I am a huge fan of Amor Towles. He creates beautiful, complex characters and deeply realistic worlds, and even stories I don’t totally love (Lincoln Highway), I don’t consider a waste of time. The same – and more – can be said of Table for Two, a collection of fictional stories. For those of you saying “More fiction? You said you were branching out this year!”, I counter with the fact that these are ~short stories~ and therefore different.
Do not let the fact that it took me over a year to finish this (according to Goodreads) deceive you regarding my feelings toward or enjoyment of the book. The stories were gorgeous and beautifully written, but I was not created to read short stories on Kindle. I simply need to accept that, if I venture into the world of short stories again, I need to get the physical book. I want time to sit with one story before jumping into the next, and time is not what you have with Kindle loans from the library.
The book is comprised of a few shorter stories at the beginning of the book, and then the last half or so is one story, told from various points of view. As each story is incredibly unique, I want to focus more on Towles’ writing than the different tales. What I appreciate about short stories, having tried my hand at it once or twice, is the skill it takes to convey enough of the story that the reader feels engaged and informed in only a few paragraps. I found this very hard to execute when I tried it, but it comes across as effortless from Towles’ artful pen.
In only a matter of pages, he creates characters and stories that stick. I read the first few stories in the collection at the beginning of last year, and I can probably tell you more about them than whole novels I read during the same time. Each of Towles’ characters feels fresh and dynamic, real and raw. I never seem to be lulled into familiar tropes with his work, and I love discovering what new world he creates with each story.
This was such a refreshing read, a gift of watching a master at work. If Towles writes another collection of short stories, you best believe I’ll be buying it.
2% Rating: 8.5/10
Recommend? Absolutely
Re-Read? Honestly, yes
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