Good Reads / Community Library Notes
A Gentleman in Moscow
Amor Towles
Review by Priscilla Comen
A Gentleman in Moscow
Amor Towles
Review by Priscilla Comen
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles is the delightful story of the life of Count Rostov. Because he is an aristocrat, and this begins during the Russian Revolution, he is placed under house arrest. He’s not put into a prison, but rather into the elegant hotel Metropole in Moscow, across from the Kremlin. At first housed in a suite of rooms, he is soon moved by the authorities to a tiny room in the attic, with space only for a bed, a desk, and a chair. He must leave behind the beloved pieces that belonged to his grandmother and other relatives. The Count is witty and intelligent; he reads Montaigne’s works and understands them. He is observant, and sees that the closet in his small room leads to a closet in another room. He unlocks the two doors and soon has a secret entry to a large room to which he moves.
The Count meets interesting people, and befriends them. He dines in the hotel’s elegant dining room and meets the actress, Anna Urbanova. She later drops her dress to the floor, and he has never had such wonderful sex. They meet every night when she is in town. When he is asked to be a waiter at the hotel, the maitre d’ and the chef, Emile, become his close friends. The three of them stay up all night preparing a bouillabaisse, searching for the expensive and hard to find Saffron and other ingredients. At dawn they gleefully eat every bit of their endeavor.
A young woman leaves her baby girl with the Count, asks him to care for her baby for just a day. The day turns into a week, a month, years. The hotel staff helps the Count care for the child. The seamstress spends much time with her, teaching her to sew and other important bits of knowledge. As Sonia grows up, she takes piano lessons and one day enters a competition which leads to an unexpected denouement.
Each chapter of this fascinating book is a small vignette that captures your mind and your heart. You hope for the health and safety of the Count. The author has won many awards and his first book was a New York Times and L.A. Times best seller. You can find this on the new fiction shelf of your community library.
The Count meets interesting people, and befriends them. He dines in the hotel’s elegant dining room and meets the actress, Anna Urbanova. She later drops her dress to the floor, and he has never had such wonderful sex. They meet every night when she is in town. When he is asked to be a waiter at the hotel, the maitre d’ and the chef, Emile, become his close friends. The three of them stay up all night preparing a bouillabaisse, searching for the expensive and hard to find Saffron and other ingredients. At dawn they gleefully eat every bit of their endeavor.
A young woman leaves her baby girl with the Count, asks him to care for her baby for just a day. The day turns into a week, a month, years. The hotel staff helps the Count care for the child. The seamstress spends much time with her, teaching her to sew and other important bits of knowledge. As Sonia grows up, she takes piano lessons and one day enters a competition which leads to an unexpected denouement.
Each chapter of this fascinating book is a small vignette that captures your mind and your heart. You hope for the health and safety of the Count. The author has won many awards and his first book was a New York Times and L.A. Times best seller. You can find this on the new fiction shelf of your community library.