A Gentleman in Moscow

This book should be titled A Gentle Man in Moscow. Count Rostov is the gentleman in the title, and he's also a gentle man. An elegant man. A cultured man. A graceful and gracious man. A man you wish you had known.

Born to the Russian aristocracy, Rostov is living in luxury in a suite at Moscow's opulent Metropole Hotel when he is sentenced to house arrest there for writing an unacceptable poem.

From luxury suite to cramped garret, the adaptable Rostov accepts his fate with equanimity. He's always been a student of people and their interactions - shrewdly designing table placements for his grandmother's dinner parties at a young age. As his physical horizons shrink, his interest in people does not. His taste is catholic. The constants are his closest friends who work in the hotel - seamstress, barber, bartender, chef, maître d. Outsiders drift in and out of the hotel, and the story, exposing what is happening in this tumultuous period in Russian history - Soviet aparatchik, Russian dissident, actress, American journalist. Rostov befriends them all, but especially the young inquisitive girl Nina, who reveals the inner secrets of the hotel with her magical passkey. She opens not only the secrets of the hotel, but ultimately opens up his life.

Throughout all this, Rostov retains the manners and grace of his privileged youth, treats everyone with respect and deploys tact and not a little manipulation to address thorny issues and nasty people. Throughout his gradual decline in material circumstances, he retains his dignity, his sense of humour and his wit.

I didn't remember Amor Towles' name until friend Judith pointed out he'd also written Rules of Civility, a book I rhapsodically reviewed here. In that review,  I said the book felt like a chiffon scarf floating artlessly on my neck. My prevailing image for A Gentleman in Moscow is an autumn leaf gently wafting downwards, gracefully floating back and forth in the wind, but always heading down. Beauty in decline. And just like Rules of Civility, I felt the urge to reread A Gentleman in Moscow as soon as I'd finished it. I guess I really like Amor Towles' writing. I highly recommend this book.

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Rules of Civility

When I finished Rules of Civility, I had the urge to immediately go back to the beginning and read it again.  This book was like a scarf that floated lightly around my neck.   Silky smooth prose studded with sparkling turns of phrase, it was soaked in the rich colours of interesting characters.  And it twists delicately with subtle plot shifts.  I could wear this scarf any time.

It's not that the book will make it onto the hundred best books of the 21st century or anything.  It's basically a romantic period piece set in 1938 in New York City.  The heroine, Brooklyn-born Katey Kontent (accent on the second syllable) is smart and sassy.  She's that irritating person who finds the perfect riposte right in the middle of the conversation, not the next day.  Despite living on the paltry salary of a secretary, she finds herself in many of New York's most noted nightspots, and she falls into romantic relationships with rich men at the drop of a hat.  It's light, frothy stuff, like that scarf I described, and I recommend it heartily.