Table for Two: Fictions

Turn-of-the-millennium New York City is the setting for five of the stories in Table for Two. In this story, the metropolis is the site of the earnest desires of many creatives drawn to the promise of opportunity, as well as the setbacks that befall such people. Though Timothy’s desire to be an artist is real, he cannot get past writer’s block, emphasized in the ending of the story, when the narrator implies that Timothy can write about his experiences after being arrested.

“Timothy Touchett” introduces the theme of Following and Subverting Social Expectations through Timothy’s increasing spending as he earns greater commissions from his forgeries. At the bank and a restaurant, Timothy realizes that there are specialists in every industry: “Dressed in tailored clothing, educated in comportment, they waited behind closed doors ready to offer specialized advice to customers of a certain class” (61). These specialists represent the lifestyle Timothy pursues in the story, as he reaches for interactions with people and institutions of greater wealth. Timothy goes to nicer restaurants because it is expected that people with money do so, showing Timothy’s adherence to a very specific social script, using his ill-gotten gains to purchase greater standing.

However, Timothy’s adherence to social expectations is undercut by the relationship between Power, Money, and the Individual. The narrator juxtaposes the kinds of misbehaviors available to those with money and those without. We are told that “this story takes place during the well-reported drop in crime in American urban centers” (69)—but while the number of muggings and murders may indeed have fallen, financial crimes are still common: “[T]he boys with the MBAs had begun building Sistine Chapels of larceny right there on Wall Street” (69). Though Timothy’s white-collar crimes may be less severe than those of Wall Street, he is still stealing money by duping people. The irony at the heart of the story is that the police are inclined to take Timothy’s crime more seriously only because the detective takes his forgery of a Russian master’s signature personally; the implication is that normally, high-cost but nonviolent crimes like Timothy’s—and like those of the investment bankers with whom Towles has personal experience—are given a pass because money buys the power of impunity.

Timothy a person who has wandered from his chosen course: His desire to create is sidelined by the promise of fast wealth. Rather than writing and taking credit for his own work, he siphons off the prestige and creative achievements of the world’s greatest artists. His forged signatures are not only duplicitous, but also intellectual theft, which he continues because of his desire for social clout and recognition. The ironic joke is that most actual writers do some version of this as well, drawing inspiration from the techniques and ideas of those who came before them. While obviously what Timothy does is wrong, the story ends questioning the line between borrowing and stealing the creativity of previous artists.