Table for Two by Amor Towles

Amor Towles fans are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood.

The New York stories, most of which take place around the year 2000, consider the fateful consequences that can spring from brief encounters and the delicate mechanics of compromise that operate at the heart of modern marriages.

In the novella, Eve in Hollywood, Towles returns to one of the characters at the heart of his debut novel Rules of Civility: the indomitable Evelyn Ross, who leaves New York City in September 1938 with the intention of returning home to Indiana. But as her train pulls into Chicago, where her parents are waiting, she instead extends her ticket to Los Angeles. Told from multiple points of view, Eve in Hollywood describes how Towles’ heroine crafts a new future for herself and others in a noirish tale that takes us through the movie sets, bungalows and dive bars of Los Angeles.

Written with wit, humour and sophistication, Table for Two is a glittering and stylish offering from the author of A Gentleman in Moscow, The Lincoln Highway and Rules of Civility.

Table for Two is the latest offering from Amor Towles, perhaps best known for A Gentleman in Moscow which was recently adapted into a series. Rather than a new novel, Towles’ latest is a collection of shorter pieces of fiction with six short stories based in New York, plus a novella – which takes up approximately half of this 450-page tome – set in Los Angeles. As with any collection, there were stories in here that I preferred to others, but I loved the book as a whole. Anyone who has read Towles’ work will know that he writes beautifully, and I think that these stories showcase that skill brilliantly.

After reading Rules of Civility earlier this year, I was left wondering what happened to Evelyn Ross. The last the reader hears of her character is that she boarded a train to Chicago, but extended her ticket to Los Angeles without explanation. For anyone who, like me, wondered what became of her, wonder no more. The novella, Eve in Hollywood, details that decision to bypass Chicago, and what she then got up to in LA. And boy was it worth waiting for. Told from various perspectives – friend and foe alike – we see Eve befriend a Hollywood star and become caught up in a blackmail plot. Eve always struck me as unique individual, and this novella shows her at her best, allowing her no nonsense attitude and sheer chutzpah to shine through as she becomes something of a Hollywood fixer. I absolutely adored it, and would recommend Table for Two for anyone who enjoyed Rules of Civility on basis of this novella alone.

The six shorter New York stories all have their merits, but my favourites were The Ballad of Timothy Touchet, I Will Survive, and The Bootlegger. That I’ve only been able to narrow down the collection of six to three is perhaps indicative of the strength of the collection (or my own indecisiveness – I’ll let you decide). The eponymous Timothy is an aspiring writer with a hidden talent who gets caught up in a scheme of his employer’s, and I enjoyed the way in which their scheme would have succeeded were it not for one small mistake. I Will Survive sees a young woman tailing – none to subtly – her stepfather on behalf of her mother who’s convinced he’s having an affair. It’s a tale that perfectly demonstrates the trouble with good intentions. The Bootlegger sees Tommy, an investment banker, take a self-righteous stance when he spots an older gentleman recording a performance at the Carnegie Hall. Indignant, he reports this misconduct, only to later regret his actions upon understanding the truth of the situation.

I think that all of these stories – plus The Line (which starts out in a Russia that will be familiar to those who’ve read A Gentleman in Moscow), Hasta Luego, and The DiDomenico Fragment – highlight what a brilliant writer Towles is. I love his characters, and the way that each finds themselves caught up in a seemingly mundane drama. It’s a lovely collection that I highly recommend.

Book 11 of 20 Books of Summer.