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4.06 AVERAGE
4.06 AVERAGE
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I didn't think I loved this book at the time but it has really stuck with me so I guess it made a bigger impression than I initially estimated
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Winter Challenge 2023: Set Around New Year's
2024 Color Coded Challenge: Black
Around the World in 52 Books 2024: a book with a title that ends in A, T or Y
I read and loved A Gentleman in Moscow by this author and read and liked The Lincoln Highway by him. This one wasn't for me. I'm hoping that Gentleman in Moscow wasn't an aberration in how much I enjoy this writer's works.
Rules of Civility is the author's first book. The best thing about it is the writing itself and that's why the book doesn't get one star. Amor Towles can really make a sentence zing. He can create a setting as rich and lush as one of those old movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood. He clearly loves New York City and its history.
However, I didn't really care for the characters in this book and the plot was unengaging for me. Towles sticks so strictly to showing instead of telling that I honestly couldn't figure out what Katey wanted the entire book. I understood that she loved Tinker but didn't understand why. And I felt like all the characters were speaking a foreign language that kept them at a remove from me even as they were engaging in sparkly dialogue right in front of me. Everyone was arch. Everyone was two steps ahead, unless they weren't. There were literary references aplenty in this book, some of which the author signposted and some of which I am sure eluded me. In the end, I don't know what the author was trying to say.
2024 Color Coded Challenge: Black
Around the World in 52 Books 2024: a book with a title that ends in A, T or Y
I read and loved A Gentleman in Moscow by this author and read and liked The Lincoln Highway by him. This one wasn't for me. I'm hoping that Gentleman in Moscow wasn't an aberration in how much I enjoy this writer's works.
Rules of Civility is the author's first book. The best thing about it is the writing itself and that's why the book doesn't get one star. Amor Towles can really make a sentence zing. He can create a setting as rich and lush as one of those old movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood. He clearly loves New York City and its history.
However, I didn't really care for the characters in this book and the plot was unengaging for me. Towles sticks so strictly to showing instead of telling that I honestly couldn't figure out what Katey wanted the entire book. I understood that she loved Tinker but didn't understand why. And I felt like all the characters were speaking a foreign language that kept them at a remove from me even as they were engaging in sparkly dialogue right in front of me. Everyone was arch. Everyone was two steps ahead, unless they weren't. There were literary references aplenty in this book, some of which the author signposted and some of which I am sure eluded me. In the end, I don't know what the author was trying to say.
My loan period is running up and the descriptions of the black characters immediately put me off.
What a delight! I loved the recreation of 1930s New York City, the witty dialogue, the gorgeous writing.Class and money, guilt, love, how we are seduced away from our true natures--so much wisdom in this novel. I read sections out loud to my husband,including a description of autumn in New York. I was drawn in from the first page and couldn't read anything else for two days until I finished it. I loved Kate and Tinker and Eve.
"I knew too well the nature of life's distractions and enticements--how the piecemeal process of our hopes and ambitions commands our undivided attention, reshaping the ethereal into the tangible, and commitments into compromises."
really good book. i liked the dynamic characters and honestly didn’t expect the switch up. i fell in love with so many of them and their relationship. i would recommend to anyone
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Lovely writing, as usual. I just didn't really connect with the characters or stories. It reminded me a lot of Gatsby -- the lives of rich people in a milieu I can't relate to, some with secrets, others with quirky characteristics, all narrated by someone with an outsider's perspective.