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Book Review of Rules of Civility

Rules of Civility
Rules of Civility
Author: Amor Towles
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Book Type: Hardcover
coconutlibrary avatar reviewed on + 12 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 7


Type: {Impress Your Friends Read: notable; prize-winner or all around intelligent crowd conversation piece.}
Rating: {An Unputdownable: Couldnt eat or sleep until I finished this book.}

Why Youre Reading It:
- You want to read the book that I am calling my favorite of the year, so far!
- New York City, 1930′s? Youre hooked!
- A smart, witty, & complex variety of characters are enough to convince you to read a book.
- Beautiful prose, continuously moving plots, rich details, and convincing story lines make a book a keeper in your eyes.

What I Thought:

Hello, and welcome to New York City in the 1930′s. Not only will you find the glamour, the music, the lingo, and the romance of one of the golden ages of the city, you will also meet one of the most refreshing protagonists in literature Katey Kontent. Lets follow Miss Kontent through a flashback to the year of 1938 a year that defined her life and meet the exquisite cast of characters that Amor Towles creates on the pages of his debut novel, The Rules of Civility. Against the backdrop of a time when anyone could become anything and women were starting to make their own paths to the top, Towles creates a peephole back through time that has you turning page after page wishing you could actually be there, even just for a moment, to catch a glimpse of the sleek and confident Anne, the charming Tinker, the lively Eve, sweet and sincere Wallace, or intelligent, witty, down-to-earth Katey. (This is the second book of the year with a character named Wallace. Though Im still waiting for a female Wallace to emerge in literature this books Wallace was a tribute to the name!)

My very favorite read this year, landing a spot on my favorite books ever, I was absorbed by this delicious novel. Balancing the thin line between eating it up in one bite but knowing how much I would regret doing that once it was finished I paced myself so that I could enjoy the company of this book for as long as possible. Towles did an extraordinary job of creating the scene, making realistic characters, and spinning a plot that a reader can care about. The lessons in these pages are timeless even if the era in which they are portrayed is exact (and thoroughly enjoyable). I highly, highly recommend this book to everyone. There are very few books that I re-read, but this will be one of them. The charming dialogue, the poignant passages, the intelligent references, and the three-dimensional characters make this poetic, philosophical book, about life and the individual experiences that shape it, fun to read and easy to digest.

Over and over, I exclaimed to myself (out loud of course, because it doesnt count if people dont think youre crazy), I love this book. I LOVE this book! I also can not get over how much I adore the character of Katey; and how fast they will probably turn this into a movie (and probably should), but how very, very sad Ill be because this is a book that belongs to the imagination its that magical.