A Gentleman in Moscow
A Commentary on the Book by Amor Towles
It is post-revolution Russia of 1922. Count Rostov, an aristocrat, and gentleman, is condemned to life imprisonment in the Hotel Metropol in Moscow. His crime: writing a counter-revolutionary poem! For thirty years or so the world will come and go within the four walls of a one hundred feet square room he is confined to, the smallest he had ever lived in.
Count Rostov carries his past inside him and in few belongings that are left of his time spent with the people he called family. His life unfolds and takes new turns as he rushes up and down the stairs of the Hotel Metropol. The confinement no matter how glamorous seems to be unbearable at times and leads to the only choice left; to free oneself of life and its torments. But then there are honey bees, traveling miles away to the land you have fond memories of but cannot go to, bringing you the taste and aroma of the land you’ve been talking to an acquaintance from the same land, and then you put off the idea to free yourself of life.
During his stay at the hotel he meets many guests from around the world, befriends employees of the hotel even becomes one himself, befriends a little girl who wonders about his mustache, another little girl who calls him Papa, and an actress who inspires the hidden astronaut in him to show up when she asks,
“How many freckles do I have?”
He replies,
“How many stars are in the sky…?”
Mishka, his friend and only window to the past comes to see the Count whenever he is in Moscow, bringing the news about how the revolution is going about outside the Hotel Metropol. One day Mishka brought the news that the project he has been working on may not see the light of the day. Reason: He has been asked to strike out a passage from one of the letters of Anton Chekhov. And do you know what it turns out to be? The casual mention that the bread of Berlin is better than Russia’s! Censorship, we realize is not a new weapon. Then there is exile in case the action of a citizen turns out to be counter-revolutionary or counter-Russia for that matter. The citizens may have to be exiled to a hostile place within Russia, where they are not encouraged to read, write, eat… and live.
While reading the book I could not escape the feeling that the toll and burden of wars, revolution, politics, development, and progress are shouldered by the common people, the upheaval turns their lives upside down, and they pay the price with their lives, dreams, and passions. Everyone is affected by the political turmoil not just those directly associated with it; down the social ladder you are, the higher the price you pay …
Dusted with wit, littered with delightful conversations, and poetic prose, the book keeps you glued to its pages and while there’s a sense of curiosity the book does not make you anxious to skim and scamper through the pages to know how the things will turn out. History, politics, patriotism, romance, compassion, and companionship, all is packaged beautifully in this book and this is what makes it a delightful read.
A few of my favorite quotes from the book:
All poetry is a call to action.
A king fortifies himself with a castle, a gentleman with a desk.
…that adversity presents itself in many forms; and that if a man does not master his circumstances then he is bound to be mastered by them.
Life will entice, after all.
But every period had its virtues, even a time of turmoil…
For pomp is a tenacious force. And a wily one too.
If patience wasn’t so easily tested, then it would hardly be a virtue…
And that is just how it should be. That sense of loss is that 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.
They spoke of the once and the was, of the wishful and the wonderful.
But the truth is: No matter how the time passes, those we have loved never slip away from us entirely.
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