Table for Two (Amor Towles) - PG Wodehouse once more!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I was waiting eagerly for this book since i had heard of it. Preordered it the moment Amazon opened it in India. And I was rewarded for my enthusiasm and excitement with a perfectly splendid, delicious spread of short stories I could sink my teeth into! The book is a collection of 6 short stories that take place in New York and a novella of 12 brief chapters. First let us talk about the Short Stories.

I loved the first story, based largely in Moscow as it was, though it ends in the Big Apple. It was a throw back to A Gentleman in Moscow which will always remain the best Towles book, never mind how many more titles he writes! It is an endearing story about a Russian couple as different as chalk and cheese and their accidental journey to New York. Towles is a master in describing people, their nature that drives their actions and their interactions with each other, conveying the most serious thoughts in a manner that brings a smile to the face. Among the other stories, I would put The Ballad of Timothy Touchett and The Bootlegger as top of my list of favourites. The themes that Towles explores, the accounts of relationships he gives the reader, the glimpse into different life trajectories and the very human treatment of each character warms the heart. Add to it the dry wry humour each sentence is laced with, I don't think a smile ever left my face all the time i was reading this. The only other author who has that effect on me, is the great inimitable P.G.Wodehouse!

Now the novella - Eve in Hollywood. We have met the charming and utterly savage Evelyn Ross in Towles' debut novel Rules of Civility. Clearly Eve stayed with her creator Towles and her story developed through the years and finally found expression. It traces Eve's arrival in Los Angeles, the charms and perils of the silver screen world she jumps into, the good, the bad and the ugly she meets and how she navigates the treacherous quicksands of Hollywood. Each brief chapter is written from the perspective of a different character in the story and often describes the same event or occurrence from the standpoint of a different person. It took me a while to get a grip on the characters, the plot and where it was headed to, but once i got that, it had me hooked. Perspectives of different characters and their back stories bring them to where they are, once again highlighting how the whole is more than the sum of parts!

One glaring error i found in the book, and not one I would expect a writer of the stature of Amor Towles to make, given he would have an army of proof readers and fact checkers, is the reference to the authors Charles and Mary Lamb in the chapter on Prentice. 

On page 252, he writes:

"Prentice's original plan was that day had been to dwell for the hour after tea in the pages of Charles and Mary Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare."

 He goes on with this reference in Page 253 where he says:

"Why rush back to one's quarters? he thought. Mr and Mrs Lamb were as genteel and sympathetic as any companions known to man"

And here lies the gross error as Charles and Mary Lamb were not a married couple (husband & wife) but were a pair of siblings (brother & sister). Anyone with a wee bit of knowledge about the writers of England in early 19th century is likely to know this. Referring to them, even in error, as Mr and Mrs Lamb is well..... It is not a mistake made once, as on page 257, he once again refers to them as Mr and Mrs. Lamb. The correct honorific would have been Mr and Ms Lamb. Whether it is a detail that the author mis-wrote or an unfortunate typo (or auto correct), it is a glaring editorial oversight that I found it unpalatable. I hope this mistake is rectified immediately in the Kindle edition and taken care of in future printed editions of the book. At the very least, an immediate apology/ clarification needs to be put out. 

Apart from this detail that put a spanner in the experience, I quite enjoyed the book, the turns of phrases, the storylines and the sub plots within the larger plot. All in all, a must read.