• Rules of Civility

  • A Novel
  • By: Amor Towles
  • Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
  • Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (9,657 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

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Beautifully written

Nuggets of insights at every turn. This coming of age was mesmerizing and wonderful. I blew through it in a few days an plan to listen again.

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Thoroughly enjoyed

It’s so wonderful when you are pulled into a novel by great writing. Interesting story & characters
Good narration

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F Scott Fitzgerald could learn a few things

F Scott Fitzgerald could learn a few things from Amor Towles. A beautifully crafted novel about a year in the life of a Katey Kontent living as a single woman in mid-1930s Manhattan. Cinematic in scope and intimate in character, this novel evokes mental images of the great black and white dramas of Hollywood's golden era. Beautifully read by Rebecca Lowman.

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The Narrator

She was perfect. A bad narrative ruins the story for me. She was so easy to listen too, her character voices relatable and her symbolic speech flowed wonderfully.

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Best edited of Towles three major novels

I first listened to A Gentleman in Moscow, enjoyed the premise and writing, but was disappointed with the fairy-tale ending. It felt like the author and editor ran out of steam in the last chapter. Then I did The Lincoln Highway. This book was promising with its epic, Huckleberry Finn approach and characters drawn straight from Homer. This time, it felt like the editor gave up halfway through! The side stories became too numerous, too long, and too irrelevant. Everything started to unravel in the last chapters (if not sooner), with characters and plot-lines disappearing, other characters (unrealistically) killed off, and the Homeric themes apparently abandoned (unless I missed something). So, I approached Towles' earlier Rules of Civility with trepidation but found that - unlike his later two novels - it was tight and well-edited. The asides were brief and appropriate, and the enjoyable story was driven by the believable characters instead of by a difficult-to-swallow plot, There even was an epilogue to tie up the few loose ends. Not clear why Towles didn't include a similar epilogue in the other two books; it certainly would have helped!

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Hat trick!

I listened to this one after Highway and then Gentleman in Moscow. These are terrific books. Already re-listening to them. Was so tickled when the tie-in arrived with Wallace in Civility. Hope Towles writes more. Thanks.

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Sublime

I’ve read (listened to) Mr. Towles in reverse order of their publication. Few novels I’m familiar with come close to the revelations of human nature that he shares on nearly every page of his work.

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Great listen!

Engaging characters and a winding plot. The narration was superb! One of the best readings I'ver ever heard.

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  • 06-17-13

Add this to Your Summer Reading List

I read this because my friend recommended it. From the love story to the delightful characters to the enjoyable way it is written, I really enjoyed it. The narrator did a nice job with the voices. There were a lot of characters and some jumping around in time, but it was easy to keep it all straight.

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remarkable first novel

If you enjoy truly eloquent writing, you will be glad to find Amor Towles. Wonderful turns of phrase, a delightful recreation of an interesting era, three dimensional characters. I will be watching for his next offereing.

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2 people found this helpful