as to how one of the characters was “civil” to another…did you? Maybe I missed it….you can’t highlight a blog post…why don’t we work on that problem first…seems like it should be so easy…anyway, I happen to know that chance meetings at Jazz clubs can take years to fully reveal what disasters they were so maybe there will be a sequel…??
Freshly Pressed means I have to get at least one completely nonsensical comment, doesn’t it?
Nice review. Now I want to go get it. I’m intrigued by the language you describe.
Thanks! The language really sealed the deal for me on this one — it was so beautiful.
I just noticed someone reading this on the train this morning. Great, coincidental ‘followup’!
I love book-spotting coincidences :)
That’s a nice review. And I must say the AudioBook seems to be amazing !! Will surely get it. Thanks for sharing :D God bless
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It gets points in my book for an interesting title and cover—judge me for judging the cover.
I judge books by their covers All. The. Time. :)
Sounds like an interesting read! A well-written review. :)
Thank you Sheena!
A book written by a man that falls a bit short of understanding the feelings of a woman, albeit his lead female character, sums it up nicely for me. That is a must read for me. How could I not relate to falling a bit short of that mark. Nicely done. Good work.
Thanks! And thanks for stopping by. :)
Hi Cori, read this book over the Christmas holidays and really enjoyed readin it as well. I agree with your comment that “there were still parts that didn’t feel distinctly feminine, though, of course, I couldn’t put my finger precisely on it”. Funny, I didn’t realize that that was what I was missing until I read it from you! Great review adn I’m looking forward to reading more. Happy reading and happy trails!
I read book reviews all the time where I think, “Yes! That’s what I thought but I didn’t know I thought it until I read it here!” :)
I’ve never listened to an audio book ever, so it’s really interesting to learn about books that would fit better narrated than on print. The whole idea is almost alien to me. I suppose that’s true for first person narratives? I mean, I certainly feel like Ray Liotta should be reading the Joseph Merlyn sections in Mario Puzo’s Fools Die, much like the voiceover he delivered in Goodfellas.
I listen to audio books all the time, and the narrator really makes all the difference. The best is when there are foreign accents — I’d never be able to accurately re-create them with my brain’s own voice. I think audio books also allow me to slow down, since I can’t control the pace of an audio book, and I can tear through print.
Yeah. Time and pacing sound like they would be definitive factors. I think I’m going to give audio books a try very soon.
Excellent! Let me know how you like them. The reader can make or break a book, too. So if you don’t like the first one you try, don’t give up. :)
totally going to read this :) sounds awesome :) i definitely enjoyed the beautiful and the damned and also steppenwolfe which is around the same era, love old books, they take me back into a world where things appear to be simpler :) thank you for sharing though
keep smiling
xx
“appear to be simpler” — exactly! :)
I love the name of your blog!
Thank you!
Hi great review. I enjoyed the book tremendously and was deeply moved by the growth of the main character. Don’t want to be too specific and spoil the book for others, but i felt that the main problem was with the main male character who seemed to be somewhat predictable in deed and plot. I love the prose though, it was effortlessly engaging.
I can totally see your point about the predictable nature of the main male character. You pretty much could guess what he would do next.
Seems to be good book~~~
Not seems to be…is! :)
hahaha,ok!!!I will read it if possible~~~
how can i listen to it?
You can rent it as an audio book (either CDs or an MP3 player, depending on what they have) from your local library, or buy the actual audio book on CD, from iTunes, or Audible.
‘Decadent’=one of the most over-used words in the English language; originally defined as a pejorative attribute, the word is continually and pretentiously misused as a laudatory adjective in descriptions of everything from chocolate cake to fashion design.
Reblogged this on Social Literary.
Thanks!
No worries!
Read this book recently and absolutely loved it! Great review, I agree about your thoughts on Katey’s character. It was almost there…
So close!
Sounds good – thanks for the review! Putting this one on my library’s hold list. :)
Definitely! It’s really a great read.
You book is very interesting.
Mário de Noronha
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Thank you
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Definately the female voice throws it off, not the right pick for this character, but overall a good audio book.
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Thank you for stopping by! :)
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