A review by badb_catha
Table for Two by Amor Towles

3.0

Uneven; some good short stories at the front of the book; the longer novella in the last half doesn’t come together right at all. In general, the quality of the writing declines as the book continues. There is a sense of cleverness not managed and not that clever, a troubling upper crust and wannabe upper crust WASP class consciousness something like : “Well, yes we’re awful but we’re better than everybody else, aren’t we? “ and one feels one is spending time with people one would rather avoid. The longer novella in the second half of the book fails as something serious and fails as an ode to Los Angeles and it fails as a noirish caper story. A lot of plot devices and twists feel very by the numbers.

2.5 stars overall. Readable, I guess, and your library surely has it. But don’t expect much. I hadn’t read any of this author’s writing before, and doubt very much I’ll read any more of it.