Rules Of Civility

I read Rules of Civility by Amor Towles.  The story is set in the jazz age, 1938, New York City and involves 3 friends, Katey, Eve, and Tinker, each wild, spontaneous and proud of being unpredictable.  The story was captivating.  Cigarettes are smoked.  Gin and martinis are drunk.  Doormen open the doors of apartment buildings. The character Katey Kontent (sounds like the emotion and not the table of) tells the story.  She likes old books and she finds one by George Washington that has 110 rules of civility.  All 110 rules are listed at the end of the book.  Most of the rules make total sense.  Don't sop up more sauce with your bread than you can eat in one bite.  Allow others to speak without interrupting. Don't pick or clean your teeth in public.  Don't gossip.  I said most of the rules make sense. Actually all the rules make sense with one exception; don't raise one eyebrow higher than the other.  Speaking as a person who's right eye brow waggles up and down without much control, I have to ask, what could possibly be wrong with that?  Katey tries to apply these rules (not the eyebrow one) to herself and to her friends.  Sometimes she and sometimes her friends don't live up to these rules and as she ages, Katey becomes able to accept that about herself and about her friends.  I really enjoyed this story.

Memory Keepers Daughter

I have belonged to the Northdale Book Club for 3 years now. In October we reviewed The Memory Keepers Daughter, a book written by Kim Edwards. Here is what the jacket says about the book: This stunning novel begins on a winter night in 1964 when a blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins. His son, born first is perfectly healthy but the doctor recognized that his daugher has Down Syndrome. For motives that he tells himself are good he makes a split second decision that changes all their lives forever. He asks his nurse, Caroline, to take the baby away to live in an institution. Instead she disappears into another city to raise the child as her own. Compulsively readable and completely moving, The Memory Keepers Daughter is a brilliantly crafted story of parallel lives, familial secrets, and the redemptive power of love. Our discussion of the book got very heated at times. Because I work with people who have Down Syndrome every day, I am sometimes startled by what other people think of people who have Down Syndrome. We got into a discussion about mainstreaming - allowing children with disabilities to be a part of the rest of the school. Schools used to keep the kids with disabilities separate. Now they can join the rest of the students for all or part of the day. I think this was a change for the better. I think our society should include people with disabilities. I think the kids in school should see people who use wheelchairs or talking devices or other adaptive equipment. I think children can benefit from friendships with kids with disabilities as much as the kids with disabilities can benefit from friendships with kids who don't have disabilites. Not everyone agrees with me. If kids with disabilities are bullied by some children, is that all bad? Not that being bullied is good but it is an experience that almost everyone goes through. I thought this book was very though provoking. We all agreed that the daughter with Down Syndrome had a better life being taken away by Caroline the nurse than she would have had with her birth parents who undoubtably would have put her in an institution.