Table for Two: Fictions
An Instant New York Times Bestseller "A knockout collection. ... Sharp-edged satire deceptively wrapped like a box of Neuhaus chocolates, Table for Two is a winner." --The New York Times "Superb ... This may be Towles' best book yet. Each tale is as satisfying as a master chef's main course, filled with drama, wit, erudition and, most of all, heart." --Los Angeles Times Millions of Amor Towles fans are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood. The New York stories, most of which take place around the year 2000, consider the fateful consequences that can spring from brief encounters and the delicate mechanics of compromise that operate at the heart of modern marriages. In Towles's novel Rules of Civility, the indomitable Evelyn Ross leaves New York City in September 1938 with the intention of returning home to Indiana. But as her train pulls into Chicago, where her parents are waiting, she instead extends her ticket to Los Angeles. Told from seven points of view, "Eve in Hollywood" describes how Eve crafts a new future for herself--and others--in a noirish tale that takes us through the movie sets, bungalows, and dive bars of Los Angeles. Written with his signature wit, humor, and sophistication, Table for Two is another glittering addition to Towles's canon of stylish and transporting fiction.
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Community Reviews
Chris's pick. 👍🏻
Short stories. Features a hard-boiled detective story featuring Evelyn, from Rules of Civility.
Love everything Amor Towles writes. This book is no exception. Some beautiful moments described so delightfully.
This book has two parts- short stories, and a novella. The stories are in his distinctive style; I loved them. A solid 10 for those. The novella is a continuation of his Evelyn character from 'Rules of Civility' - his only book that I didn't enjoy. Towles does not write female characters well. He somewhat compensated by jumping around to several characters, but we never got to know any of them as well as we'd like. The lead-up and character development were enjoyable; the climax just made me think, "Well, that escalated quickly..." The final recap had similarities with 'A Gentleman in Moscow' - without the investment of knowing the characters better, the twists and turns to the plot felt more like a dime store mystery.
“Unfortunate encounters, awkward entanglements, and ill-advised alliances. And yes…compromising photographs, too.” Amor Towles’ Table for Two is a novella of “schadenfreude…just a fancy term for the God-given flaws we have no intention of giving back…For that which humbles our sense of vanity prepares us to face that which insults our sense of honor!”
“Because if we don’t stare down the things that make us want to look away, then the world is just a mirage…But what is ‘the back of one’s mind,’ if not the place where we keep the good intentions we haven’t the gumption to act upon now?...The time has come–not once for all, but once again–to do that which one has always done in the manner of the sun, the moon, and the stars.”
Of all of the chapters, I resonated most with “Hasta Luego”–a contemporary Good Samaritan parable and a reminder that Good Samaritanism is not an event but a lifestyle, an act of kindness done…until next time. “For to serve the ones we love and receive their approval in return, need life be any more complicated than that?”
Reading each of Towles’ short stories was like watching “a string of gently swinging Christmas lights [go] out one by one, leaving [the reader] in the ebon embrace of the eternities.” Table for Two is a constellation!
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