Book Review (Canon): A Gentleman in Moscow

A Gentleman in Moscow

Written by Amor Towles in 2016

The Raccoon: During the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov is sentenced to house arrest and forced to spend the remainder of his life in Moscow’s opulent Metropol Hotel.  Determined to master his circumstances and live a full life regardless, he changes the lives of dozens of guests as Russian history unfolds.

UNMASKED: I have always had a weakness for the concept of the gentleman, if my glowing review of The Count of Monte Cristo is any indication.  However, I believe I can objectively say that A Gentleman in Moscow is a brilliant book.

I was incredibly surprised to learn that Towles is American, as he describes Russia with such detail and nuance that one can only assume he is narrating his own life.  Moreover, his narrating prowess is unmatched; no other author can show his characters' thoughts this deeply without ruining the flow of the story resorting to using first person.  Although there are a few hiccups, in which Towles tries and fails to engage the reader further by speaking directly to him/her, the remaining 95% of the book reads so seamlessly that the end of each chapter became invisible to me.

As for the actual content, Count Rostov is the charming protagonist that all book lovers have been waiting for.  His antics in conversation, unusual knowledge specialities, and peculiar philosophies make for constant entertainment.  The way he immediately treats any new character as a best friend is humbling as well as useful in fleshing out the story.  Towles does not need to encourage us to laugh and cry with Alexander; the reader wants to spend time with him, and it hurts to turn the final page and bid him, as well as the rest of the stellar cast, goodbye.

Strengths:

• The novel accurately and thoroughly shows Russian culture and philosophy throughout various periods of the 20th century, making the events more exciting and true to life.
• The reader feels a strong connection with every character, and none of them can be categorized into archetypes.
• Although there are lulls in the action, and the story spans thirty years, I was always engaged in the events.
• The book changed my perspective on both Cold War countries.

Weaknesses:

• A few burning questions are left unanswered.
• Towles’ second-person tangents ruin everything that makes the rest of the novel so exceptional.
• One character has several years of her life sandwiched into one chapter as a retconned explanation for her current situation.

Rating: 17/20 flights of stairs

Ideal Setting: Read this whenever your routine begins to grow monotonous.  If one man can spend roughly 12,000 days in the same hotel and find new adventures, surely boredom is a choice.