“Long had he believed that a gentleman should turn to a mirror with a sense of distrust. For rather than being tools of self discovery mirrors tended to be tools of self-deceit.”
A Gentleman in Moscow is one of those rare books that comes along once in a while, that just leaves you content with just its writing. The story of this true gentleman was the icing on this delicious cake. What I admired the most was how every detail of the characters and their surroundings was so well drawn out. The beautifully descriptive nature of Towles writing had me glued to it’s pages completely till the end.
This was the first book I had read with a new insight on Russia and how. Given how little I knew about it, took sometime for me to grasp some of the Russian history passing so anecdotally.
Count Alexander Rostov’s privileged life is being taken away and he is sentenced to house arrest for writing a poem that clearly was not taken as a poet’s way of expression. He was ordered to live in the luxurious Metropol Hotel. Rostov accepted this life sentence graciously, as a gentleman of his stature should. He was asked to move from his grand suite in the hotel to a smaller room up on the top floor. With his vintage furniture and his large collection of novels under that slanting ceiling, Rostov made that room his home.
Being trapped in a fancy hotel has its own perks and limitations all entwined together. Rostov starts to get acquainted with the hotel staff and guests. He meets a 9 year old girl over dinner one night and Nina and he become friends instantly. Their bond was adorable and I enjoyed their conversations so much! They explore all nooks and crannies of the hotel and while running around the hotel over the years, Rostov sees Nina leaving The Metropol as a lovely lady. While Rostov was building a new life inside the hotel, the course of Moscow was shifting outside the glass doors. Rostov’s life turns to a new chapter again when Nina comes back to the hotel after a few years with a surprise, leaving Rostov stumped and giving his life a whole new meaning.
"Oh come along"
"I'd rather not"
"Don't be such a fuddy-duddy".
"I'm not a fuddy-duddy".
"Can you be so sure?"
"A man can never be entirely sure that he is not a fuddy-duddy. That is axiomatic to the term".
"Exactly".
Alexander Rostov is someone I would have loved to meet and be friends with! I absolutely loved this big warm man. He is so well written out and nuanced by Towles, a new layer of the same cloth unfolds as you get deeper, its amazing. Towles’ descriptions of the mammoth beauty of this hotel made me feel like I was sitting in the Boyarsky having dinner with Rostov.
There is so so much more I could write about this book, here’s what I have managed to put in words through what I had imagined his life at The Metropol would be like. You will just have to read this beautiful gem of a book to experience Rostov’s journey.
“After all, what can a first impression tell us about someone we’ve just met for a minute in the lobby of a hotel? For that matter, what can a first impression tell us about anyone? Why, no more than a chord can tell us about Beethoven, or a brushstroke about Botticelli.”