A beautifully written novel, poetic with its well-timed motifs and chapter-ending aphorisms. This book is largely set in the late 1930s and mostly follows a working-class girl, though everyone she knows was either born rich or currently rich or both, and all the action and drama comes from flitting in and out of the lives of wealthy socialites. All the characters are heavy drinkers, and heavier smokers, which mirrors their impractical, self-destructive decisions made because even end-of-the depression-era New York City doesn’t provide enough struggle and adventure to satisfy their poetic sensibilities. Like Huck Finn digging a tunnel with a spoon rather than walking through the unlocked door, Katie and the friends who come and go through her twenties spend their evenings and weekends in reckless diversion. Katie is the most practical of them all, probably due to her humble upbringing, yet her endless patience for Tinker and Evie, who treat her so poorly, is another expression of self-inflicted hardship for the sake of adventure.
It is an insightful exploration of characters, and it is a thing of art, this novel. And because Amor Towles was reveling in his artistry, after years of banking, he had to push the envelope by exploring sexual indecency and perversions, though he respectfully leaves most of it to the imagination.
The ending is not satisfying, even though Katie does seem to be content, finally. She can maintain fond memories of her former friends, who want no continuing relationship with her, without thinking of Tinker every day. Perhaps remembering Tinker is helpful to Katie, to remind her not to sell her soul, but mostly, she cherishes Tinker’s memory as her long-lost true love, and that’s what makes the ending unsatisfying.
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