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A review by pretentiousbreadcrumbs
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
4.0
3.5 Stars. All evidence suggests this should've been an easy five stars from me. Historical fiction from a unique perspective? Check. Written by an author who has penned other work I enjoy? Check. Insightful, deep passages about the human experience? Check.
Despite the above, A Gentleman in Moscow was unsuccessful at stealing all my attention into its story while my real life faded away. As a simple minded consumer, this is the key metric to judge my fiction books on which it unfortunately didn't land.
I appreciated how this book was written about a distinguished, high society Aristrocrat, and also appeared to be narrated from someone of the same realm. This made for a very atmospheric reading experience. The insightful quotes I mentioned earlier appear regularly, and they are so damn good. If I was brave enough to mark my books with passages that hit home, then each chapter would be scribbled on somewhere.
This book is very clever and is one I'll encourage people to try, but like all pieces of art, some will resonate strongly where others will not, and this falls into the latter category for me.
Despite the above, A Gentleman in Moscow was unsuccessful at stealing all my attention into its story while my real life faded away. As a simple minded consumer, this is the key metric to judge my fiction books on which it unfortunately didn't land.
I appreciated how this book was written about a distinguished, high society Aristrocrat, and also appeared to be narrated from someone of the same realm. This made for a very atmospheric reading experience. The insightful quotes I mentioned earlier appear regularly, and they are so damn good. If I was brave enough to mark my books with passages that hit home, then each chapter would be scribbled on somewhere.
This book is very clever and is one I'll encourage people to try, but like all pieces of art, some will resonate strongly where others will not, and this falls into the latter category for me.