Towles is the author of one of my favorite books, A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW. He also wrote THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY more recently.
This is a collection of stories and "The Ballad of Timothy Touchett" is one of them.
It can be hard to sum up a story that has a crime in it without giving too much away. Not that this story depends on its finale because it mostly relies on the characters and the writing. A young man with the desire to be a famous writer is hired to work in a small bookstore. His employer figures out how to make good use of his particular skills, and it works out for both of them for a while. The ending, handed over to the police, lacked the charm of what went before it but not enough to ruin it. There is one very nice touch before the denouement.
7 comments:
Diane's Book Club read A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW and loved it. Then they read THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY and loved that, too. I'm sure TABLE FOR TWO is on their radar as a future book selection.
Trump looked terrible and sounded deranged during The Debate. Kamala pushed Trump's buttons and he went ballistic. Plus, Taylor Swift has endorsed Kamala Harris!
"They're eating the cats and dogs!"
"Yeah, calm down, Sir. (Can we get the white coats in here?)"
Glad to see she followed my suggestion - get under his skin, keep pushing his buttons (the crowd size was the perfect opening) until he explodes.
But to the short stories. We watched A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW's HBO adaptation but I haven't read it. Didn't know Towles had a collection of stories, but will look out for it. OK, put it on reserve.
I finished the long collection of Maugham stories yesterday. He spent a lot of time in the Far East and wrote quite a few stories set there, but he also wrote more English stories, and COLLECTED SHORT STORIES Volume 2 has both. A lot of his England-set stories have a character at least partially based on himself as the narrator, a device he used well.
Also finished the Curtis Sittenfeld collection, YOU THINK IT, I'll SAY IT, which I enjoyed quite a bit. I might try a novel of hers, and I think she has a second collection due out this year.
Not sure what I will read next, perhaps a collection George reviewed, THE STARK HOUSE ANTHOLOGY, or more Maugham stories.
See, this is how ignorant I am. I wasn't aware he wrote short stories, too. This collection sounds interesting!
Second part of Great English Short Stories: https://ahotcupofpleasureagain.wordpress.com/2024/09/11/ssw-great-english-short-stories-ed-reginald-hargreaves-lewis-melville-1930-part-ii/
I have only read one so far but I liked that quite a bit. Jeff, I wish you have a blog because you'd have a lot to day about what you read.I read another Sittenfeld last night and like it too. Margot, you are the least ignorant person I know.
A suggestion: https://jamesreasoner.blogspot.com/2024/09/review-perdition-four-navajo-tom-raine.html ...I just picked up a book I'm already sure I'm doing, but Other Tasks have been in the in the way since receipt yesterday aft, after the debate and morning cat-food run, etc....
I will get a copy of this sometime. I think I will like his stories but I am surprised that one of them has a crime in it.
I tested positive for Covid-19 today, after a couple of days of feeling really bad. No fever though. The September book sale start in two days (and goes for ten more) so we probably will miss all or a large part of the sale. That is not the end of the world, we already have too many books, but still disappointing.
Post a Comment