Literary fiction · Book club
Rules of Civility book club questions
Here are 12 book club questions for Rules of Civility by Amor Towles, ordered to open easily and end somewhere worth arguing about. Copy them, print them, or bring them up one at a time.
Rules of Civility opens in 1966, when Katey Kontent — now in her early forties — encounters a series of photographs at a gallery show.
Amor Towles · 2011 · 6h 45m
Full summary and key takeaways →The 12 questions
- 1.
Katey says she is not interested in becoming like the people she observes. By the novel's end, do you believe her? Has she become them?
- 2.
Tinker is presented as the most attractive character in the novel's first half. When did your reading of him begin to shift, and what caused that shift?
- 3.
The novel is set entirely in 1938 but framed from 1966. What does that retrospective distance add? Would the novel work told in present tense?
- 4.
Katey's friend Eve makes different choices and different compromises. Is the novel fair to Eve, or does it judge her for not being Katey?
- 5.
Rules of Civility is clearly in conversation with The Great Gatsby — first-person narrator, wealthy characters, 1930s New York, a romance that ends without delivering on its promise. Is the conversation fruitful or is Towles just imitating a better book?
- 6.
The title refers to George Washington's behavioral codes. Where does the novel use or invert those codes most pointedly?
- 7.
Katey is a typist who reads and thinks her way into a better life. Is her trajectory realistic for 1938, or is the novel romanticizing the meritocratic possibilities of mid-century New York?
- 8.
Several characters reinvent themselves — new names, new histories, new identities. Does the novel celebrate reinvention or treat it as a form of deception?
- 9.
Which character in the novel would you say has the most authentic life? Is authenticity something the novel values?
- 10.
The prose in Rules of Civility is quite elegant. Does that elegance serve the story, or does it sometimes feel like Towles is more interested in his sentences than in his characters?
- 11.
By the time Katey sees Tinker's photograph in 1966, how do you think she feels about that year? Regret, nostalgia, relief, something else?
- 12.
Compared to The Lincoln Highway, which Towles wrote a decade later, Rules of Civility is smaller and more controlled. Which Towles do you find more satisfying?
How to run the discussion
- Pick six to eight, not all of them. An hour of real discussion covers fewer questions than anyone expects, and racing the list is what makes a book club feel like homework.
- Open with what people noticed, not what they concluded. Asking for a verdict first hardens opinions before anyone has heard each other.
- Let the disagreement run. The questions below that split a room are the ones worth the time; the ones everyone answers the same way can be skipped.
- Ask the quiet person a specific question. A direct, narrow question is far easier to answer than an open invitation to contribute.
Themes worth steering toward
If the conversation stalls, these are the threads that usually restart it.
Common questions
What are good book club questions for Rules of Civility?
Here are 12 book club questions for Rules of Civility by Amor Towles, ordered to open easily and end somewhere worth arguing about. The strongest openers ask what each reader noticed rather than what they concluded, and the discussion usually turns on class and ambition, reinvention, new york in the 1930s.
How long should a book club discussion of Rules of Civility last?
Most groups run 60 to 90 minutes of actual discussion. That is roughly six to eight questions, not all of them, so pick the ones that suit your group rather than working down the list in order.
What are the main themes in Rules of Civility?
Class and ambition, Reinvention, New York in the 1930s, Chance encounters, Moral compromise. Those are the threads most likely to divide a room, which makes them the useful places to steer a discussion that has gone quiet.
Picking the next one? See books like Rules of Civility or questions for other book club picks.
