This is a collection of six short stories and a novella. It is part of
Amor Towles's series Rules of Civility. Here are four of them. They are
*all* great!

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Hasta Luego is the story of Jerry who runs into Smitty at an airport.
Smitty is super friendly and tends to attract friends at the bar. Their
phones get switched somehow and when a call comes into Jerry it is from
Smitty's wife (because he has Smitty's phone). It turns out, Smitty has
a huge drinking problem and the rest of the story describes how she
won't leave Jerry alone until he finally extracts Smitty from the bar
and gets him into Smitty's room. It's comic and sad at the same time.

The next morning is more of the same until, finally, Smitty's put on his
plane. Jerry has missed his flight because of his effort to send Smitty
off. The title of the story is the departing greeting of Smitty to
Jerry. The last thing in the world Jerry wants to do is meet up again.

The final paragraph (spoiler) involves Jerry's feelings about the
persistence of a loving wife.

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The Bootlegger is about a Mr. Fein and Tommy. Here's a quote.

"About a minute and a half into the piece, after a series of low and
almost somber notes, there was a slight pause, a near cessation, as if
Bach having made an initial point was taking a breath before attempting
to tell us what he had really come to say. Then from that low point, the
music began to climb.

But the word climb isn’t quite right. For it wasn’t a matter of reaching
one hand over the other and pulling oneself up with the occasional
anxious glance at the ground. Rather than climbing, it was . . . it
was . . . it was the opposite of cascading—a fluid and effortless
tumbling upward. An ascension.

Yes, the music was ascending and we were ascending with it. First
slowly, almost patiently, but then with greater speed and urgency,
imagining now for one instant, and now for another, that we have reached
the plateau, only for the music to take us higher still, beyond the
realm in which climbing can occur, beyond the realm in which one looks
down at the ground, beyond hope and aspiration into the realm of joy
where all that is possible lies open before us.

And then, it was over.

Oh, how we applauded. First in our chairs, and then on our feet. For we
were not simply applauding this virtuoso, or the composition, or Bach.
We were applauding one another. Applauding the joy which we had shared
and which had become the fuller through the sharing.

As we applauded, everyone in every aisle was looking to their left and
right such that suddenly I and the old man were nodding at each other
with smiles on our faces in acknowledgment of what we had just
witnessed, what we had been a part of."

Ok, that obviously was an amazing piece of writing. But where does it
appear in the story? Who is the old man? Who is sitting next to him?

The old man is Mr. Fein. Sitting next to him is Mary, Tommy's wife.
Tommy has left the theater. Because he is disgusted with Mr. Fein, a
bootlegger, A "musical bootlegger." Fein has been taping the concert.

Much later, we learn why he has been taping. His wife has died and she
wanted him to still go to hear the music. When all this is learned by
Tommy much later, Tommy is despondent that he had caused Fein to have
been ejected.

Spoiler: The tape that Fein had made of this incredible concert was
slipped into Mary's pocket by the manager of the theater and even though
she and Tommy continue to go to the concerts, she only plays this tape
when he is away. It would be devastating to be reminded what he had done
to Mr. Fein.

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I Will Survive is about Peggy and John, Peggy's second husband. Her
first took off for another woman. John is a dedicated sixty-year-old
fellow who of late seems to not be going to his Saturday squash games
and Peggy suspects he's having an affair. So she convinces her daughter
Nell to spy on her step-father. But then changes her mind and tells her
not to. But Nell, a lawyer, does anyway. What she discovers is a guy
(John) roller skating with much younger friends in a park. They call him
Gloria. As in Gloria Gaynor, who wrote the song. He is an unbelievably
good roller skater, dancing to the song, the center of a circle of much
younger admirers.

Nell films everything and when she shows Peggy the joy her husband is
experiencing, it is a crushing blow. John himself walks into this scene.
The beginning of the end of their marriage.

We learn John's back story. When much younger he played hockey but quit
after he realized all he really liked was the skating part, not the
game. His roller skating was a way to revive what he loved.

As the story ends, Towles reflects on what many of us often do:

(The me below is Nell's husband.)

"The ease with which the couple advanced toward divorce left Nell on
edge. She couldn't stop raising the topic. Raising it with me. Raising
it with her sister and her closest friends. In trying to make sense of
what had happened, she would talk about her mother's stubbornness, or
John's ready acquiescence, or their generation's collective distrust of
counseling. Sometimes she would make that tried-and-true observation
that no one ever really knows what's going on inside a marriage. As I
say, she would return to the topic in different ways at different times
with different people, but her intent was always the same. By rehashing
the particulars with her inner circle, she was hoping she would receive
some confirmation, some assurance that whatever had happened, it hadn't
been her fault. And as those who loved her best, we lied. Each and every
one of us."

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The Line is a story about a fellow named Pushkin and his wife Irina.
They are simple people farming the land outside Moscow. They and
everyone else are used to waiting in food lines. One day they find
themselves listening to a political speech. Pushkin is happy to meet
people while in the bread line, gives his place away to others, and
doesn't pay any attention to what is being promoted by the Bolsheviks.
Irina, on the other hand, is quite taken by the revolutionary talk and
sees these lines they are forced to wait in as something they shouldn't
have to endure. She begins to push Pushkin toward a move to Moscow.

As the story evolves, a young kid sees that Pushkin's friendliness seems
to benefit him. People return to their spots in line and give him some
of the food they've managed to get. They end up becoming a team, meeting
others and learning how to get a free ride to places that will benefit
them.

Irina, bit by bit, begins to change her attitude about her husband as he
comes home with sausages, milk and more. When he's tasked to get three
things but comes home with only two because of the lines, she realizes
getting mad at him doesn't make sense. It's the unfair lot they are in
and that the Communists are fighting that is the real problem.

Getting better at "playing the game," Pushkin manages to make contact
with people who help him move into a much fancier place. Irina starts
calling him Comrade Husband.

A very funny sequence follows. Pushkin manages to fill out a form that
gets them out of Moscow and onto a boat to New York City. It is now 1929
and the Depression presents them with more lines to wait in.

While in a line, Pushkin spots a fellow in a threadbare coat and calls
to him "It's over here. This way my friend."

The story ends with these words.

"For while Pushkin was standing at the end of the line he knew that when
the fellow arrived it would no longer be the end of the line. In fact it
would no longer be the end of anything at all."

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Eve in Hollywood is the novella.

This is the novella that completes Towles's Table for Two. It is
historical fiction centered on Evelyn Ross's involvement in her friend
Olivia experience in Los Angeles (see below).

We first meet Eve as she travels west from New York to Chicago. She
meets Charlie, a retired cop, and they enjoy each other's company. When
she extends her trip to Los Angeles Charlie asks her why she did this.
She says "for the adventure." Eve has a scar on her face which is never
really explained and which blemishes her otherwise beautiful presence.

The main event in the story comes when photographs of a woman she's
befriended, Olivia, surfaces. She is naked. And when asked, doesn't know
where she was or who took them. We learn Olivia's last name, DeHavilland
somewhat later. Of course we recognize this name.

The story takes place in the early 30's, the heyday of Hollywood. And we
are introduced to the side of this town we didn't know about, the very
seamy side. Olivia has been overworked, given parts in many movies and
tossed around by the likes of David Selznick and others. She has also
been photographed while bathing via a two-way mirror she is unaware of.

Charlie and another fellow, an aging "oncewas" actor named Prentice,
work as a team to identify the perpetrator(s). The pace of the book
picks up and Towles proves himself as good as the best mystery writers.

The time is just post the Great Depression and everyone is out of a job
and many are breaking the rules. A fellow name Wendell who has done well
as a still photographer is talked into taking pictures of famous
actresses who are staying at a place that has been bought by a guy named
Litsky. Through a two-way mirror.

A third fellow, Billy, a stuntman, who has made a name for himself in
the movies of the day, is added to the Charlie / Prentice "team." He
ends up riding a bike right in front of Wendell, the "bagman," who is
carrying $5000 left by Eve in a restaurant, blackmail money in exchange
for the photographs. The "decision-maker," Litsky, and Wendell are
tracked down and, while counting their money, get a surprise visit by
Charlie. (Spoiler). They are left dead.

Meanwhile, yet another fellow, one Finnegan, who works at the hotel Eve
is staying at has figured out this whole money / photo scheme and
decides to make his own move. He uses a blackjack on Charlie and sticks
him in the trunk of his car. Later, Billy lets him out. As the book ends
we find Finnegan arriving at his house with the money and the photos.
All smiles. He is greeted by Eve! When Charlie shows up, still
recovering from his trunk etc. experience, he is informed by Finnegan
that the gun he is holding has no bullets. Things don't look good for
anybody (but Finnegan).

Since I've given away way too much, I'll just let you read this book.

I loved this one. He writes incredibly well. It's funny, it's full of
bad guys, good people and gives you a sense of what was going on in
Hollywood in the 30's.