Wow. They wrote this just for me.

Ever think that?  It doesn’t happen often but when it does, it is pretty wild isn’t it?

It’s as if they’re in our heads and know what kind of characters we enjoy getting to know. They know all the different kinds of stories that interests us. They know, when all is said and done, our heart will make a promise to our brain that we will never, ever, let us forget them. 

But, here’s the magic of it … they know all this before we do. 

I love when that happens. 

Amor Towles has done that for me. Twice. 

He did it with Rules of Civility. He did it again with Table for Two: Fictions.

Table for Two: Fictions consists of six short stories set in New York and a novella in Los Angeles.  Most of the New York stories take place around the year 2000. The novella is set in 1930’s Hollywood (old time Hollywood has always been a favorite genre of mine).

I learned recently after he finished Rules, Towles believed the stories of Katey and Tinker have been told in their entirety, but not Eves. Therefore, he wrote an extended story called “Eve in Hollywood’”. He said he did so with an intent for it to be “slim and enigmatic,” but as he admitted later it “was too slim and enigmatic even for me.”  So, in 2023 he checked into the Beverly Hills Hotel and “gave Eve the story she deserved.” 

Eve is the unassailable Evelyn Ross who leaves NY to go home to Indiana, but doesn’t. She keeps going west to Los Angeles and it is there she begins a new life for herself.

It is told from seven points of view. 

Like all the best vintage Hollywood stories it includes a starlet, a washed up actor, cops, cads, salacious pictures and a little blackmail. 

As much as I liked Eve in Rules – and I absolutely did – it is here I learn so much more of an extraordinary woman.  How much more?  I will put it this way.  She may not be in a class all to herself, but it would take very little time to call the roll. 

Elsa Walcott.

Evelyn Hugo.

Elenor Oliphant. 

And now, Evelyn Ross.

Exceptional women whom I will always remember. When Eve comes to mind she will do so with the same fondness and inspiration those I mentioned always do. A person with such thoughtfulness, intellect and an innate goodness at the core of who they are. These women are the very best examples of human kind.

Now, I admit, yes, that I know that Towles has sold over six million books. 

I know he has been published in over thirty different languages. 

I know that everything he writes is on every bestseller list there is. 

And, of course, I know Gentleman in Moscow has become a very successful eight-part streaming series on Paramount.

But even still, I like to think he wrote Rules of Civility and Table for Two: Fictions, just for me.

I suppose you can try and convince me otherwise, but you won’t be successful.  Because, that’s the magic of it for me.