For anyone who has not had the good fortune to read anything written by Amor Towles, this is a great place to start. It is a collection of short fiction that rivals other authors’ works in quality and entertainment value. Each story evokes a vivid sense of character and touches on common emotions and interests that will be readily recognizable to most readers of literary fiction. As varied as they are engaging, these stories are so well written that the only flaw may be the shortness of their duration. I recommend that Towles’ previous novels be sought out and devoured, whether before or after having read this collection of short stories and a novella that brings back a character from his first work, Rules of Civility. I have maintained, and I challenge others to contradict me, that this is like what F. Scott Fitzgerald would have written if he were a better writer. His following efforts, Gentleman in Moscow and Lincoln Highway are both, in their ways, magnificent works and worthy of any reader’s attention.

The short stories each have their charm and are powerfully limned, but the real punch is in the novella that takes place in the Hollywood era of Steinbeck and Fitzgerald writing for the “golden age” of cinema where many familiar faces will be recognized. Olivia de Haviland and many others populate this tale of a frighteningly astute, courageous and capable young woman who brooks no fools and cannot be intimidated by force or by browbeating. It is a classic tale of a champion who fights for justice, though that makes it seem prosaic which this is not. It could readily be made into a screenplay/mini-series/movie as was Gentleman in Moscow and I suspect it would be just as powerful.

Readers of literary fiction or whodunits, short story lovers and those who appreciate finely crafted examples of our supremely variegated language will love this one, I am sure.