That book was so good. For some reason, one feels more embarrassed to say that about a book like Rules of Civility than, say, The History of Love. I feel like, because I enjoyed it so much and read it so fast (one afternoon and a half), it mustn't be that good of a book. BUT IT IS. 
 So, the novel stars with the bit I posted the other day. The main character (such a wonderful woman, and written by a man, unprecedented!), Katey Kontent, and her husband, go to an exhibition at the MoMA in 1966 of some portraits taken in the subway during the late 1930s. She sees the photograph of a man she used to know (wink wink) and that brings back the memories of when she met him. The book then goes back to the first day of 1938 (New Year's), and follows her life in New York until Christmas that same year. 
 It is not a love story between the two of them. There is that, too, but it is Katey's rising in society more than anything else--she's a social climber. Only with her wit and imagination, as they usually say, she manages to create the life she wants for herself by herself, almost a la Gatsby style. That year, you can tell, was the year that defined her whole life. Not because she met Tinker, not because she found a better job, but because of all the things that happen: the decisions she makes, the people she meets. The novel ends at the end of the year, but you don't feel like you need to know more. It is weird, that it is organised around only and exactly 1 year of her life, and yet it fits the story so perfectly. 
 Read it. You can read it in a couple of afternoons, I swear. It's amusing and yet intelligent, exciting and compelling, and all the characters are incredibly well-built and amazing. Though you'll want to be like Katey. And marry a Wallace. Or maybe that's just me. 
 I thought it was amusing that I shared birthday and age with the main character (26 on the 24th of June (not in 1938, though)), but it also frustrated me quite a bit. This year built the foundations of Katey's future life. It makes me feel lazy.