A Gentleman in Moscow is an exquisite tale, that for most parts moves like a stream, at a languid pace and then all of a sudden takes a surprising turn and crashes down with the power and beauty of a mighty falls.
Post the Russian Revolution, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov is condemned to lifelong house arrest in the majestic Hotel Metropol in Central Moscow by a Bolshevik tribunal. He would be shot if he ever steps out of the hotel. And so the story goes on as Count Rostov moves to a disused servant’s quarters (more of an attic) in the hotel and becomes, from an aristocrat, to a waiter and stays on for 32 years, till he makes a stunning escape.
In those 32 years we travel through the turbulent times of Russia, from the Bolshevik upheaval, to the tyrannical times of Stalin (to think that one of our political leaders is named after this dictator who condemned and killed millions of his own folk!) and to Second World War.
For the generation (at least for Sree and me) who grew up on NCBH (New Century Book House on Mount Road, Chennai, was a beautiful place filled with the fragrance of new books, that had amazing illustrations and top notch print and paper quality), Maxim Gorky’s Mother and the romanticism of communism; would be able to connect, reminisce and eventually be disappointed with the reality of the times gone by (there is a remark on Gorky in the book, which would shake those who revered Gorky and The Mother).
The Novel, is a series of lessons on culture, and Gentlemanness (I know it is not a word, but it does sounds appropriate) during some very difficult times), with references to fine wine, books and music (the three core elements of a good life, wouldn’t you agree?). The book is a discourse on moral discipline, but done with a light humor and charm that it hardly sounds preachy at any time (also, there is an awesome reference to Casablanca that is beautifully appropriate).
Narrated in third person, you become a part of the ensemble and grow alongside the characters. Some of them so wonderful, you make friends with them, you hate- just the one character and surely will fall in love with a few.
This is just the second novel for American author Amor Towles ( the first being Rules of Civility, also a best seller). Towles, left behind a successful investment profession of 22 years to become a successful novelist. It took more than 3 years for Towles to finish The Gentleman in Moscow and every page is a testament to that spectacular effort.
Quotes from the book, that I liked most:
- If a man does not master his circumstances then he is bound to be mastered by them.
- What matters in life is not whether we receive a round of applause; what matters is whether we have the courage to venture forth despite the uncertainty of acclaim.
- If patience wasn’t so easily tested, then it would hardly be a virtue
- 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?
- Life does not proceed by leaps and bounds. It unfolds. At any given moment, it is the manifestation of a thousand transitions. Our faculties wax and wane, our experiences accumulate and our opinions evolve--if not glacially, then at least gradually. Such that the events of an average day are as likely to transform who we are as a pinch of pepper is to transform a stew.
