golden literature

New Yorker and book lover

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“Books became my closest confidants, finely ground lenses providing new views of the world.”

Paul Kalanithi, When Breath Becomes Air

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I always thought it was what I wanted: to be loved and admired. Now I think perhaps I'd like to be known.

The Nightingale (Kristin Hannah) 

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If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: In love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are.

The Nightingale (Kristin Hannah) 

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A Gentleman in Moscow: Review

I waited a few days to write this review after finishing the book. At first, I was disappointed by the ending, but any ending is inherently disappointing if you genuinely enjoyed the universe in which the book took place, and I was sad to leave it. 

A Gentleman in Moscow wasn’t a gripping page turner. It’s a slow, charming read. I actually recommend reading it slowly: it takes place over the course of 35 years, so it makes sense to read a little bit at a time. The book is about Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov of Russia, a former nobleman placed under house arrest at the glamorous, cosmopolitan and endlessly fascinating Metropol Hotel in post-revolution Russia.

For a while, I struggled to find a central plot to invest myself in. I recommend not searching for one. This novel is about the unlikely but heartwarming friendships the Count forms with the cast of characters who populate the Metropol Hotel: the waiters at the Count’s favorite restaurant, the barber at the barbershop, the precocious nine-year-old girl, Nina, who lives in the hotel with her governess and father and who takes the Count on a host of adventures in the hotel. It is also about restaurants, manners, wine, and, more broadly, the adaptation required of those who live through tectonic shifts in history. The Count, contrasted with an old friend who embraces socialism and never understood or enjoyed the decorum of the past era, is in many ways rejected by his country, even as he is embraced by the staff of the Metropol for his charming personality, and he must come to terms with it. 

The book was written in a style that can only be described as enthusiastic: full of parenthetical remarks and exclamation points. It never felt distracting; the tone of the writing, though the book was written in third person, felt congruous with the verve of the Count himself. Ultimately, it was a charming and moving read, if not perpetually engrossing. 

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Here was Casablanca, a far-flung outpost in a time of war. And here at the heart of the city, right under the sweep of the searchlights, was Rick's Café Américain, where the beleaguered could assemble for a moment to gamble and drink and listen to music; to conspire, console, and most importantly, hope. And at the center of this oasis was Rick. As the Count's friend had observed, the saloonkeeper's cool response to Ugarte's arrest and his instruction for the band to play on could suggest a certain indifference to the fates of men. But in setting upright the cocktail glass in the aftermath of the commotion, didn't he also exhibit an essential faith that by the smallest of one's actions one can restore some sense of order to the world?

A Gentleman in Moscow (Amor Towles)

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the Count could sense the gentleness of spring in the air.

A Gentleman in Moscow (Amor Towles) 

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It is one of the intrinsic limitations of being young, my dear, that you can never tell when a grand adventure has just begun.

A Gentleman in Moscow (Amor Towles) 

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Like the American correspondents, jazz seemed a naturally gregarious force–one that was a little unruly and prone to  say the first thing that popped into its head, but generally of good humor and friendly intent.

A Gentleman in Moscow (Amor Towles) 

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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. By their very nature, human beings are so capricious, so complex, so delightfully contradictory, that they deserve not only our consideration, but our reconsideration–and our unwavering determination to withhold our opinion until we have engaged with them in every possible setting at every possible hour.

A Gentleman in Moscow (Amor Towles)

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Events can unfold in such a manner that overnight the man out of step finds himself in the right place at the right time. The fashions and attitudes that had seemed so alien to him are suddenly swept aside and supplanted by fashions and attitudes in perfect sympathy with his deepest sentiments. Then, like a lone sailor adrift for years on alien seas, he wakes one night to discover familiar constellations overhead.

A Gentleman in Moscow (Amor Towles) 

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For the times do, in fact, change. They change relentlessly. Inevitably. Inventively. And as they change, they set into bright relief not only outmoded honorifics and hunting horns, but silver summoners and mother-of-pearl opera glasses and all manner of carefully crafted things that have outlived their usefulness.

A Gentleman in Moscow (Amor Towles) 

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Fortune does favor the bold.

A Gentleman in Moscow (Amor Towles) 

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A taxi pulled to the curb, the door flung open, and a woman in red dashed up the stairs with the hem of her dress in her hands.  Leaning forward, Nina cupped her palms against the glass and squinted.  "If only I were there and she were here," she sighed.  And there, thought the Count, was a suitable plaint for all mankind.

A Gentleman in Moscow (Amor Towles) 

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In Russia, whatever the endeavor, if the setting is glorious and the tenor grandiose, it will have its adherents.

A Gentleman in Moscow (Amor Towles) 

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Long had he believed that a gentleman should turn into a mirror with a sense of distrust. For rather than being tools of self-discovery, mirrors tended to be tools of deceit. How many times had he watched as a young beauty turned thirty degrees before her mirror to ensure that she saw herself to the best advantage? (As if henceforth all the world would see her solely from that angle!)

A Gentleman in Moscow (Amor Towles) 

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Every period has its virtues, even in a time of turmoil.

A Gentleman in Moscow (Amor Towles) 

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Imagining what might happen if one's circumstances were different was the only sure route to madness.

A Gentleman in Moscow (Amor Towles)