BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS
(Print: 7/26/2011; 978-0143121169; Penguin Books; first edition; 352 pages)
Audio: 7/26/2011; 978-0307934536; Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group; duration 12:04:04 (10 parts).
(Film: In development).

CHARACTERS:
Katherine (Katey) Kontent- Native New Yorker
Evelyn (Eve) Ross- Young beauty from Iowa
Theodore (Tinker) Grey – Young man from River Falls
Henry (Hank) Grey- (Tinker’s brother)
Wallace Wolcott-Young man of New York’s social upper echelon
Dicky Vanderwhile-Young man of New York’s social upper echelon
Anne Grandyn-Introduced as Tinker’s Godmother.
Bitsy Houghton-Young woman who is an old friend of Wallace’s

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
I snatched this from Overdrive’s audio files of books, having loved the authors more recent book, “A Gentleman in Moscow”, despite the presence of other books that had come available to me after long holds.
This is the author’s debut novel.
With cornerstones the likes of Charles Dicken’s “Great Expectations,” Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden”, and George Washington’s “Rules of Civility” serving as philosophical references, this book depicts the stratification and structure of society . . . and lives.
At its center is young, intelligent and witty Katey Kontent. A bookworm at heart, she can nevertheless paint the town (Manhattan) with the best of them, which includes her roommate/best friend, Eve. While making her way in the world, Katey makes friends readily with members of any social class, but is not the social climber that Eve seems to be. Conversational exchanges between characters are witty with sparks of profundity that provide many a psychological insight to characters, while subtly dispensing life advice to readers.
I will be watching for more novels by this author!

AUTHOR:
Amor Towles (1964). According to Penguin Random House Publishers, Towles was “Born and raised in the Boston area, Amor Towles graduated from Yale University and received an MA in English from Stanford University. His first novel, Rules of Civility, published in 2011, was a New York Times bestseller and was named by The Wall Street Journal as one of the best books of 2011. His second novel, A Gentleman in Moscow, published in 2016, was also a New York Times bestseller and was named as one of the best books of 2016 by the Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, the San Francisco Chronicle, and NPR. His work has been translated into more than thirty-five languages. Having worked as an investment professional for more than twenty years, Mr. Towles now devotes himself full time to writing in Manhattan, where he lives with his wife and two children.. . . [he] is an ardent fan of early 20th century painting, 1950’s jazz, 1970’s cop shows, rock & roll on vinyl, obsolete accessories, manifestoes, breakfast pastries, pasta, liquor, snow-days, Tuscany, Province, Disneyland, Hollywood, the cast of Casablanca, 007, Captain Kirk, Bob Dylan, (early, mid, and late phases), the wee hours, card games, cafes, and the cookies made by both of his grandmothers.”
As I mentioned, I intend to follow this author.

NARRATOR:
Rebecca Lowman (2/25/1970). According to IMDb, “Rebecca Lowman was born on February 25, 1970 in Springfield, Illinois, USA. She is an actress, known for Eve of Understanding (2006), CSI: NY (2004) and The Onion Movie (2008).”
I’ve been treated to this reader’s narration somewhat recently before with “Fangirl”.
Her performance here is perfect!

GENRE:
Psychological Literary Fiction, U.S. Historical Fiction

LOCATIONS:
New York City, Manhattan

TIME FRAME
Primarily 1938; 1930’s – early 1940’s; 1966.

SUBJECTS:
Fiction; Sociology; Friendship; Young women; Upper class; New York; 1930’s

SAMPLE QUOTATION:
From “Abandon Every Hope”
"The jockey wasn’t wearing one of those brightly colored checkered outfits that helps the track pretend it’s festive. He was wearing a brown jumpsuit like a diminutive garage mechanic. As he walked the horse from the paddock out onto the track, steam rose from the horse’s nostrils. In the stillness, you could hear it whinny from five hundred feet. The jockey talked briefly to a man with a pipe (presumably the trainer) and then swung onto the horse’s back. A hush fell. Without the shot of a gun, horse and rider took off.
The sound of the horse’s hooves drifted up into the stands in muffled rhythm as clods of turf were kicked in the air. The jockey seemed to take the first lengths at an easy pace, holding his head above the horse’s. But at the second turn he urged the animal on. He drew his elbows inward and squeezed his thighs around the horse’s barrel. He tucked the side of his face against its neck so that he could whisper encouragements. The horse responded. Though it was getting farther away, you could tell it was running faster, thrusting its muzzle forward and drumming the ground with rhythmic precision. It turned the far corner and the beat of its hooves grew closer, louder, faster. Until it bolted through the imaginary finish line.
--That’s Pasteurized, Grubb said. The favorite.”

RATING:
5 stars. I enjoy this author's command of English and the depth of his characters.

STARTED-FINISHED 1/29/21-2/4/21

P.S. 3/16/24. After having gone to a book signing presentation at the (Costa Mesa, California) Segerstrum Concert Hall, I have listened to this again, this time with my husband, as the author promises to allude to this story again in his soon to be released (April 2024) collection of short stories. This second listening had me wondering how I could have forgotten so much about the plot, and feeling that I'd understood much more about it, and gotten much more out of the "reading" the second time around. ( )

A witty, sophisticated novel by a first-time author. Katey Kontent looks back at her life in 1930s Manhattan and the decisions that brought her from working-class Brighton Beach to the steno pool in a law firm, and ultimately the "Knickerbocker" crowd, and the inner workings of the publishing world. ( )

It’s not often that I buy a book on spec these days, even if I’ve loved the author’s past work, but something told me that I had to pick up Towles’ first novel and see if his early work measured what was to come with A Gentleman in Moscow. Set during the interwar period in New York, there was infinite opportunity for glamour, grittiness, and a milieu of rich characters (in both the financial and personal sense) and Towles plumbed the city’s veritable depths to bring us a tale that spoke with an old world glamour but retained sense of nouveau (rich, if you must) that felt decidedly modern. The tale ostensibly follows Katey (of many K-aliases) as she scarpers throughout the city in search of a success that she definitely wasn’t born into. Yet, her character is far from the Dickensian poor and workaday types that she reads about in the literary classics scattered throughout her background and referenced in the story. Her drive is somehow more subtle, and more arbitrary: she has skills, but she doesn’t work too hard at them, and even though the opportunity presents itself she steers clear of even the thought of sleeping her way to the top, relying instead on some accidental planning and minor conniving to get where she wants to be. As much as I expected her to take a knife to New York at some point in the tale (were we yearning for a touch of Blair Waldorf, grown up in different circumstances? Possibly), the every day tone set by Towles works admirably at walking the tale solidly on without making the melodrama (of which there is plenty) seem cheap or tawdry. I wonder a bit if Towles saw Gossip Girl when it aired (it was out before this novel), because the male protagonist of the story takes an interesting line from a brief moment in the life of Nate Archibald - that of the well to do New York prince brought low by the follies of his father - though admittedly the motifs are all too common in the real world as well. Tinker Grey provides a perfect foil to Katey, giving us moments to wonder whether the pair will get together in the end, and many moments of charm, amusement, and poignance as his true story is finally revealed. By the time we get to the final pages, Katey has sorted her life out and seems to have gotten it all, and yet we’re still left with a sense of longing. For what, exactly, it’s unclear, but maybe that’s just what New York (and the lives and tales that play out among its streets) are meant to be - never quite at the top of the Empire State, but forever walking down the same boulevards and rediscovering the nostalgias we thought we’d forgotten. ( )

It's 1966. A wealthy couple is drinking their way through a reception at The Museum of Modern Art celebrating the Photography of Walker Evans. Evans' used a hidden camera to capture the faces of New York City subway riders in the 1930s. The couple had lived through those times. But these faces were the down and out, not their people. As she strolls through the exhibit, she's drawn to one face. Could it be, yes it is. She knew him. That's Tinker Grey. But when she knew him, he was not down and out. Quite the opposite, he was one of the very rich, and she was just a hardworking working-class girl focused on her job in the secretarial pool of a large Manhattan law firm with her typewriter, steno pad ready to take dictation, attend depositions, type contacts in triplicate, etc. She knew Tinker very well, and her husband even knew him, sort of.

That's the setup. The bulk of the book is set in Manhattan in the 1930s, and told from her point of view. Kate Kontent, interesting name, is hard working, very often drinking, occasionally smoking, partying, hanging out and often getting in to situations. Following her roommate, Eve, and other friends, she party crashes with the best of them. They focus on upper crust types, leverage their good looks and their ability to choose clothes to fit in, especially with eager young men. They encounter the wealthy Tinker Grey and Eve immediately calls dibs on him. After he takes them in his Mercedes to the 21 Club, they spirit him to Chernoff's, more to their liking, the Mercedes is rear ended and Eve is almost killed, changing everything. Grey's guilt is overwhelming, and once Eve is released from the hospital, he takes her to his apartment in the Beresford to nurse the scarred Eve, who appears more than willing to milk the situation for all it's worth.

Grey appears to be the epitome of the boy scout, gracious, respectful, empathetic and willing to go all out. He even has a dog eared copy of George Washington's 110 rules of civility. After six months he even proposes to Eve, with an enormous diamond, who, surprisingly, turns him down flat and runs off after getting so drunk Kate needs to rescue her from the police. Eve decides to leave town and winds up in Hollywood. It takes a while, but with the field finally cleared, Kate gives in to her attraction to Tinker even though he has, respectfully, maintained his distance. So with the die cast we finally learn there's more to Mr. Grey, interesting name. He has a dark side. We also learn there's a villain, with a suite at The Plaza, who's been hiding in plain sight. Both are revealed, but you'll have to read the book to find out how Mr. Grey and the villain are really related. Needless to say not all are who they seem to be. I highly recommend it. And don't worry about Kate, she comes through with barely a scratch, see 1966. Was it fate or did she choose? ( )

In the last hours of 1937, Katey Kontent and her roommate Evie Ross are at a down-at-heel jazz club when they meet Tinker Grey, a handsome and eligible bachelor who may not be all that he seems. The three strike up a friendship over a New Year's toast, and for the next few weeks, they go around together as often as possible. It seems like Tinker is developing an attachment to Katey when disaster strikes -- a disaster that will shape all of their lives over the coming year.

I listened to the audiobook of this, expertly narrated by Rebecca Lowman. I fell completely into Katey's New York and thoroughly enjoyed my stay. My only complaint is that I felt the ending fizzled out just a little. I wanted more closure. (I felt the same way about A Gentleman in Moscow, so maybe it's an element of Towles' style to which I am reacting.) All in all, recommended. ( )