5/19/2023 0 Comments Reviews for rules of civility![]() ![]() ![]() He is best known for his bestselling novels Rules of Civility (2011), 1 A Gentleman in Moscow (2016), 2 and The Lincoln Highway (2021). At worst, one might even accuse it of being derivative. Amor Towles (born 1964) is an American novelist. ![]() If you haven’t already beat me to my punch line, I’ll summarize by simply suggesting that RULES OF CIVILITY is well done, eminently readable, extremely well crafted, and certainly enjoyable but, at best, it fails to plow any new furrows in old ground. I didnt truly appreciate this book as I was reading it, nor when I finished the last page. The parasitic and ultimately futile lifestyles of the indolent wealthy stocks, bonds, boards of directors and captains of industry love and lust, fidelity and capricious, irresponsible infidelity rags to riches and riches to rags dining, drinking and debauching and, of course, a time and place setting somewhat reminiscent of the 1930s and downtown Manhattan, not necessarily New York exactly, of course, but with that big city vibe! I’ve lost track of how many books I’ve read that build on such a foundation – F Scott Fitzgerald’s THE GREAT GATSBY, Edith Wharton’s THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, Herman Wouk’s MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR, Tom Wolfe’s THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES, Ernest Hemingway’s THE SUN ALSO RISES and many more. The same certainly cannot be said of the universe that contains Amor Towles’ RULES OF CIVILITY. "In Agatha Christie's universe, everyone eventually gets what they deserve." ![]()
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