A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel

I thoroughly enjoyed this. Fabulous prose, great character development and atmosphere. I looked up the Metropol hotel and it still stands- maybe some day I will get there.

Great read

This book invaded my reading list. A rarity like a leap day birth date.I got to know about “A Gentleman in Moscow” when it found mentioned by a couple of global public figures on the Internet. Throughput of me knowing about a book from a public figure and then reading it is low. Why? Because I am a discerning reader.If or when, I am engaged in a conversation longer than five minutes, I am certain a book or a quote will pop up from my memory bank. Since I talk about books, I have often benefitted from book recommendations of the highest quality. Laws of attraction do work. If a book keeps coming up as a recommendation (this one did from my reading friends), it attracts itself to my reading list. I was OK with “A Gentleman in Moscow” invading my 2024 reading list. Invasion was coopted from within.Someone who showboats his reading (self-styled intellectual, among other things) could be annoying. But what if that person is endearing too? Unlikely combination. It is the skill of the author Amor Towles who managed to bring to life a character like that in the form of Count Rostov.Within few minutes of picking up this book, I was flying through the pages. A Gentleman in Moscow i.e., Count Rostov is a flat-out, pedal-to-the-medal showboater but he is charming, and a wisecrack. The story is set inside the Hotel Metropol in Moscow, Russia. The characters surrounding Count Rostov are interesting as well and that makes this book a joy to read. The way Chef Emile Zhukovsky flows into the story brings to life a setting in any commercial kitchen that is running on mission mode. Amor Towles has put down words and sentences admirably in this book that every other page brought out a delicacy. I devoured it. The underlying theme in the book is about mastering circumstances. Life happens and “mastering circumstances” at all times can be challenging, striving to master the circumstances can fill one’s life with meaning and purpose. It could be a life of struggle, but it will be a life well lived.A line on page 165 finds the Count standing on the roof. He says, “Good-bye, my country,” tears welled up in me instantly, I felt the same love for my motherland. It is the author’s writing skill which makes the reader shoulder the character’s anguish.This is the one book that is in the rarest of rare category that any reader will enjoy. This book is a universal gift.Buy it. Read it. Gift it.I hope to visit Hotel Metropol in Moscow someday. Till then, I will keep visiting it through these pages etched in my memory.

The writing and storyline are wonderfully woven around historical events of the time. Highly entertaining view into a tumultuous period of Russian history from an unusual angle.

Well-written novel with good use of metaphors and historically relevant references. The characters are developed throughout the novel with unique and deep personalities that shine through in dialogue and narration. The narration - the best part. Towles does third-person novels very well.

Starts slowly but once you get into it, you can’t put it down. Historical facts seem well researched. A very touching, human story with some interesting twists. Highly recommend!

Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov returns to Moscow from Paris as the Bolsheviks now rule over the Soviet Union as they've defeated the White Russian opposition. He understands the Russian aristocracy are being executed daily; however, he returns to the family estate, Idlhour, to aid his family in all the chaos. The Count is captured and put on trial for a famous “political” poem he once published and exiled to the famous Hotel Metropol, where he remains for over thirty years under house arrest.Anyone reading this little synopsis would believe this to be a banal premise for a novel. A Gentleman in Moscow exceeds banal to the status of extraordinary, as we track along with this charming man's life within the hotel's halls while learning about old Russia before the revolution.Count Alexander is intelligent, worldly, well-read, and nurtured in the finer things in life: great wine, gastronomic knowledge, and a lost generation's stately manners. The Count's central redeeming attributes are kindness and care for his fellow human beings. Although very much aware of his lofty station, he never condescends and seems to have an uncanny comprehension of human nature. He takes his Fate as it comes, handling himself with integrity and humor.The two other more central characters are Nina and Sofia. At the beginning of the text, we meet Nina as a young girl of eight or nine: precocious with a strong sense of self, the Count and the child strike up a unique relationship that is both loving and funny. The Count becomes “Uncle Alex” over a few years until her family must move out of the Hotel. Later, after many years, she returns with a young daughter of eight years of age, caught up in her State duties, and leaves Sofia with the Count. This relationship grows into a beautiful connection between kindred spirits.The Count doesn't sit in his room simply reading and brooding, his life in the Hotel becomes productive and the many characters working within the Hotel, we come to know and relate to intimately... my favorites are the Hotel chef and the beautiful Soviet film star, whose connection to the count lasts for many years.Published in 2016, A Gentleman in Moscow became an international bestseller. Over the years, I've never based my 12-month reading list on The New York Times Bestseller List, however. I managed to come across the novel by accident, read the first chapter and bought it without hesitation.A Gentleman in Moscow is an exceptional piece of literature: sensitive, educational, moving, and a word of caution: the novel's ending might leave you with a tear in your eye.Truly astonishing.

This book hit the spot, pure soul food. Definitely sad in many parts, but powerful and inspiring!!The story was slow moving but in a really good way. I really appreciated the descriptive scenery, attention to details, (all of the food references!) the realness of the characters and what a magnificently surprising direction this story took!I knew nothing about this book before reading it and was not expecting this to be such a beautiful, funny and delightful read.In fact, I admired it so much that I both read it and listened to the audio version, which helped me understand the proper pronunciations for many of the russian words.

This is one of the most beautifully written books I have ever read. Each paragraph must be savoured like an exquisite delicacy. I am normally a binge reader, but I couldn’t do it with this Muscovite. The story is simple but appealing , it starts off leisurely but quickens in pace, leaving the reader breathless at the end. Here and there a surprise but also very interestingly informative about the developments in Russia in the first half of the 20 th century, but it is not an historical novel. The information seeps in through the cracks, sometimes as part of the plot, often as asides or footnotes. Shocking circumstances never allow the protagonist to break his elegant stride through those turbulent years. Lovingly crafted details about characters and settings. This book is a keeper.

Summary in at tweet. “Gentleman” is eloquent, witty, thought provoking, poetic, and meaningful. It is a welcome relief from and an antidote to a world drowning in tweets, click journalism, hypocrisy, and selfies. Novelists shouldn’t he held more accountable to historic accuracy than the President. Slithering Bishop, perfect antagonist. Stripped wine labels, a metaphor for the revolution. Count won’t countenance escape to America. Count’s rules of civility internally forged. Tinker Grey’s Rules of Civility externally imposed. Both are on the run.Character development and plot. The plot was as subtle as his word craft. Gentlemanly. All the characters were wonderfully developed, but the one who stands out is the Bishop, the Count’s foil. Since protagonists are measured in contrast to their antagonists, the Bishop serves an essential role. Slithering on the bias rather than moving by rank and file, the Bishop embodies the qualities of the “anti-gentleman”. His decision to reorganize the Metropol’s wine cellar is one of the more memorable scenes in the book. As a tip of the hat to egalitarianism (but more likely in the spirit of retribution), the Bishop orders that all wine labels be removed from the one hundred thousand bottles in the Metropol’s inventory. This is possibly the most symbolic of the Bishop’s acts in that in one afternoon it eradicated the individuality of each bottle, by distilling untold permutations of climate, grape and vintner into but two categories “white” or “red”. If one wanted to toy with symbolism, individuality was sacrificed to provide a simple choice, Royalist (white), versus Bolshevik (red).“Whichever wine was within, it was decidedly not identical to its neighbors. On the contrary, the contents of the bottle in his hand was the product of a history as unique and complex as that of a nation, or a man. In its color, aroma, and taste, it would certainly express the idiosyncratic geology and prevailing climate of its home terrain. But in addition, it would express all the natural phenomena of its vintage. In a sip, it would evoke the timing of that winter's thaw, the extent of that summer's rain, the prevailing winds, and the frequency of clouds. Yes, a bottle of wine was the ultimate distillation of time and place; a poetic expression of individuality itself.”Historical accuracy? Who cares? Douglas Smith’s the Former People (2012) provides an accurate and acclaimed historical account of the nobility’s plight. The Count should have been terrified given that his fate was determined by class. The Red Terror’s form of “justice” was quite simple,”Do not look in the file of incriminating evidence to see whether or not the accused rose up against the Soviets with arms or words. Ask him instead to which class he belongs, what is his background, his education, his profession. These are the the questions that will determine the fate of the accused. “ (Martin Latsis in Douglas Smith, the Forgotten People). So it is odd that the Count escapes with his life while in full view of the Metropol’s patrons, some of whom are party officials. So, how does the Count survive? Towles employs a gimmick, i.e., the emergency committee is moved by a revolutionary poem attributed to the Count. I have read the poem a number of times and fail to see its power, especially when you contrast it with competing revolutionary verses. Had he written the following Song of the Peasant, he might have stood a chance of escaping the gallows.…We’ve suffered insults long enough, and submitted too long to the nobles! … Altogether now let’s plunder …And from the bitter aspens shall we hang every last lackey of the VampireTsar. (1917)Now, that is a rallying cry!Because of this, it was difficult for some readers to suspend belief. In my view (which is also Towles’ view) such insistence on historical accuracy misses the point. Gentleman is not an historical novel. It is a novel loosely set in a period, but its emphasis is firmly set on inner life of the Count and the relationships he fosters over the course of thirty years of internal exile. The criticism that “Gentleman” is somehow flawed because of a few historical short cuts is particularly irritating to Towles. In an interview he quipped, “why should a novelist he held to a higher standard of truth than the President of the United States.” You could take his point one step further and ask why modern literature should be held to a higher standard than Shakespeare’s Henry V in which certain facts (e.g., the King of France was insane) are suppressed and others emphasized. In so doing, Shakespeare crafted the tale he wished, one that is purely English and extolling the virtue of English courage.In Towles case, adding graphic detail about the “Red Terror” would have produced a completely different book. It would have detracted from his intent which was to engage his characters, toy with phraseology, and philosophize about the human condition. Characters are his focus, not external events.Where do these elegant lines come from? Towles revealed in an interview that the phrases and musings materialize on the page as if the characters were authoring them and he is simply a witness to his art. He says as much in voicing the Count’s response to a question posed by emergency committee at the beginning of the book. “Vyshinsky: Why did you write the poem? Rostov: It demanded to be written. I simply happened to be sitting at the particular desk on the particular morning when it chose to make its demands.”Allegory for our time? Towles claims this book is not a parable, but that leaves open the possibility that it might be an allegory. Like the hotel, the book has secret passages, or at least passages that invite interpretation. What strikes me most about Gentleman is how much his writing struck a chord. Most everyone who has read the book is in agreement that his style is mesmerizing. It is lyrical and poetic. But, I have a feeling that people are drawn to the book for deeper reasons, one being that it serves as an antidote to an unending drone of tweets, click journalism, hypocrisy and lies.Towles plays with sentences, even a sentence about sentences. In some cases he plays for the sake of it. For example,“Here, indeed, was a formidable sentence--one that was on intimate terms with a comma, and that held the period in healthy disregard.”He could have written “That was a long sentence.” Glad he didn’t.Another,“But, alas, sleep did not come so easily to our weary friend. Like in a reel in which the dancers form two rows, so that one of their number can come skipping brightly down the aisle, a concern of the Count’s would present itself for his consideration, bow with a flourish, and then take its place at the end of the line so that the next concern could come dancing to the fore.”He could have written, “He fell asleep counting troubles instead of sheep.” Glad he didn’t.Then there are passages that have no straight forward translation, but leave you to ponder, and then ponder some more."...a gentleman should turn to a mirror with a sense of distrust.  For rather than being tools of self-discovery, mirrors tended to be tools of self-deceit."“That sense of loss is exactly what we must anticipate, prepare for, and cherish to the last of our days; for it is only our heartbreak that finally refutes all that is ephemeral in love.”Perhaps Towles most important achievement is reminding us that we are not immune to change, either as individuals or as a nation. In fact, change is a theme that recurs throughout the book. It is either glacial (on the personal level), circular (cannons melted for church bells and bells for cannons), or dramatic (in the case of the revolution). It was the Count’s view that change was both inevitable and disquieting, and for Russia’s nobility terrifying. His deep sense of purpose that took root during his exile in the Metropol was born of humility. Once stripped of his possessions and his link to the past severed, he was forced to confront his fate with a freshness of purpose. That was the preparation he needed in order to invite Sophia into his life and chart a new direction, one propelled by childlike innocence.On a grander scale, one might argue that dramatic change was long overdue in Russia. The feudal system had produced a backward economy populated by the illiterate and poor. “Red Terror” was the result, and its henchman ruthlessly purged institutions that were even tangentially connected to Tsarist Russia. That meant the nobility, works of art, religion, historic buildings, writers, painters, and poets all were destroyed or exiled in the pursuit of a more egalitarian state.I believe that this wanton destruction of institutions in the name of egalitarianism is what has gotten readers attention, and is partly responsible for driving the book’s popularity. For aren’t we seeing something similar today. Scientific institutions, social norms, the legal system, logical discourse, and religious tolerance are under attack. Aren’t we now feeling some remorse for ignoring the plight of the poor in America (as in 1917, the Russian nobility regretted too late the plight of the serfs). Admittedly, the scale of the attack is nowhere near as vicious as the Bolshevik’s leveled against the Russian nobility, but it is similar in form. Perhaps we are witnessing more of an Orange Horror than a Red Terror. Regardless, Towles reminds us that well intended change will be disquieting. If Towles did nothing else, he at least gave us the Count as a guide for how to navigate the uncertainties produced by the onslaught of change!Could the Count countenance an escape to the U.S.? Where did he go? America is portrayed ambiguously in the book. It’s music suggests its free wheeling life affirming nature, but on a dark note, Osip (former colonel and party member, studying English and American culture under the Count’s tutelage) suggests that change is as destructive in America as in the Soviet Union. In short, the dialogue between the Osip and the Count reveals America’s contradictions. In a few short paragraphs Towles lays out the ambiguity of American society, a few of which are borrowed from Tocqueville’s impression of America.The freshness of jazz“And yet, the art form had grown on him. Like the American correspondents, jazz seemed a naturally gregarious force – one that was a little unruly and prone to say the first thing that popped into its head, but generally of good humor and friendly intent. In addition, it seemed decidedly unconcerned with where it had been or where it was going – exhibiting somehow simultaneously the confidence of the master and the inexperience of the apprentice. Was there any wonder that such an art had failed to originate in Europe?”Destruction of the past (creatively in the U.S., administratively in the Soviet Union)"but do you think the achievements of the Americans-envied the world over-came without a cost? Just ask their African brothers. And do you think the engineers who designed their illustrious skyscrapers or built their highways hesitated for one moment to level to lovely little neighborhoods that stood in their way?...we and the Americans will lead the rest of this century because we are the only nations who have learned to brush the past aside instead of bowing before it. But where they so do in service of their beloved individualism, we are attempting to do so in service of the common good."American’s need for comfort“There is not a single country in the civilized world where less attention is paid to philosophy than the United States” And, The minds of Americans, he says, are universally preoccupied with meeting the body’s every need and attending to life’s little comforts.”The darker side of American capitalism“they seemed to depict an America in which corruption and cruelty lounged on the couch; in which justice was a beggar and kindness a fool; in which loyalties were fashioned from paper, and self-interest was fashioned from steel. In other words, they provided an unflinching portrayal of Capitalism as it actually was.”I suspect that the Count would welcome some aspect of American culture and might even be willing to tolerate an American economic dynamism fueled by a cycle of creation and destruction. What he could not countenance is the darker side of American capitalism and its people’s preoccupation with comfort. The Count’s view is just the opposite. He says, “But in the end, it has been the inconveniences that have mattered to me most.” Nor would he feel at home with a people so preoccupied with themselves. He says,”…a gentleman should turn to a mirror with a sense of distrust.  For rather than being tools of self-discovery, mirrors tended to be tools of self-deceit." I will leave it up to the reader to guess which end of the spectrum the Count occupies and which end tends to be more American. Lastly, I would add that the pace of life in America would not suit the Count well, for time in America is meted in seconds rather than the clang of the twice tolling clock. If for no other reason than that, America would appear to be a poor choice. Instead, I opt for his escape to Paris where he occupies a small back room in Sophia’s flat. I can envision him living his last days simply un-intrusively, sipping fresh coffee at a nearby cafe, conversing with the regulars, … after the twice tolling clock’s first chime.The Gentleman and Rules of Civility. Towle’s Rules of Civility gets its name from a list of rules George Washington developed to guide persons of culture to comport themselves in high society (the American nobility). No doubt, the Count exhibited many of the behaviors the rules were intended to foster. However, the rules were not causative. In the Count’s case he was guided by an internal compass (his own rules) forged over the course of a life. It was the intertwined helix of love and loss that shaped him and gave him direction. By way of contrast, Tinker Grey, a main character in Rules of Civility, makes a conscious effort to shed the “Rules” in his search for ephemeral freedom. The only thing they share in common is, they are both on the run.

I just finished reading A Gentleman in Moscow and plan to start it again almost immediately. My book club meeting for this book is in a few days, so I hurried through the end. But this is a book that should be read slowly and savoured. Even so, if it weren’t for book club, I might have given up after the first few pages, and I’m so glad I persevered.If, like me, you find the study of history as presented by historians deadly, I recommend this book as one that brings history to life. If you will be taking an exam on the period, you’ll need to read what the author says about how he used the time and place for his purposes to separate fact from fiction. But you should find it easier to hang on to all the dry and dusty (not to mention murky) facts having been immersed in the living, breathing world of revolutionary Russia for over 400 pages. Foodies and music lovers will also enjoy this book.Even though life in Communist Russia might seem an alien, uninviting, even humourless setting to a North American reader, the characters in this book derive joy and weather frustrations and misfortune in ways that are relatable. These were terrible times for millions of people in the USSR, but, thankfully, Towles tells us about this without making us live through it. And, yes, there are funny moments, too.Given Russia’s alleged recent involvement in US politics, books like this that provide insight into Russian culture, while also entertaining, are a welcome read.

Een prachtig verhaal; de Russische geschiedenis verteld aan de hand van de dagelijkse gebeurtenissen in hotel metropol in Moskou. Graaf Rostov ondervindt de veranderingen in het tijdperk 1912-1954

A Gentleman in Moscow is a wonderful novel. Delightful and interesting too as the history of Moscow is revealed through the eyes of a Count under house arrest in a luxurious hotel in Moscow. The story never lags and always surprises as the Count makes the very best of a life confined. The characters that people the pages range in personality from the serious and dangerous to ordinary citizens and the warm, loving friends of the Count in the pre-WW2 years to the 1950s. I was sorry when I came to the end of the novel!