55 pages • 1 hour read
Amor TowlesRules of Civility
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2011A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaPart 3, Chapters 18-19Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 3: “Summertime”
Chapter 18 Summary: “The Now and Here”
The Wolcott’s camp turns out to be a two-story mansion. Tinker is elated to see Katey, and his enthusiasm compels him to give her a tour of the place. But Katey is exhausted from having worked all day and then taken the train. Tinker notices this and sends her to bed. After she unpacks, she pulls out an Agatha Christie novel. She’d never read mystery novels before due to an admitted snobbery on her part, but she loves the Christie novel. She begins reading the caper but soon dozes off while listening for Tinker’s footsteps, though they never come.
The next morning, Tinker wakes her and informs her that he’s cooking breakfast. She dresses, then walks along the hallway looking at photographs. She goes into Tinker’s room and finds that he’s reading Walden. He’s even underlined some passages. When she goes down to breakfast, she sees that she and Tinker are wearing nearly identical outfits: white shirts and khaki pants. Tinker is tanned, unshaven, and happy. He asks her if she wants to go hiking, but she admits she’s not a hiking person. Besides, she has no boots. He then takes her to a room in the house that has all one could ever need for a hike.
The two set out for Pinyon Peak to catch an amazing view of the lake below. Tinker isn’t sad about Eve; in fact, he seems like he’s simply talking about an old friend that he wants to succeed. He imagines L.A. isn’t ready for Eve. Katey begins the hike unsure and tired, but she soon begins to think that she is a hiker. When the slope gets steeper, however, she wants to ask how long before they reach the top. The path finally levels out and they make it to the top, where a gorgeous, commanding view greets them. While eating their sandwiches, Tinker talks about how he and Hank used to love hiking in the Adirondacks when they were younger. Katey realizes that those happy moments for Tinker were right before his father squandered their money and he had to leave St. George. Tinker confesses to Katey that he’s been reading Walden, which is the book Katey talked about during their first days of meeting. He didn’t like it at first, but then realized that it was the biggest adventure of them all. The two decide to return before a storm blows in, though they almost get caught in it.
Back at the house, they start a fire. Tinker tells Katey that, back when he ran into her at the diner, he’d actually been following her. She’s surprised, but he says that he felt a connection to her, that she had an inner peace that he wanted to know more about. Eventually, they go their separate ways. Katey sits in her room and thinks about their relationship. She thinks about a passage in Walden where Thoreau talks about seeking one’s pole star. Though the passage might seem contradictory, she decides to take it as encouraging a celebration of the here and now. She gets dressed and goes to Tinker’s room to make good on this celebration. When the weekend is over, Katey returns via train, while Tinker remains behind to figure things out. As she begins to read her Agatha Christie novel, she sees a playing card inside with a message on it from Tinker. It says to meet him on Monday September 26 at the Stork Club. She memorizes the message and then burns it.
Chapter 19 Summary: “The Road to Kent”
On Monday September 26, Katey calls in sick from work. The previous week had been unrelenting, but she isn’t actually sick. Instead, she’s elated to meet Tinker later. She goes to a café and completes a crossword puzzle, then goes to a salon and has her hair dyed red again. She also finds a used bookstore and, while browsing, comes upon a copy of the George Washington maxims and buys it. She remembers how Bitsy wanted to be good friends and calls her to have lunch. The two agree to meet at Chinoiserie in Chinatown. While Katey waits for Bitsy to check her coat, she spies Anne in the restaurant looking as beautiful as ever. Then she sees Tinker and notes how handsome he is. He’s back to his old, composed self, looking like a success story of Manhattan. She hides so that Tinker can’t see her, as they’re supposed to meet later and she wants to surprise him with her red hair. She tries to get Bitsy to hide so that Anne doesn’t see her. When she calls Anne his godmother, Bitsy looks confused. She mentions that Anne is his banker. Katey watches as Tinker sits next to Anne. Anne places her hand on his thigh. When the check comes, Anne pays for it and Tinker doesn’t even flinch. The money clip Anne pulls out of her purse matches the décor in his apartment as well. Anne looks up and sees Katey. She waves at her, and when Tinker looks over, his face turns ashen.
Katey flees from the restaurant without telling Bitsy anything. Tinker gives chase, but she yells at him in the street. She slaps him and walks away. Bitsy finally catches up to her. Before Katey explains everything, Bitsy, who has left her jacket at the restaurant, goes to her bank and gets cash, then takes Katey to the Ritz. Katey tells Bitsy everything, from the moment she and Eve met Tinker on New Year’s Eve to the last time they were together. Bitsy is surprised, but she doesn’t come off as angry or partial. She simply tells Katey to continue what she’s doing (her social climbing). When Katey reassess her relationship with Tinker later, she begins to see things that she hadn’t noticed at first. She realizes that when she spent time with Eve while Tinker worked late, he was actually meeting up with Anne. When his brother referred to “that manipulative cunt,” he meant Anne and not Eve. Moreover, the maxims weren’t just a piece of nostalgia, they were how Tinker envisioned climbing the social ladder. Tinker calls Katey later, but she refuses to engage him. Instead, she reads him a few maxims from the George Washington book before hanging up. When she goes into work the next morning, everyone is staring at her. She sees a wheelchair with a red cross on it in place of her desk chair.
The chapter then switches to Tinker’s point of view from September 30. Tinker walks in the rain to meet up with his brother Hank. He tries to give Hank money, but Hank refuses the money, knowing where it comes from. When Tinker mentions that he’s doing what he’s doing for the both of them, Hank hits him and Tinker falls. Hank reaches for something, which Tinker assumes is the money. Instead, Hank grabs the Panama hat and places it on Tinker’s head. The hat begins to shrink in the rain.
Chapters 18-19 Analysis
Katey and Tinker rekindle both their friendship and stalled relationship while in the Adirondacks at Wallace’s summer home. The two live their lives for this brief time like Thoreau in Walden. Katey steps out of her comfort zone several times, once by hiking and realizing that she likes it, and then by initiating a romantic encounter with Tinker on the night before she leaves. Tinker reveals that he has secrets: he followed Katey to the diner on the day he “bumped into her.” He’d been fascinated by her as a person and wanted to know more. Katey begins reading Agatha Christie novels, falling in love with the formulaic nature of the capers. This, coupled with her love of games, is hinted at playfully when Tinker leaves a playing card with a note on it in her Christie novel.
Excited by the newness, Katey makes an apparent false step and calls out sick, thus incurring the wrath of Mason. She even changes her hair color back to red to surprise Tinker and buys a copy of Washington’s maxims in a used bookstore, awash in sentimentality. Her world is crushed, however, when she finally puts two and two together upon seeing Anne and Tinker acting affectionately toward each other in a restaurant. She now realizes that Tinker is Anne’s paid lover. Bitsy, Katey’s friend, tells her to keep up with her social climbing, though this also reveals that Katey, too, isn’t who she claims to be. Alone, Katey is able to look at her situation objectively and see how the clues about Tinker were there all along. She simply saw what she wanted to see.
The section ends with Tinker’s point of view, allowing the reader to see things from his side. Tinker feels like he’s doing what he’s doing to help him and Hank, though Hank refuses to take the sullied money.
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