"A Gentleman in Moscow"

By Amor Towles

Book List

This is my start to read the books I have picked up at library book sales. Some I have ordered from Amazon or Alibris. Those I have already read, I will scan and list.

“A Gentleman in Moscow” by Amor Towles

May 6, 2023, I finished reading this about 2 weeks ago when I formulated this idea of a book list. I was attracted by the title. Dorothy Sayer’s “Whimsey” is my picture of a proper gentleman. Somewhere I read and have used it as a sermon illustration the conversation between a young girl and her mother after she spent some time talking with a man who showed interest in her interests and opinions. She was impressed and when she told her mother, the response was “of course, he is a gentleman”.

Our gentleman in the novel does not disappoint. He is convicted in 1922 of being who he is. Rather than being shot he found himself in house arrest in the Metropol Hotel in Kremlin Square. Apparently, a piece of writing from his college days gave him the lighter sentence. There is a story in that will be revealed as the novel progresses. There are some inconveniences, but he lives as he would have lived before the revolution as a guest of the hotel.

Our gentleman meets a young girl who becomes very important to the novel. They become the best of friends because he is a gentleman. She also owns a master key to all the doors in the hotel. She would graciously bestow him with it as her time came to move on. The last part of the novel will have our gentleman being given our young girl’s daughter to watch as she went to Siberia to minister to her husband there.

I included one phrase from the book in a sermon. The ex-wife of his scholastic friend meets with him to give him a copy of his friend’s final project, a compilation of quotes from bible to Russian literature using the word “bread”. She is a daughter of the revolution. Life has decimated her. He offers to help her as they part. He asks where she will go. She responds with: “What does it matter”. Between the memory of his friend and her “What does it matter” they will impact him as he moves through the final adventure of the novel.

In between, we have characters of cooks, waiters, party officials, guests, hotel staff, actresses, dinner menus, spies and memories. Superb writing keeps the flow going throughout the book. He is in his 30’s when he is sentenced in 1922 to his 60’s when Stalin dies and the world wonders who will take his place.

Yes, that matters in the novel. Very enjoyable read for me.