Why this Book:  Strongly recommended by a member of my literature reading group.

Summary in 3 Sentences:  Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov,  an educated man of culture, charm and discretion and a member of the aristocracy in pre-revolutionary Russia, is sentenced to “house arrest” in the Metropole Hotel in Moscow, with the warning that if he were ever step outside of it, he would be shot on sight. The Metropole is an oasis of culture and refinement in the new proletarian ruled Soviet Union, and we get to know Count Rostov and a cast of fascinating characters over the next 30+ years, as he makes a rich life for himself within the walls of the hotel – a life in which he finds a way to live fully in accordance with the values that represent the very best of what the Russian Revolution swept away after World War 1.

My Impressions:  I loved this book – from the very beginning and all the way through it.   I’d put it in the top 5 in literature I’ve read in the last 10 years.  It is exquisitely written – I loved Amor Towles use of the English language to capture the feeling of culture and sophistication that Count Rostov represented.  His tightly circumscribed life within the walls of the hotel is in stark contrast to the chaos and turmoil taking place outside the walls of the hotel in Russia at the time, as Stalin collectivized the farms and dissidents were executed, sent into exile or simply disappeared.  All of this is going on in the background of a life well lived in forced internal exile.

The center piece of the story is the character of the urbane Count Rostov whose warmth, sense of manners and propriety, respect for the history and traditions of his culture and the great achievements of cultivated society he retained, even when reduced to living in a 10×10 room in the attic of a hotel.  He continued to live with integrity and class, befriending many – while still holding on to his appreciation for the finest in culinary cuisine, wine,  culture and the best in people – no matter what their background.  He found a way to live fulfill two fundamental imperatives of a life well lived – to be useful and kind. Amor Towles in an interview on Youtube said that his wife wished that he were more like the Count. My wife would wish the same of me.

The Count was an example and a mentor to many. He lived humbly and simply, but always with the utmost in integrity, manners, and character. He mentored many people in the book, to include a child at the beginning, and then he became a surrogate father to an orphan in the second half of the book. These relationships were key to his character and to the story as it evolved.

The world of Count Rostov inside the Metropole included many fascinating characters and beautifully nuanced metaphors for the world we the readers live in, with (seemingly) much greater freedom of action.  The worlds of pre-Stalinist, Stalinist, and post-Stalinist Russia intrudes regularly into the Metropole as close friends visit, acquaintances and interesting guests come and go, and activities are scheduled at the hotel that reflect the tumultuous political world outside its walls – the Kremlin is within sight of the hotel.   The Metropole hotel serves as a meeting place for influential people from around the world, where Western values and conveniences are (mostly) retained, and therefore change comes much more slowly than outside, but indeed the vulgarization of life outside the walls of the hotel walls inevitably creeps in.

For example:  The Metropole had an extensive wine cellar with wines of every type and vintage. A great story is when the apparatchiks decided that it was a bourgeois vanity to prefer one wine over another, an anachronistic reflection of individual differences in a world which was moving toward sameness and homogenization.  And so, the newly appointed manager directed that the labels be taken off of all the thousands of bottles of wine in the best wine cellar in Russia, in order that customers could only order red wine or white – and that was all anyone needed to know.   Of course the Count and the other sophisticated patrons of the hotel were appalled, but could say nothing.

The richness of the story  in A Gentleman in Moscow is hard to do justice to in a brief review. I will say in conclusion that the ending was a surprise – but was appropriate to the quality of the rest of the book.

An interesting and unexplained aspect of the book:  All of the chapter titles begin with the letter “A” – and we get no explanation – but it is a charming nuance.

Interesting or otherwise Great Quotes:

It was the Grand Duke who took the young Count aside and explained that he must be strong for his sister’s sake; that adversity presents itself in many forms; and that if a man does not master his circumstance then he is bound to be mastered by them. 18

His model for mastering his circumstance would be a different sort of captive altogether; an Anglican washed ashore.  Like Robinson Crusoe stranded on the Isle of Despair, the Count would maintain his resolve by committing to the business of practicalities.  Having dispensed with dreams of quick discovery, the world’s Crusoes seek shelter and a source of fresh water; they teach themselves to make fire from flint; they study their island’s topography, its climate, its flora and fauna, all the while keeping their eyes trained for sails on the horizon and footprints in the sand.  29

Ever since its opening in 1905 , the hotel’s suites and restaurants had been a gathering spot for the glamorous, influential, and erudite; but the effortless elegance on display would not have existed without the services of the lower floor….33

For standing at the edge of his table was the young girl with the penchant for yellow- studying him with that unapologetic interest peculiar to children and dogs.  40

“Manners are not like bonbons, Nina. You may not choose the ones that suit you best; and you certainly cannot put the half-bitten ones back in the box…”52

Having systematically made an impression in every corner – with a weighty remark here, and a witty remark there – he now excused himself “for just moment.”  67

Here indeed was a formidable sentence – one that was on intimate terms with the comma, and that held the period in healthy disregard.  68

“Poetic concision demands the avoidance of a pair of words when a single word will suffice.” 69

For it is a fact that a man can be profoundly out of step with his times….For such a fellow, forget any chance of romance or professional success; those are the provenance of men instep with their teams….But events can unfold in such a manner that overnight the man out of step finds himself in the right place at the right time.  86-87

For after all, if attentiveness should be measured in minutes and discipline measured in hours, then indomitability just be measured in years.  Or, if philosophical investigations are not to your taste, then let us simply agree that the wise man celebrates what he can.  110

…then attaining tor the upper hand on the field of battle is measure in the instant.  111

And as she talked, the Count had to acknowledge once again the virtues of withholding judgment…After all, what can a first impression tell us about someone we’ve just met… 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….120

If the bread was somehow earthen, brown, and brooding, the honey was sunlit, golden , and gay. But there was another dimension to it…An elusive, yet familiar element…A grace note hidden beneath, or behind, or within the sensation of sweetness.  `127

After all, an educated man should admire any course of study no matter how arcane, if it be pursued with curiosity and devotion. 134

Yes, a bottle of wine was the ultimate distillation of time and place; a poetic expression of individuality itself.  Yet here it was, cast back into the sea of anonymity, that realm of averages and unknowns.  144

As we age, we are bound to find comfort from the notion that it takes generations for a way of life to fade. 144

But if the Count took pride in knowing that everything was in order, he took comfort in knowing that the world would carry on without him -and, in act, already had. 154

The sense of loss is exactly what we must anticipate, prepare for and cherish to the last of our days; for it is  only our heartbreak that finally refutes all that is ephemeral in love.  184

Nina always was and would be a serious soul in search of serious ideas to be serious about. 186

“Then you must trust in her. And even if she is single-minded to a fault, you must trust that life will find her in time.  Fore eventually, it finds us all.”189

Or like the Count and Anna, one may simply join the Confederacy of the Humbled….a close knit brotherhood whose members travel with no outward markings, but who know each other at a glance.  196

“But I do like to think there is a difference between being resigned to a situation and reconciled to it.” 211

(On Jazz – the Count) … had been raised to appreciate music of sentiment and nuance, music that rewarded patience and attention with crescendos and  minuendos, allegros and adagios artfully arranged over four whole movements – not a fistful of notes crammed higgledy-piggledy into thirty measures….. And yet, the art form had grown on him.  216

The two men took each other in from heel to hair – both practiced at confirming at a glance their worst suspicions of each other. 218

…four stalks of celery lying in an orderly row waited like Spartans to meet their fate. 219

..at half past midnight the chef hadn’t the slightest doubt that the sun would shine tomorrow, that most people were generous at heart, and that, when all was said and done, things tended to work out for the best.  219