A Gentleman in Moscow

 

A friend gave me her copy of the Amor Towles historical fiction, A Gentleman in Moscow, a little over 4 years ago. I started it almost immediately. I was flying up to New York and now I had something to read on the plane. I was thoroughly engrossed for the 2 hours on the plane. I didn't pick it up while I was away, then my flight home was delayed until the overnight hours and I decided I'd rather sleep than read on that flight. Imagine that! Once home, I struggled with it, put it down, picked it up, and about a year later, I dropped it. For some reason,  I held on to her book.

Fast forward to a few months ago and one of my book clubs selected A Gentleman in Moscow to discuss in September. Hey, look at that. I still had a copy of the book. I decided I would try again. It did not take me too long to remember exactly what it was about it that I didn't like. I mostly read for a few minutes before bed every night. A Gentleman in Moscow is the type of novel that needs to be read in big solid chunks of time. I remembered that if I read a little bit, when I next picked up the novel, I'd have to go back pages and pages to pick up the train of thought. Once I remembered that this time, I decided that at a minimum I'd read a full chapter each time I picked up the book. And if I couldn't, I'd need to be prepared to backtrack the next time I picked it up.

It was never about the story - or the characters - or the history - that made me give up on it three years ago. It was that it required a certain kind of time commitment to reading that I haven't had in years.

I liked the story. It takes place over about 30 years in Russia, post-revolution. Alexander, former "Count" has been placed on house arrest at the Metropole, the elite hotel in Moscow before and after the revolution. He'd become one of the "former people," an aristocrat from tsarist times who was now a has-been. Always a gentleman, he is determined to make the best of his circumstances while restricted to life in a (formerly) luxurious hotel.

I loved the characters. Yes, I even loved to hate the bad guy characters. The characters were so incredibly well-developed as were the relationships amongst the characters. The Count developed meaningful relationships with people he probably would not have had he not been restricted to the hotel. For me, that was the beauty of this novel and that's what kept me reading (and re-reading). 

There's so much to discuss about this book. I'd highly recommend A Gentleman in Moscow for book clubs. I could see discussing the ending for hours and hours! But there's so much more to discuss than just that.