Table for Two is a collection of stories and a novella, each unique yet all examples of Amor Towles’ storytelling wit: not quite snark, but often just this side of it. Amidst the vivid descriptions, colorful characters, and quick dialog, Towles reveals astute observations on greed and generosity; society and the self; truth and fiction; family relations; and political ideologies.
In “The Line,” a Russian peasant couple moves from the farm to Moscow to work in the factories and eventually to New York. He is a people pleaser, she an idealist who works within the system. Their opposing ways of being in the world have surprising results.
“The Ballad of Timothy Touchett,” tells the story of a timid writer and used book seller who, through a series of unfortunate choices, finds himself in hot water. As in the other five stories set in New York City, truth is stretched, trust is tested, assumptions are made, and conclusions are drawn – and shared with the reader through narrative and internal dialog.
In the second half of the book, we are reintroduced to Evelyn Ross, one of the main characters in the 2011 novel Rules of Civility. “Eve in Hollywood” portrays Los Angeles in the late 1930s from multiple vantage points: including a starlet, a studio executive, a washed-up actor, and a driver.
Though a few of the pieces in Table for Two had been previously published, all were new to me and a delightful discovery.
Liza Bernard is a voracious reader who enjoys both printed volumes and audiobooks. Formerly co-owner of the Norwich Bookstore, she maintains her connections with readers and writers as the Programming and Marketing Librarian at the Norman Williams Public Library in Woodstock, Vermont.