Becky's Great Book Reviews Table for Two by Amor Towles

Table for Two by Amor Towles is a collection of short stories that encompass Towles' signature style: subtle humor, charm, and action abound. The first unrelated half takes place in (or ending up in) New York and the second half follow Eve, the 1939 protagonist from Towles's Rules of Civility. At the end of that book readers learn she stays on the train from New York to L.A., instead of getting off to return to her parents in Indiana like was expected.

The characters in Towles' stories are unforgettable. The surprising caring actions of Jerry in Hasta Luego, a D.C. political strategist, as he goes above and beyond to take care of the relapsed alcoholic stranger he meets while their flight is stranded, are an example of what makes the pages turn themselves. And the wit with which Towles pens his fiction, like when Nell in I Will Survive thinks that her mom felt cheated by her divorce, "cheated by institutions like the episcopal church and Jane Austen", lend mirth to the pages.

When the title character in The Ballad of Tommy Touchett, an aspiring writer, ironically gets his "experience" for literary fame through his own criminal actions, we can appreciate the short story for coming full circle concisely. The second half of the novel about Eve in Los Angelos allow readers to see her unassailable spirit through interconnected plot and characters, also with a feeling of coming full circle. Mixing in real-life characters, like movie star Olivia De Havilland, bring in a level of interest and excitement.

This reader enjoyed the first stories better, only because the stories about Eve took a little more effort to keep the characters and plot straight. All in all, the patience paid off and the book was a pleasure to read. I give Table for Two four stars out of five.