"Rules of Civility" — A Q&A with Author Amor Towles

Rules of Civility, one of last year’s hottest books, was just released in paperback yesterday and is perfect for vacation reading. Set in New York in the 1930s, it’s the story of 25-year-old Katey Kontent, who, through a fascinating series of chance encounters and spur-of-the-moment decisions, goes from the secretarial pool to the top of the social strata over the course of a year. Beautifully written with a story that keeps you turning pages, it is truly a piece of literature.

I received a Q&A with author Amor Towles from Penguin Books, and pulled out a few questions to share with you to give you a little more background and pique your interest. After you read it, click here to win a copy of Rules of Civility. For an extra chance to win, leave a comment below. And check out Penguin’s Facebook contest, where you just may win one of two prize gift sets featuring items evocative of Manhattan’s 1930s Golden Age!

Q: Why did you decide to write a book set in the late 1930s and how did you research the period? 

A: I’ve always had a great interest in the period between 1900 and 1940 because it an era of such incredible creative combustion.

In retrospect, the pace of change in the arts and industry in the 19^th century seems pretty glacial. Painting, music, the novel, architecture were all evolving, but at a pretty observable pace. Then in the span of a few decades, you have James Joyce, Nijinsky, Cubism, Surrealism, jazz, Henry Freud, Sigmund Freud, the Russian Revolution, movies, airplanes, skyscrapers and the general upending of received forms in almost every area of human endeavor.

Over the years, I listened to the music, saw the movies, read the novels and manifestos, lingered in front of the paintings. So I really didn’t do any applied research for the book. Rather, I tried to rely on my secondhand familiarity with the period to orient my imagination.

Q: Were there any personal influences from the 1930s that informed the book? 

A: None of the characters in the book is based on anyone in particular. But three of my grandparents and a great grandmother lived into their late 90s or early 100s. My maternal grandparents lived across the street from me in the summers and I’d see them every day. Over lunch when I was in my twenties, it was great fun to talk with them about their lives between the Wars – when they were young adults. My grandmother, who was simultaneously a woman of manners and verve, fended off marriage proposals until she was 30 because she was having too much fun to settle down. Like the book’s narrator, she pushed a rival in furs into the drink before ultimately accepting my grandfather’s proposal.

I think the 1920s and 1930s had a certain openness that was countered by the conformity of the 1950s.

Q: Do you think Katey’s story could have occurred somewhere other than New York? 

A: I certainly hope so. I think the book’s themes of self-invention, aspiration, love and loss, are recognizable in any corner of America. But one interesting aspect of New York is that it is a leading capital for advertising, art, broadcasting, fashion, finance, food, journalism, music, publishing, theater, etc. This means that every year, young people from all over the world with very different backgrounds, interests and ambitions descend on the city. They are all looking to establish connections (in the E.M. Forster sense as well as the networking sense). This just increases the odds that the person you sit next to at a dinner could change your life.

This post originally appeared on my former blog, StyleSubstanceSoul.com.