Table for Two by Amor Towles: Bougie-Immersive Fictions
Amor Towles is at it again! In his fourth book (all of his work is highly respected and well-loved), he tackles the short story and the novella (“fictions,” he dubs them). In the first section, Towles writes six stories set in New York, and he follows it with “Eve in Hollywood,” a novella set in California. Unbeknownst to us, “Eve in Hollywood” was a previously published 2013 novella–though we never read it, so it might be tweaked a bit. (We don’t actually see it available at this point.) As known to us, Eve was a character in Towles’ first book The Rules of Civility, published in 2011.
Lara: Let’s start with this. How freaking classy is Amor Towles? He releases a book of stories called Table for Two that, by any other author, would be called a short story collection. But not his. It’s dubbed Fictions and I am so here for it. I feel smarter when I read his work, kind of in the same way I feel smarter when I read a book narrated by someone with a British accent (Towles is not British, btw).
Jennifer: I truly admire his level of class, like he proves that one doesn’t need to be a reprobate to tell a good story (though I’m a reprobate). Now, I know you’re treading gently, but since I’m the reprobate, I’ll say it: he could be easily misconstrued as pretentious or bougie. I personally wouldn’t say that he’s pretentious. I think he IS bougie–but I like his intriguing dips into high society. It’s a world of art collectors and Park Avenue.
So, overall impression?
Lara: Uhm, stop. Dear readers. Please comment and tell us if you knew what reprobate means. I did not. And I will go on to say that, while Towles’ storytelling oozes class, it’s not alienating. It’s bougie. It’s immersive. It’s bougie-immersive. Did I just coin a viral literary phrase?
Okay, back to Towles. He starts so strong. Each of the New York stories is layered in ways that pull you in and allow you to get fully engaged with the story and they wrap up in ways that leave you with a sly smile on your face, a catch of your breath, or a feeling of having just read something by someone at the top of their writing game.
Jennifer: Bougie-immersive! Love it! You coined it. Let’s use it!
Lara: So with New York, we get six stories at different times in history and covering different events, but all about relationships and what it can mean to be human (which is my favorite kind of story).
In “The Line,” we meet Pushkin, a peasant from a small village (not the Pushkin), and his wife who move to Moscow just as Communism takes over Russia. Pushkin experiences the challenges of a new Tsar-free world, and figures out how to make his way when he has literally nothing. We learn through Pushkin’s story that freedom (even with only the clothes on your back) is a better life than being a prisoner of your government. There will be a New York connection.
Jennifer: I loved this story, and I love it because it subtly reveals why this Marxist-Leninist project just wasn’t going to work in the Soviet Union. It’s a smart story! It was very evident that he actually understood Soviet history.
Lara: In the “The Ballad of Timothy Touchett,” Timothy makes his way to New York City from Boston to become a writer. Timothy struggles and doubts that he has the trauma-filled backstory to achieve any literary success. What can he even write about?
“How could one expect to craft a novel of grace and significance when one’s greatest inconveniences had included the mowing of lawns in the spring, the raking of leaves in the fall, and the shoveling of snow in the winter? Why, Timothy’s parents hadn’t even bothered to succumb to alcoholism or file for divorce.”
Timothy gets a gig to support his writing endeavors, one that makes him a good amount of money at seemingly no real cost or risk. But we all know if it sounds too good to be true…
And that final line!
Jennifer: Also loved this one! Great finale!
Lara: “Hasta Luego,” “The Bootlegger,” “I Will Survive,” and “The Didomenico Fragment” feature the lengths we will go to for the people or things that we love. These lengths are often rooted in fear and insecurity that, when pursued, can have devastating effects.
Jennifer: I could’ve wept at the end of “Hasta Luego.” And “I Will Survive” reminded me of Central Park on the weekends. “The Bootlegger” is terribly human. “The Di Domenico Fragment” is all arty, a bit elitist–but I liked it (least of the New York stories).
Lara: I was really impressed with how these stories could elicit so much from me in just a few pages. I also loved that his stories each had a clear conclusion.
Jennifer: I think this is an important point coming from you, because you tend not to love story collections so much. Right?
Lara: I like them more when I feel a sense of closure, yes.
Jennifer: Let’s turn to Hollywood.
It’s a “spin-off” of his earlier novel, Rules of Civility, also bougie. Bougie-immersive. Eve, a character from Civility, steps into Hollywood–and settles in a posh Beverly Hills hotel, becoming friends with Olivia de Havilland. It’s the thirties, the Second World War is brewing, Gone with the Wind is coming, and–notably–this is that era of the Hollywood Starlet, those Gone With the Wind/sweeping staircase/”Frankly-My-Dear-I-Don’t-Give-A-Damn” moments. . .
It’s an interesting thing Towles chooses: historic fiction?
Lara: This was my least favorite part of the collection. Well-written? Yes! I didn’t feel like it went with the rest of the stories. If he wanted a novella as part of the collection, I wanted it to be in New York and with the same tenderness and bite of the previous stories.
Jennifer: Agreed.
Lara: “Eve In Hollywood” is a good extension or companion piece to The Rules of Civility, but I read it too long ago to fall back into that different time (and way of storytelling). I still love you, Amor! And you are still an auto-buy author for me.
Jennifer: While I don’t enjoy dissing Towles–because I do think he’s a fine writer–I agree that the New York stories were stronger, considerably stronger. I loved them. However, I didn’t love “Eve in Hollywood” and I wish I did!
I’ll now tell you why . . .
Too many characters. (I think I liked Charlie best, but I was rather unmoved.) A little caper-esque, which isn’t my thing. Not with the character depth of the previous section. So I was disappointed. And I had this glorious reading experience with the New York section. I was on vacation with my writer-women friends in this bougie house in bougie Park City, Utah–writing, reading, talking, drinking coffee. And Amor Towles was my book–reading it on a balcony! I got home to boiling hot Phoenix, finished up with “Eve in Hollywood,” and wasn’t thrilled.
This section of the book is metaphorically represented by the front desk of the hotel:
“—In fine hotels the front desk is always manned by snobs.”
This novella felt like I was in a fancy hotel and – while everyone was beautiful – they were distant and snobby. The kind of characters that reprobates like me (wink, wink) roll their eyes at and say, “Whatever.”
Lara: So, I did like the caper-esque quality. And the last 30 percent of the story was great – when they solve the mystery of the indecent starlet photos (see, in modern times, I would say “nudes” but, I am going along with the times.)
Jennifer: What have you been reading, besides this?
Lara: I have read quite a bit! My favorites since we last met have been The Funny Thing About Norman Forman by Julietta Henderson which will end up in my tops for the year; Yellowface by R.F. Kuang which is a razor-sharp and searing satire on the lack of diverse voices in the publishing industry; How to Be Eaten by Maria Adlemann is a modern retelling featuring heroines from some of our favorite fairytales in modern day group therapy; followed by Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life by Christie Tate made for a nice fiction/non-fiction book flight; and We Are the Light by Matthew Quick of Silver Lining Playbook and this will also end up in my tops for 2024. What about you?
Jennifer: I kid you not: I just finished the memoir, Acid for the Children, by Flea (of the Red Hot Chili Peppers) – and the writing is sizzling hot like one of those freakin’ red hot chili peppers. I loved Leif Enger’s I Cheerfully Refuse. Steve Almond’s Truth is the Arrow, Mercy is the Bow is a book on writing–and writers should get it! Though I don’t fully embrace his thoughts on writing about sex, he is fabulous and I’d recommend it! I am STILL trying to make my way through Barbra Streisand’s memoir.
Lara: You are bolder and perhaps braver than I. Streisand’s book is a behemoth!
Next Up!
Be on the lookout in mid-July when we come back to the interwebs with our thoughts on Alina Grabowski’s Women and Children First, a pick on many summer reading lists!