Book Club Chat :: Table for Two

When considering Amor Towles’ Table for Two, I struggled with, “Do I write my own review or post my book club’s notes?” I recently declared in front of an audience that I believe Towles is the most talented literary fiction writer who is still publishing today. I recommend him without hesitation to anyone looking for book recommendations – avid readers and less frequent readers alike. I’ve reviewed his other books here and here and here, so I felt I should be writing another review. But, I decided to post the notes – just with a longer introduction.

Table for Two is a collection of eight short stories plus a novella. The stories are connected only by setting and perhaps theme (see notes below). The novella is the continuation of the story of one of the characters from Rules of Civility and is aptly titled Eve in Hollywood.

A couple of weeks after our book club discussion one of our members who had not finished reading the book the night we met texted and said: “Did I miss the part of the discussion where y’all talked about what a bad-ass Eve is?” The truth is, no she did not miss that part of the discussion. This book is so full of things to talk about we didn’t get to the obvious – how much Eve is the epitome of a girl-boss.

In Rules of Civility, Eve is very much her own person. She seems wise beyond her years, she’s straightforward and doesn’t care about bit what other people think.

In the novella Eve in Hollywood, she comes into her own even more. She’s matured and left behind a bit of her impetuousness while going all in on not giving a damn what she has to do to make sure the women around her are not taken advantage of. She’s happy to work with men to this end, but will also not let them stand in her way of getting things done. (I don’t want to offer any spoilers, so I’ll just say that her way of turning over the pictures is nothing short of brilliant. And no man would have ever thought to do that.)

There is much more that I could say, but I’ll let my book club’s notes speak for many of the other highlights.

Notes from SOC Book Club Discussion

Towles has amazing one-liners – he’s a master of offering exceptional turns of phrase that make you stop and savor the thought. (This is something that I wrote about when I was first introduced to his books.) Specific examples we discussed included:
– “Even a churchbells gotta swing if it’s gonna chime.” (Eve in Hollywood)
– “Oh, Timothy.
‘At long last, here comes your experience.” (The Ballad of Timothy Touchett)
– “As those who loved her best, we lied.” (I Will Survive)
More than any of his other books, this one feels not necessarily autobiographical, but like it includes more of himself – his personal experiences from living in New York or what we imagine what might have been his personal experiences
Towles comment about the title was that it wasn’t intentional, but he realized that in his stories – as in life – many of life’s important moments happen between two people sitting across the table from each other; we discussed these moments for most of the stories.
The interconnectedness of his stories. This first short story begins in Russia, setting and time frame for Gentleman in Moscow. Towles’ other three novels all have connections with each other, and Eve in Hollywood continues the story of one of the main characters in Rules of Civility.
The stories seem to be about someone doing the wrong thing, but maybe for the right reasons. How true is this statement? Can right motives or intentions excuse lapses in ethics?
All the stories are full of irony and humor.
The richness of all of the characters & how well-developed they all are. How well they come to life.
We love how Towles pays attention to the details. He shows great respect for his subjects by doing the research it takes to get it right. Appreciate that he does this for such a wide range of subjects – art, music, history, etc. We noted this specifically for The Didomenico Fragment and The Bootlegger.