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A review by alongapath
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
5.0
Before there was Google, there were gentlemen.
Instead of doing a wikipedia search, you could simply ask Alexi.
Without the aid of an encyclopedia, he could regale you with details about the inner workings of a grandfather clock or the secret to making the perfect stew. He could entertain your child for hours, pair your meal with the perfect wine and remember the gown you wore last time you dined together.
Count Alexander Rostov is sentenced to house arrest in post WW1 Russia for being a poet/intellectual. At that time, he was living in a suite in the Hotel Metropol so his arrest confines him to the interior of the hotel and his living quarters change to an abandoned attic for the next 30+ years.
Somehow he manages to keep himself entertained, intellectually stimulated and optimistic throughout the myriad changes that Russia went through during those years. Friends would come and then vanish. Staff would spy and report on each other. Lovers come and go. The Red Army attempts to remove the luxurious aspects of the hotel but through it all Alexi remains the most gentlemanly gentleman.
Towles ability to tell a story is second to none. He makes you so interested in the stairwells of the Interpol and the way that a desk was held level by a copy of Anna Karenina. He made those 30 years fly by and still had me in the dark about the ultimate ending. I didn't care about the ending, the resolution, the finale because I just wanted to immerse myself in more of his beautiful writing.
I listened to the perfect audio rendition of this book and highly recommend it. I savoured this book for so long that my audio version was sucked back into the library system on the due date, forcing me to wait another 3 months for a renewal. Worth it.
Instead of doing a wikipedia search, you could simply ask Alexi.
Without the aid of an encyclopedia, he could regale you with details about the inner workings of a grandfather clock or the secret to making the perfect stew. He could entertain your child for hours, pair your meal with the perfect wine and remember the gown you wore last time you dined together.
Count Alexander Rostov is sentenced to house arrest in post WW1 Russia for being a poet/intellectual. At that time, he was living in a suite in the Hotel Metropol so his arrest confines him to the interior of the hotel and his living quarters change to an abandoned attic for the next 30+ years.
Somehow he manages to keep himself entertained, intellectually stimulated and optimistic throughout the myriad changes that Russia went through during those years. Friends would come and then vanish. Staff would spy and report on each other. Lovers come and go. The Red Army attempts to remove the luxurious aspects of the hotel but through it all Alexi remains the most gentlemanly gentleman.
Towles ability to tell a story is second to none. He makes you so interested in the stairwells of the Interpol and the way that a desk was held level by a copy of Anna Karenina. He made those 30 years fly by and still had me in the dark about the ultimate ending. I didn't care about the ending, the resolution, the finale because I just wanted to immerse myself in more of his beautiful writing.
I listened to the perfect audio rendition of this book and highly recommend it. I savoured this book for so long that my audio version was sucked back into the library system on the due date, forcing me to wait another 3 months for a renewal. Worth it.