Capital! Straight out of the mouths of his characters, capital describes Amor Towles' beguiling and bittersweet novel about New York twenty-somethings swinging their skirts and drinks towards each other and the future. It's 1938 and adorably-named protagonist Katey Kontent is just one of the story's clever fish, swimming uptown in her own resourcefulness - from a Brighton Beach upbringing into social circles that sparkle like diamonds and bubble over like champagne. Like Katey, friends Evey and Tinker discover this year that pre-war Manhattan is the perfect place to lose yourself, find yourself, or maybe a little of both. After all, "Doesn't New York just turn you inside out."
Katey's reflection on 1938 is told from the halls of the Museum of Modern Art. In the fall of 1966, in middle age, walking through a Walker Evans exhibition with her husband, Kate is caught up with subway photographs of the young fellow she once fell for. Her memory's journaling of the year she passed with Tinker and Eve is a sharp reminder of how, no matter the quickness with which people may come and go, some are indelibly present in spirit - especially those who find us when we're young.
Towles, as Katey, says best at book's end: "...life is...a game of honeymoon bridge. In our twenties, when there is still so much time ahead of us, time that seems ample for a hundred indecisions, for a hundred visions and revisions - we draw a card, and we must decide right then and there whether to keep that card and discard the next, or discard the first card and keep the second. And before we know it, the deck has been played out and the decisions we have just made will shape our lives for decades to come." Rules of Civility is no fairy tale. In fact, Katey, Evey, and Tinker all lose sight of each other by the end of 1938. Yet, what still makes this story so charming and sweet is the fact that, somehow, Towles' little rascals seem contented just the same. "You mean how was he on the inside. He was happy." Or so I think.
Katey Kontent is such a likeable lead. Maybe it's because she is so independent in choosing her cards. She wavers so little in the moments up-to and after she makes her decisions. In this way, she is a modern girl's fairy tale princess. In a nod to Kate, I put together this mixtape without thinking too much. No eraser to paper once my gut cried out. 'Cause sometimes that really is just the way it ought to be.
I went back in time a little for this one. Of course! 1938 is a year when Fats Waller, Count Basie, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Billie Holiday, and the Gershwins were making their mark on American music. Eve, especially, is a huge jazz fan, and Towles' trio frequents clubs with romantic names like the Hotspot and the Lean-To. For older Kate, telling her story from mid-century, I opened and closed this mixtape with Dinah Washington's 1960 recording of Gershwin's Loved Walked In and Ella Fitzgerald's rendition of Irving Berlin's Now It Can Be Told, from her 1958 sessions with Paul Weston's orchestra.
But this mixtape really evolved around my concurrent (and constant) listening to Laura Marling's latest album, A Creature I Don't Know, and the track I Was Just A Card (kismet, right?). Laura's deep, sure voice tells cautionary tales with jazzy verve and bluesy beauty. This album breathes Katey Kontent to life for me. The Muse soundtracks Kate and Tinker's early flirtations. Salinas is for Eve as she rides the train to LA.
Beirut always takes me places - other times, other continents - and they are all over this mixtape, too. St. Apollonia tips a cap to Katey's Russian heritage, nights at Chernoff's, and her love of churches. The Long Island Sound is the perfect antidote for an unbearable party in the Hamptons. A Call to Arms drones like the horn of a freighter, calling Tinker to the edge of the wharves and a new beginning. The rest of this mixtape's modern songs are tunes that somehow walk the line, in lyrics and tone, between happiness and melancholy, still young and full of whimsy - much like these characters were during our fleeting friendship. About the proverbial discard pile, those choices, Towles writes, "...right choices by definition are the means by which life crystallizes loss." And here, that's not such a sad thing - in the end.
Katey's reflection on 1938 is told from the halls of the Museum of Modern Art. In the fall of 1966, in middle age, walking through a Walker Evans exhibition with her husband, Kate is caught up with subway photographs of the young fellow she once fell for. Her memory's journaling of the year she passed with Tinker and Eve is a sharp reminder of how, no matter the quickness with which people may come and go, some are indelibly present in spirit - especially those who find us when we're young.
Towles, as Katey, says best at book's end: "...life is...a game of honeymoon bridge. In our twenties, when there is still so much time ahead of us, time that seems ample for a hundred indecisions, for a hundred visions and revisions - we draw a card, and we must decide right then and there whether to keep that card and discard the next, or discard the first card and keep the second. And before we know it, the deck has been played out and the decisions we have just made will shape our lives for decades to come." Rules of Civility is no fairy tale. In fact, Katey, Evey, and Tinker all lose sight of each other by the end of 1938. Yet, what still makes this story so charming and sweet is the fact that, somehow, Towles' little rascals seem contented just the same. "You mean how was he on the inside. He was happy." Or so I think.
Katey Kontent is such a likeable lead. Maybe it's because she is so independent in choosing her cards. She wavers so little in the moments up-to and after she makes her decisions. In this way, she is a modern girl's fairy tale princess. In a nod to Kate, I put together this mixtape without thinking too much. No eraser to paper once my gut cried out. 'Cause sometimes that really is just the way it ought to be.
I went back in time a little for this one. Of course! 1938 is a year when Fats Waller, Count Basie, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Billie Holiday, and the Gershwins were making their mark on American music. Eve, especially, is a huge jazz fan, and Towles' trio frequents clubs with romantic names like the Hotspot and the Lean-To. For older Kate, telling her story from mid-century, I opened and closed this mixtape with Dinah Washington's 1960 recording of Gershwin's Loved Walked In and Ella Fitzgerald's rendition of Irving Berlin's Now It Can Be Told, from her 1958 sessions with Paul Weston's orchestra.
But this mixtape really evolved around my concurrent (and constant) listening to Laura Marling's latest album, A Creature I Don't Know, and the track I Was Just A Card (kismet, right?). Laura's deep, sure voice tells cautionary tales with jazzy verve and bluesy beauty. This album breathes Katey Kontent to life for me. The Muse soundtracks Kate and Tinker's early flirtations. Salinas is for Eve as she rides the train to LA.
Beirut always takes me places - other times, other continents - and they are all over this mixtape, too. St. Apollonia tips a cap to Katey's Russian heritage, nights at Chernoff's, and her love of churches. The Long Island Sound is the perfect antidote for an unbearable party in the Hamptons. A Call to Arms drones like the horn of a freighter, calling Tinker to the edge of the wharves and a new beginning. The rest of this mixtape's modern songs are tunes that somehow walk the line, in lyrics and tone, between happiness and melancholy, still young and full of whimsy - much like these characters were during our fleeting friendship. About the proverbial discard pile, those choices, Towles writes, "...right choices by definition are the means by which life crystallizes loss." And here, that's not such a sad thing - in the end.
Soundtrack to a novel: Rules of Civility, Amor Towles
1. Love Walked In, Dinah Washington
2. Lulu's Back In Town, Fats Waller
3. St. Apollonia, Beirut
4. Winter Fawn, matt pond PA
5. The Muse, Laura Marling
6. Vacationing People, Foreign Born
7. Big Sad Eyes, The Immediate
8. Dots, Everest
9. In the Summertime, The Rural Alberta Advantage
10. The Long Island Sound, Beirut
11. Autumn in New York, Billie Holiday
12. Salinas, Laura Marling
13. September Song, Walter Huston
14. Waltz (Better Than Fine), Fiona Apple
15. Jumpin' at the Woodside, Count Basie & His Orchestra
16. Tupelo Honey (Van Morrison), Joan Osborne
17. It's De-Lovely, Eddy Duchin & His Orchestra
18. You Won't Be Fooled By This, Albert Hammond, Jr.
19. A Call to Arms, Beirut
20. Man\Bag of Sand, Frightened Rabbit
21. I Was Just A Card, Laura Marling
22. Now It Can Be Told, Ella Fitzgerald
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