A Gentleman in Moscow’s blurb describes the book’s central character as having been “deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal,” which aptly sets the mood for Count Alexander Rostov’s appearance before the Emergency Committee of the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs on the 21st of June 1922, where he is then sentenced to house arrest. This would be the introduction to Amor Towles’s intricately constructed character of a witty, elegant, and delightful Count Rostov. The Count, more vulnerably Alexander, faced a predicament very similar to ours exactly a year ago: that of having to stay indoors indefinitely. Interestingly enough, this book was written in 2017, which makes it asynchronous with both the pandemic and the Russian Revolution, but to reduce it to a book that “predicted the lockdown” would be to do it a grave injustice. The book, which can be classified as romantic historical fiction, is exquisite and sensual in its descriptions of life in the Metropol Hotel, where the Count is forced to shift from his expansive suite into an attic. The significant reduction in available space forces the Count to bring with him only his most valuable possessions and therein begins his love story with the Metropol, the friendships he makes along the way, and the lessons he learns.

 

Amor Towles builds the Count’s relationship with his country through allusions to Russian literature, dance, and theatre, as well as through Count’s relationships with his family, the people who become his family, and his hometown, Nizhny Novgorod. The sights, smells, tastes, physical objects, and depth of space all contribute to his feeling of comfort within the Metropol or Nizhny Novgorod. They are all beautifully described in the book, making readers feel at home in a country or time zone that they may never have visited. Through its mesmerizing accounts of the Count’s experiences between 1922 and 1954, the book explores the volatility of political thought and the meaninglessness of fame and fortune. Once the veneer of privilege is pulled down, all that remains is one’s memories, habits, and relationships with the objects and people around them. While A Gentleman in Moscow presents this message, it isn’t holier-than-thou about it. Rather, it traces the Count’s discovery of this particular slice of wisdom in an accessible and generous way.

 

The book’s main themes are the passage of time, the formation and breakdown of relationships, the appreciation of culture, and the equilibrium of life. That it manages to do so within the confines of the Metropol Hotel must give immense hope to readers that have been under lockdown for the past year, encouraging them to appreciate every minor detail that contributes to their environment and to see an opportunity to slow down in the face of life’s more temporary challenges.

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Written by: Nitya Khirwar

Edited by: Aarushi Bansal

Designed by: Siya Mehra