Book Review: "Table for Two" by Amor Towles

Amor Towles is a tremendously talented storyteller, with the ability to create vivid, unique characters and evoke time and place in your mind’s eye. I loved Rules of Civility and A Gentleman in Moscow, and still think of those books.

One word rarely used to describe Towles’ books is concise. The Lincoln Highway is just under 600 pages; A Gentleman in Moscow is approximately 500 pages. Even this, his new collection of not-so-short stories and a novella, runs about 450 pages.

Table for Two includes six stories set, or ultimately winding up in, New York City. Some of these stories are absolutely beautiful. “The Line” focuses on a Russian man in the early 1900s who goes far simply by being nice; “Hasta Luego” tells the story of two men who meet in an airport during a winter storm, and one man’s life is more complicated than meets the eye; “I Will Survive” is about the damage secrets can do to a relationship; and “The Bootlegger” is a poignant story about grief and moving on.

The novella, “Eve in Hollywood,” focuses on Evelyn Ross, a character from Rules of Civility. Eve decides to go to Los Angeles rather than return home to Indiana with her parents. While there, she connects with a variety of people, famous, infamous, and ordinary, including legendary actress Olivia de Havilland.

“Eve in Hollywood” is told from seven points of view, which was too many for me. It takes a LONGGG time to get going—there’s lots of narrative that I wasn’t sure would ever get me to the story’s main focus—and not all the characters are as fascinating as I hoped.

I definitely had high hopes for this book that didn’t quite come to fruition, but I’m still glad I read it for the four stories I loved. And of course, I’ll be looking to see what comes next for Towles!