Currently in the middle of Table For Two and have read Gentleman in Moscow, Rules of Civility, and Lincoln Highway.
I’m loving Table For Two, and it’s just reminded me how well he writes characters, places, and times. He makes you nostalgic for times you’ve never lived in and places you’ve never been while making you feel like you’re right next to the characters as things are happening.
I feel like the title was a bit dramatic now, but hot darn I love the dude and his writing.
by Jayyykobbb
3 Comments
I feel like he writes extremely stylish works, but there is sometimes something lacking in the depth that makes it hard to describe him as being among the best. For example, Gentleman in Moscow is set in Bolshevik Russia and Towles draws on that setting when it’s convenient to the plot, but at the same time the main character is shielded by the state both from the attacks on his social class (aristocrat) and from the poverty that the poor were cast into. The book is ostensibly about a man persevering against adversity, but doesn’t really grapple with the fact that in reality he is facing less adversity than just about any other Russian outside the ruling class at that time, which leads to it undermining its own themes and characters at times.
I agree that Towles draws a very impressive picture which is the main draw of his books, and I think that the lack of depth only detracts from that in a very minor way – but at the same time it’s hard not to feel that the very best authors are probably the ones who are achieving both style and substance in a more coherent way.
I agree. I’m glad I stumbled across him.
One of the best definitely.