Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
ADULT BOOK Club members position around a table Tuesday, discussing "Rules of Civility" by Amor Towles. From the left are Kathy Borkowski, Sue Witt, Judy Bennett, Valerie Fredrickson, Linda Jindrich and Polly Barbacovi.
By IAN MINIELLY
Ironwood - George Washington, according to legend, copied 110 "Rules of Civility," composed by French Jesuits, by the age of 16.
Amor Towles, the modern author, crafted a modern novel where the rules of civility play a major role.
According to the local adult book club, Towles' novel lacked a simple plot, but was long on character development.
The women of the book club that meets monthly at the Ironwood Carnegie Library in Ironwood took great pleasure reading the rules, although Linda Jindrich pointed out they were employed throughout the novel to explain behavior and provide character reasoning, if not justification for actions taken.
The group felt the novel was unique, if not challenging, in its layout, especially as Towles was a man writing from a female perspective.
Sue Witt explained one of the things she likes about reading books is crumbs to other works of art or books that are left like clues. From Towles, Witt felt an urge to re-read "Robinson Crusoe" and also downloaded some art off of the internet that the author mentioned.
Of the three or four main characters the book club discussed, they honed in on the way accidental experiences changed entire life directions for the character. Speaking as a group, with some long tenured experience in both marriage and life, book club members appeared able to correlate the varied experiences of the characters, even though they did not care for them, based on real life experiences in their own pasts.
