rules of civility by amor towles summary

Katey is a secretary at Quiggin & Hale, a law firm, but soon she realizes that the job is a dead end and a disservice to the dreams her father had when he had left Russia for America. Tinker moves Eve into his luxury apartment, feeling obligated to take care of her. Tinker seems attracted to Katey, but then the three are in a car accident that seriously injures Eve. Katey and her friend, Eve Ross, meet Tinker on New Year's Eve in 1937, and the three develop a friendship. The other image, taken in 1939, features Tinker in threadbare clothing but with a hint of a smile. One image, taken in 1938, features Tinker in cashmere but not necessarily happy. All of the images had been taken in the late 1930s and early 1940s on New York subways, with a hidden camera. Katey sees two images of Tinker at an art exhibit. Tinker had been important to her in 1938. Katey Kontent narrates her own journey through the year 1938, from the future perspective of 1966, after she runs upon photographs of a man named Tinker Grey. Towles’ new novel is a rollicking, propulsive and alternately humorous and heartbreaking adventure filled with indelible, haunting characters.'Rules of Civility,' the first novel by Amor Towles, chronicles a transitional year in the life of a young woman in Manhattan. The dupery of Duchess drives “The Lincoln Highway” to surprises along the way and to the stunner of the book’s finale. A friend of Emmett’s from the detention camp describes him as a “loyal friend in his own crazy way,” an entertaining (expletive) slinger, a “guy born with no peripheral vision.” Duchess is the most complicated of the bunch: he’s charismatic, selfish, tricky and the engine that drives the tumult. Woolly, the failed son of a wealthy and aristocratic New York family, is otherworldly but kind.

Emmett is determined, stalwart, reserved. Because Emmett, Duchess and Woolly had been together in the juvenile camp before the novel begins, there are plenty of stories from their time there as well as each of their family histories.Įach main character is unique. Towles is a consummate storyteller, departing often but briefly from the road trip to deliver tales of his numerous other characters.

Rules of civility by amor towles summary