Six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood. The New York stories, most of which take place around the year 2000, consider the fateful consequences that can spring from brief encounters and the delicate mechanics of compromise that operate at the heart of modern marriages.
Superb ... This may be Towles’ best book yet. Each tale is as satisfying as a master chef’s main course, filled with drama, wit, erudition and, most of all, heart ... These stories make clear that, at heart, he is a humanist with deep compassion for even the faultiest among us.
A knockout collection of six stories and a longish novella ... eneath his coifed prose Towles is a master of the shiv, the bait and switch; we see the flash of light before the shock wave strikes, often in the final sentence ... Sharp-edged satire deceptively wrapped like a box of Neuhaus chocolates, Table for Two is a winner.
These are jam-packed, juicy stories with lots of plot ... It's incredibly satisfying, old-fashioned storytelling with characters you care about, surprising but logical situations, liberal use of cliffhangers and, in each story, an ending that deals out fate in a way you won't have seen coming ... This is a book so packed with pleasure that even the letters are delightful.
