Amor Towles
Reviewed by Brice B. on May 18, 2012
In New York City circa late 1920s an independent young woman from Brighton Beach meets an independent young woman from the heart of the Midwest and together they create a social scene for themselves in Manhattan. Kathryn, or Katey, may as well be from as far away from Manhattan as possible for all she knows about the finer things in life. Eve, or Evey, the big hearted Midwestern girl has the personality which could have walked right out of one of those Fifth Avenue mansions overlooking The Park. Enter Tinker Grey… young, rich, handsome, established with old money, sophisticated with a well developed sense of himself… or wait, who is he? What does he have and what does he do? This story is one of the unexpected, when things tend to go in surprising directions just when the reader feels as if they have it figured out. Amor Towles provides us with a fascinating take on life in the earlier part of the twentieth century when rules of civility were ever present in daily social norms.