A Gentleman in Moscow

I read A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles for my book club. The book description reads, "In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery."

So much to say about this book! First of all, it was very slow for me at the beginning. Not bad slow necessarily--like I was enjoying what I was reading and following it ok, but it just never made me want to keep reading. So I would read a few pages and then move onto something else. Because of this, it was taking me forever to get through it. Around halfway through, I made myself sit for like an hour to read and made great progress--and then got super into the book. And for the rest of the book, I was excited to read it. The slow start made it so this was one of those books I would have 100% given up on if it weren't a book club book, but now that I'm finished, I'm so glad I read it (and am so proud of myself for finishing it). There were parts of the book that I just loved (Nina's funny personality as a child, the 3 men making a secret soup, the loose geese, the scene with the bishop at the end, etc.). The author brought things around from earlier in the book to later in such fun ways, and the characters were so fun and well-developed. (I especially loved Nina and Sofia, and I also enjoyed Rostov and his 2 friends at the restaurant that he meets with. And Marina.) The book had so many great descriptions or lines or scenes that I made a note of on my phone to discuss at book club. I almost would have said I loved the book rather than liked since I was so enjoying the book the last half, but the ending was a little too inconclusive for my liking since I like things getting wrapped up a little better. But it will make for more fun things to discuss at book club.

Rating: * * (2/3 = Liked it)

A few quotes to remember:

"For when life makes it impossible for a man to pursue his dreams, he will connive to pursue them anyway." (p. 336)

"For it is the role of the parent to express his concerns and then take three steps back. Not one, ind you, not two, but three. Or maybe four. (But by no means five.) Yes, a parent should share his hesitations and then take three or four steps back so that the child can make a decision by herself--even when that decision may lead to disappointment." (p. 358)

"To what end, he wondered, had the Divine created the stars in heaven to fill a man with feelings of inspiration one day and insignificance the next." (p. 125)

"For if a room that exists under the governance, authority, and intent of others seems smaller than it is, then a room that exists in secret can, regardless of its dimensions, seem as vast as one cares to imagine." (p. 64)