“Many young authors finding themselves so satisfactorily situated would have waded into the choppy seas of their ambitions without a moment’s delay, using their free hours to spin sentences into paragraphs and paragraphs into pages, melding memories and fancies with immediate impressions until their first novel was ready for its miraculous debut. But having spent a few weeks tapping his pencil on the top of his desk, Timothy decided that before he began this endeavor in earnest it behooved him to study the practices of his heroes.”
Those are some lines from one of the short stories in Amor Towles’ book Table for Two. He’s also the author of that wonderful novel A Gentleman in Moscow.
Table For Two is a collection of six short stories and one novella. In the short story of the opening quote, Timothy extends the study of his heroes’ practices to their signature of which his boss (the owner of the bookstore where Timothy works) then takes financial advantage. Another story is about a congenial man who gets paid to wait on long food lines in the Tsar’s Russia; another about an aging widower who is accused of taping musical performances at Carnegie Hall.
The novella, entitled "Eve" in Hollywood takes place in 1938. After a breakup, Eve moves from New York to Los Angeles. While staying at a hotel there, she makes friends with and Olivia De Havilland who is about to land her role in Gone with the Wind. When Olivia is blackmailed over compromising photos, Eve is hired by the studio to protect Olivia.
As the book jacket says, this book is “written with his signature wit, humor, and sophistication.” If you, too, are an Amor Towles fan, then you must read Table for Two.
