![]() ![]() ![]() She’s a young woman of “poise and purpose.” Brooklyn-born, the daughter of immigrant laborers, she works in a Wall Street secretarial pool though aspires to much more.Īlongside a supporting cast with WASPy nicknames like Dicky, Bitsy and Peaches, Katey navigates her way through Manhattan jazz clubs and Long Island cocktail parties and into the upper echelons of New York society. Katey is the narrator and the wry heart of this novel. At its outset, there is a budding love triangle between Katey Kontent, that’s “kon-tent, like the state of being” her boardinghouse roommate, Eve and a handsome banker, Theodore “Tinker” Grey, but an unexpected accident sends the story in a more serious direction. ![]() The Jazz Age is over, the Depression in its final days, World War II just over the horizon. The story unfolds largely in flashback, set on New Year’s Eve in Manhattan 1937. It’s a nostalgic love letter to New York of the late ’30s, a novel of manners with lofty aspirations that evokes some of the classics of American literature. Written by first-time novelist Amor Towles, a principal at a Manhattan investment firm, the book has shot up the best-seller charts and is drawing rave reviews from critics. Pour yourself a cold martini, make sure it’s extra dry, put some classic jazz on the stereo, a mournful saxophone is a must, and settle in with one of the best-reviewed novels of the year, “Rules of Civility.” ![]()
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