As usual I will begin by noting how hard I find it to write about a collection of short stories. How do I write about the whole of a disparate mix? Not comprehensively, I fear.
“The Bootlegger” tells about a complicated marriage with the backdrop of classical music. The narrator describes her smart and successful husband, a person who was moved to hear classical music at Carnegie Hall as “a box to be checked.” The author mentioned the renowned cellist Steven Isserlis as the performer at the concert that was a pivotal moment in the story. The narrator’s view of classical music is worth remembering:
Say what you will about classical music, one thing it has going for it is that it lets your mind wander. Rock bands, blues bands—and yes, salsa bands too—they’re all intent on securing your undivided attention. That’s what the drums and amplifiers are there for. But classical musicians seem more willing to let you settle down, settle in, and follow your thoughts wheresoever they might lead you.
A friend countered convincingly that it is not only classical music that allows your mind to wander.
The narrator describes for several pages with great love and enthusiasm one of my favorite pieces of music, Bach’s six unaccompanied cello suites, beginning with this: “I never studied music or played an instrument. I rarely sang along in church. So, I don’t know the proper terminology. But once Isserlis was playing, within a matter of seconds, you could tell you were in the presence of some form of perfection.” This enthusiasm made me think of The Cello Suites by Eric Siblin, a Canadian rock music critic who fell in love with them.
The narrator tells us about her husband’s shortcomings and about her undying love for him. I love a story that can do that.
I had a different reaction to “Los Angeles,” the novella that is a continuation of The Rules of Civility, a book I loved. Instead of getting off the train in the Midwest after leaving New York, Eve impetuously goes on to Los Angeles. She is loved by everyone she meets there. She becomes a friend of Olivia de Havilland and later her protector. She is always three steps ahead of everyone else and we learn she has chosen her friends well when things turn violent. Several times as I was reading I wondered if the author was having us on.
In “The Ballad of Timothy Touchett” the author introduces us to a would-be author who is tempted into forging the signatures of great authors in their books to enrich himself and the bookseller who was his tempter. He uses his knowledge of the authors to create those signatures and spends weeks getting into those authors’ heads. His downfall came at the hands of Paul Auster who happened into the tempter’s bookshop and found his books signed by what looked almost like his signature.
I fear that if I looked again at any of the stories, I would find something I want to remember about each of them, so I’ll stop here.
Amor Towles, Table for Two, Viking, 2024, 451 pages (I read the kindle version). Available in the public library.