The setting won’t be unfamiliar to movie buffs with a taste
for black-and-white flicks from the ‘30s (picture Rosalind Russell or Kate
Hepburn playing the spunky heroine who arrives in Manhattan from the provinces
and lands in a boarding house with a wise-cracking roommate). Katey
Kontent, fresh from the Midwest, has a job in a typing pool, but it can’t hold
her for long: she’s on her way up the
career ladder--and the social ladder--fueled by her own limitless smarts and the
champagne cocktails she shares with tuxedoed playboys in smoky jazz clubs and
on Long Island estates. From the 21 Club to the Lower East Side, Katey is
living the dream until a random event demonstrates with painful clarity that choices
matter, luck can turn on a dime and people (especially rich people) are often
not what they seem.
In real life, Towles is an investment banker, and this is
his debut novel. It was instantly embraced by readers, due at least in part to
the fact that he writes about what he knows and loves, and he knows and loves
Manhattan. It was such a great favorite with book clubs that it’s been challenging
to find a copy on the shelves until now--so if you haven’t already had the
pleasure, you’ll definitely want to give this novel a spin. For an added treat,
visit Towles’s website (http://amortowles.com/). He offers an iTunes playlist of the music that
provides a backdrop to the novel, as well as a map of Manhattan highlighting
the book’s key locations and a timeline of the eventful 1930s that puts you in
the picture in a very entertaining way. Too cool!
--Helene
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