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“Table for Two” by Amor Towles: A Masterclass in Time Travel Through Storytelling
From Moscow queues to Hollywood scandals: Towles’ latest collection is a vivid portrait of human connection. He crafts with wit, elegance, and unforgettable characters.
🎥 Scroll to the end of the article to watch the full video review from The Nook.
In the days, I traveled from Moscow to New York and 1930s Hollywood—never leaving home. I waited for rations with a kind man in Soviet Russia, wandered Manhattan’s glamorous, shadowy art world, and stood in Golden Age Los Angeles, witnessing actresses trapped by contracts and predators.
That is the true magic of Towles’ writing. He doesn’t just tell stories—he transports you. Table for Two delivers six short stories and a novella, each a ticket to another time and place, told with Towles’ signature elegance, wit, and keen observation. The vivid settings impress, but his characters—their flaws, choices, and hopes—linger long after.
In The Line, we meet Pushkin, a peasant uprooted by his wife from village life to Moscow and then New York. Towles shows his quiet dignity through upheaval. Just as I became invested, the story ended—and the same ache followed The Ballad of Timothy Touchett, where a struggling writer finds work at a rare bookstore, only to pay a price for inspiration.
Hasta Luego and I Will Survive offer absurd, sad, and tender glimpses of fleeting connections. In The Bootlegger, an investment banker exposes a man secretly taping concerts, only to later regret his own small cruelty. The DiDomenico Fragment—one of the collection’s most complete—follows a retired art dealer trying to manipulate his nephew into selling a rare piece. It’s sly, darkly funny, and moving.
Then comes Eve in Hollywood, the novella fans anticipated. Evelyn Ross, familiar from Rules of Civility, brings her charm to Los Angeles. Around her: a retired detective, a faded actor hiding in Beverly Hills, a big-hearted stuntman, and Olivia de Havilland—caught in a tangle only Evelyn can unravel.
There’s intrigue, charm, and a goose chase. It’s vintage Towles, though the first half can lag. Still, the final act delivers the layered, character-rich payoff expected.
My only gripe: the stories are short. Just as you fall for a character, it ends. But perhaps that’s good storytelling—you’re left wanting more.
Table for Two explores ambition and guilt, love and betrayal, connection and loss. In each piece, we witness people shaping and reshaping each other’s lives, often over the course of a single evening. And yes, quite often, at a table for two.
It’s a collection that reminds me why I’ll read whatever Towles writes, wherever he takes us next.