• Rules of Civility

  • A Novel
  • By: Amor Towles
  • Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
  • Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (9,650 ratings)

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Rules of Civility  By  cover art

Rules of Civility

By: Amor Towles
Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
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Editorial reviews

Amor Towles is approaching 50 and making a living as a principal at an investment firm. One wouldn’t expect his debut novel to be told from the perspective of a wise-cracking young lady of 25, but Towles is good at surprises. Katherine Kontent (“like the state of being”) is a legal secretary trying to climb the social ladder and squeeze all the juice out of Manhattan. She is the only slightly less seductive sidekick to Eve, who leaves her wealthy family behind to act like a mash-up of Christopher Isherwood's Sally Bowles and Truman Capote's Holly Golightly. It's the Upper East Side in the winter of 1939 — ripe for ripping off F. Scott Fitzgerald or Ernest Hemingway or whatever writer you prefer from the era of roaring alcoholism, but Amor Towles doesn’t take the bait.

Neither does narrator Rebecca Lowman, who has good fun with the zippy dinner conversations while managing to keep Kate's sporting sense of dignity intact as both lovers and day jobs threaten to collapse her up-and-comingness. Lowman, who has a long string of television series bit parts from Will & Grace to Law & Order to her credit, slips easily into the everywoman role and adds notes of believable determination to our heroine's struggle for better circumstances. Who will marry Tinker Grey and who will get the promotion at Conde Nast are interesting plots, but none of this is the surprise - the plot surprise is all the more devastating. Towles gives us some glitter, but he doesn't gloss, and that is the biggest surprise. The women in this book are fraught with the tremendous burden of appearing charming but unintelligent, and Lowman lets in enough sharp tones to give their dilemmas and revelations a substantial bite. Towles has fleshed out these familiar archetypes in a unique direction, so much more rich and thick than the flat characters with which novels of this time period are usually laden. Megan Volpert

Publisher's summary

From the number one New York Times best-selling author of The Lincoln Highway and A Gentleman in Moscow, a “sharply stylish” (Boston Globe) book about a young woman in post-Depression era New York who suddenly finds herself thrust into high society - now with over one million readers worldwide.

On the last night of 1937, 25-year-old Katey Kontent is in a second-rate Greenwich Village jazz bar when Tinker Grey, a handsome banker, happens to sit down at the neighboring table. This chance encounter and its startling consequences propel Katey on a year-long journey into the upper echelons of New York society - where she will have little to rely upon other than a bracing wit and her own brand of cool nerve.

With its sparkling depiction of New York’s social strata, its intricate imagery and themes, and its immensely appealing characters, Rules of Civility won the hearts of readers and critics alike.

Hear why Rules of Civility is Our Book of the Summer.
©2011 Amor Towles (P)2011 Penguin

What listeners say about Rules of Civility

Average customer ratings
Overall
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Leisurely Listen for Summer

Would you try another book from Amor Towles and/or Rebecca Lowman?

Sure, I would probably try another.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Rushed - but I was pleased with the ending.

What aspect of Rebecca Lowman’s performance would you have changed?

Nothing

Could you see Rules of Civility being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Kate - Sandra Bullock
Tinker - Brad Pitt
Eve - Charlize Theron

Any additional comments?

I realize this book represented a different class, is set in New York City and is fiction - but I would question so many women being unchaperoned and having sex during that era.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent and unique.

This, the gentlemen from Moscow, Where the Crawford Sing, forgotten garden are a league above and changed the type of books I read.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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A First Class Story Teller

Amor Towles is one of the most talented, enjoyable and refreshing writers ive discovered in recent years. The story is captivating, the characters well developed and the scene b brilliantly understood. All of this occurs without the feeling of superfluous information. Excellent read.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable but..

I chose this because I love gentleman in Moscow.

And I enjoyed this but I didn’t love the second half.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Beautiful

Beautifully written. Beautifully performed. This book transforms you to the time period through the eyes of characters that slowly reveal more about themselves and dialogue that is completely on point for the era.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Disappointing

I loved Towle's. A Gentleman in Moscow but this novel didn't come close to it.

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    5 out of 5 stars

great listen!!!

loved the story. I was torn thinking reading this book might be better but narrator is great, moving between the characters and giving each something unique. so happy I committed on this one!

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Amor Towles is always a delight

The narrator is fantastic. Doing male voices was no issue at all. Story was wonderful.

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I love this story, but...

I remember when I read the Kindle version of this book, I was halfway through it when I thought to check the name of the author. Maybe she’d written other books. So accurate and convincing was the female voice of the main character, told in first person, that I was shocked and amazed to discover it was written by a man.

It’s a great story and for the most part, Rebecca Lowman does a good job narrating except when dramatizing male voices. I’d have preferred her to just read their lines. Still, it’s too good not to listen to, so I do recommend it heartily.

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best book I've "read" in a long time

I didn't want it to end. just listen you won't be sorry - I'm trying to be succinct and it won't let me....

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