Want to escape this noisy, volatile world for a while and immerse yourself in the elegance of Moscow’s Hotel Metropol in the early 20 th century? A Gentleman in Moscow will take you there.
This book has been so popular that it was only available in hardcover for almost three years. The paperback which has just been released cannot be described as a beach read, but a slow and luxurious, beautifully written story of one of literature’s most wonderful characters.
I fell in love with the gentleman, Count Alexander Rostov right from the very beginning. He is a man with mind, body and soul working together, informing all of his thoughts and opinions. It is 1922 in post - revolutionary Russia and The Bolshevik Tribunal has just sentenced Rostov to spend the rest of his days in Hotel Metropol for the crime of being an aristocrat. He may be an aristocrat, but he is a humanist in nature.
He embraces the works of Montaigne, Balzac, Dickens and Tolstoy. He absolutely lives for the pleasures of the table. Bilinis and caviar are his sacraments. We learn his idiosyncrasies and his vast knowledge of Russian cultural history as we follow the meanderings of his mind and also the wanderings of his person through the many restaurants, rooms, and halls of the human zoo that is The Hotel Metropol.
As a prisoner he has the full run of the hotel and because he had been such a bon vivant, everyone knows him! His reputation with women is legendary. But the most important influence in his life had been his sister who died precipitously. The circumstances of this untimely death are recounted later and are part of a mystery that is unveiled slowly.
Very early in his confinement Rostov meets a spritely young girl by the name of Nina who lives there as well. She takes him on imaginative adventures and shakes up his obsessive and pleasurable daily routines. Her parents suddenly disappear, perhaps spirited off to the gulag and leave a note begging him to take care of her. Of course, Rostov takes up this challenge and he ripens in the most beautiful of ways.
Love has many faces.
While reading A Gentleman in Moscow, I often wondered why I found it so compelling. I believe now that what underpins every page is attention to detail. I often stopped reading and looked up historical references that are part of the narrative. And they were always correct or at least reputed to be correct.
It took Amor Towles four years to write this book. One year on the outline, one year on the initial writing and two on revisions and rewrites. Writing of this calibre is rare and definitely worth the wait!
