A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Very recently, finished reading A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles. This book is about a Russian aristocrat Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov. He was placed under house arrest in a fancy hotel after the Bolsheviks found a revolutionary poem that he wrote. The novel is about the Count's interactions with the guests and staff of the hotel over the course of many decades.

One of its main storylines is about a girl named Nina and her daughter Sofia. Nina met the Count at the hotel at a very young age. They had many adventures together while she stayed at the hotel. Many years later, Nina approached the Count desperately. She wanted to leave her daughter with the Count for some time while she freed her husband from a labor camp. The Count agreed to take care of her young daughter and Nina left. She never returned and Sofia grew older at the hotel. Overtime, the Count and Sofia developed a father-daughter relationship. Eventually, the Count found a way to escape the hotel and took Sofia to America.

This is just my basic summary of the book. In reality, the book is very detailed and animated. The Count’s life seemed just as complex as our lives and it would be unnecessary to include it all in my summary. Instead, I chose the storyline that seemed most important to the plot.

A Gentleman in Moscow was a different from most books that I read. It left me with mixed feelings. Looking at other’s opinions it sounds like people either absolutely loved this book or completely loathed it. I find myself in the middle. There is no doubt that the book is beautifully written. Amor Towles was able to bring life to each character – even those who played small roles. The words made it feel as if you were a guest in the Count’s mind, really living in the hotel and meeting the characters.

Still, the book wasn’t totally satisfying. To provide you some context, I wasn’t just reading this book for fun. I was practicing speed-reading to increase my reading pace. So, my opinions of the book are heavily influenced by my thoughts while reading as fast as I could.

First, I thought that the book was too focused on irrelevant things that didn’t play a major part in either the plot development or characterization. For example, too many paragraphs at the beginning of the book were focused on characters or objects that never showed up later in the book. This made it hard for me to identify what was important for me to remember for the plot. It also made the storyline blurry, and I was left confused about where the book was going. This made my speed-reading experience painful (but it definitely helped me grow as a reader).

Second, I got extremely bored. There are different sections of the book where it feels like the time just stopped. I read page after page just wishing that somehow the plot would just move forward. It made me feel detached from the story since I didn’t care about what was going on. Eventually, the plot did move forward into more interesting conversations and characters, but the wait was too long.

Still, I encourage others to read this book. Most readers thought that the book was extraordinary, and I agree with them. I’m sure that my opinions would have been different if I had been reading the book leisurely. So, if you are looking for a novel, I would recommend giving this book a try.