Rules of Civility (2011) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit

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Characters/People edit see section history

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• Katey Kontent: Young Brooklyn born New Yorker who works as a secretary at a law firm. Intelligent, impoverished, avid reader of Russian ethnicity
• Theodore "Tinker" Grey: Charming but enigmatic young man whose secrets are slowly discovered over the course of the novel
• Evelyn "Eve" Ross: a beauty from Indiana set on making a name for herself in the Big Apple
• Anne Grandyn: Wealthy, attractive and powerful widow of 50+ used to getting her own way. Tinker is her banker and protege. She encourages Katey to pursue what she wants.
• Wallace Wolcott: An old money New Yorker. Teaches Katey to shoot and gives her a rifle for Christmas.
• Henry "Hank" Grey: Tinker's older brother. He is an artist. Tiresome, argumentative
• Mason Tate: Add a description of this character.
• Hamilton: Elevator boy from Atlanta at Beresford, where Tinker lives.
• Miss Markham: Kate's boss and the head of the secretary pool at Quiggin & Hale
• Fran Pacelli "Peaches": Another resident of Miss Martingale's boarding house, and becomes a friend of Kate's. City College dropout.
• Grubb: Fran's love interest. Tall, thin red-headed.
• Dicky Vanderwhile: Wealthy, Princeton grad, good-time Charley,who knows everyone. Brother of Pembroke Press associate Susie
• Johnny Jerkins: painter friend of Hank Grey and Grubb.
• Michael: driver for Wallace Wolcott.
• Bucky
• Bryce: Anne Grandyn's prissy secretary/assistant
• "Wyss" Wisteria: Married to Bucky. Prim, stuffy, discontent.
• Roberto: Princeton classmate of Dicky Vanderwhile.
• Bitsy Houghton: Athletic sister of Wallace's boyhood friend Jack Houghton. good friend of Katey's.
• Mr. Jacob Weiser: Condé Nast's corporate comptroller.
• Helen: Pembroke Press associate, friend of Susie's.
• Tony: Security desk attendant at Condé Naste building.
• Walker Evans: Photographer who took the revealing 1930s New York City subway photographs with a hidden camera.
• Uncle Roscoe: Katey's father's brother - a stevadore with big hands and a cauliflower ear. He and his brother arrived in NYC from Russia when in their early 20s.
• Mr. Hollingsworth: Father of five 'boys", one of whom is Valentine.
• Pete: Doorman at the Beresford where Tinker lives.
• "Val" - Valentine Hollingsworth: Katey's husband. One of the wealthy Hollingsworth offspring.

Quotes edit see section history

• “In the 1950s, America had picked up the globe by the heels and shaken the change from its pockets.”

  pg 1

• “It is a lovely oddity of human nature that a person is more inclined to interrupt two people in a conversation than one person alone with a book....”

  Katey

• “If Broadway was a river running from the top of Manhatten down to the Battery, undulating with traffic and commerce and lights, then the east-west streets were eddies where, leaflike, one could turn slow circles from the beginning to the ever shall be, world without end.”

• “The romantic interplay that we were having wasn't the real game - it was a modified version of the game. It was a version invented for two friends so that they can get some practice and pass the time divertingly while they wait in the station for their train to arrive.”

  Katey p. 185

• “I suppose it's an immutable law of human nature that we sum up the events of the year as we approach its end.”

• “Slurring is cursive speech, I observed.”

  Katey

• “I think we all have some parcel of the past which is falling into disrepair or being sold off piece by piece. It's just that, for most of us, it isn't an orchard; it's the way we've thought about something or someone.”

  Katey - pg 150

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• One must be prepared to fight for one’s simple pleasures and to defend them against elegance and erudition and all manner of glamorous enticements.

  Highlighted by 483 Kindle customers

• As a quick aside, let me observe that in moments of high emotion—whether they’re triggered by anger or envy, humiliation or resentment—if the next thing you’re going to say makes you feel better, then it’s probably the wrong thing to say.

  Highlighted by 464 Kindle customers

• —If we only fell in love with people who were perfect for us, he said, then there wouldn’t be so much fuss about love in the first place.

  Highlighted by 421 Kindle customers

• Which is just to say, be careful when choosing what you’re proud of—because the world has every intention of using it against you.

  Highlighted by 415 Kindle customers

• Uncompromising purpose and the search for eternal truth have an unquestionable sex appeal for the young and high-minded; but when a person loses the ability to take pleasure in the mundane—in the cigarette on the stoop or the gingersnap in the bath—she has probably put herself in unnecessary danger.

  Highlighted by 362 Kindle customers

• —Most people have more needs than wants. That’s why they live the lives they do. But the world is run by those whose wants outstrip their needs.

  Highlighted by 356 Kindle customers

• Whatever setbacks he had faced in his life, he said, however daunting or dispiriting the unfolding of events, he always knew that he would make it through, as long as when he woke in the morning he was looking forward to his first cup of coffee.

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• Old times, as my father used to say: If you’re not careful, they’ll gut you like a fish.

  Highlighted by 253 Kindle customers

• But for me, dinner at a fine restaurant was the ultimate luxury. It was the very height of civilization. For what was civilization but the intellect’s ascendancy out of the doldrums of necessity (shelter, sustenance and survival) into the ether of the finely superfluous (poetry, handbags and haute cuisine)?

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• Because when some incident sheds a favorable light on an old and absent friend, that’s about as good a gift as chance intends to offer.

  Highlighted by 236 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• New York City
• Manhattan
• America
• London
• Beresford: The building in which Tinker lives.
• Central Park West
• Europe
• Indiana
• Hollywood
• Harlem
• Company
• Whileaway
• Pembroke
• Lower East Side

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Photography: Describe this theme.
• Navigation
• Literature

Series & Lists edit see section history

Preceded by The Family Fang, and followed by Radioactivity : a history of a mysterious science.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Amor Towles (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PS3620.O945R85 2011
• Dewey: 813.6

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Add a note to help parents select a book for a child.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Historical
• Books › History › Americas › United States › State & Local › New York

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• National Public Radio: Review