This book was just what I needed. For starters the main character is forced to spend all of his time in one building. Granted that building has a five star restaurant, a full-service bar, and a barber shop that's allowed to operate but the man is stuck inside all the same. It kind of seems fitting right about now.

This was a charming book from start to finish. I adored the Count. I adored Nina. I adored Sophia. I adored everyone we met in this book. Even some of the high ranking Russian officials. The Count was one of those men it was impossible not to be charmed by. I can see where some readers might have an issue with this. People like characters to have obvious flaws. They like when bad things happen. They like brooding. The Count had obvious flaws and bad things did happen to him (You don't get forced into house arrest for the rest of your life for nothing. Well maybe in Communist Russia but it sure beats the firing squad.). The Count just wasn't the type to brood. That doesn't mean he was happy all the time either. The Count is much more complicated than that. Unless you read the book, you just won't understand it. 

When I first started this book, my immediate thought was it was much like an adult version of Eloise. The Count lives in the tippy top floor. The Metropol is much like the Plaza. The Count isn't quite as naughty as Eloise but he's not without his shenanigans. This comparison remained apt through out the novel's entirety. I think it lends to the charm.

Aside from the characters, I can see people taking issue with words themselves. The author has English related degrees from Yale and Stanford. His education is on full display at The Metropol. At times his word choices border on arrogant but it works. There is nothing wrong with an author who sets out to publish a smartly written book. At the end of the day, that's what this is. I get where that might rub people the wrong way. They may feel like he's insulting your intelligence. He's not. He's just displaying his own. What his own intelligence translates into is a lyrical work with more notable passages than I can track. 

This is one of those books I will heartily recommend to anyone who asks with the understand that they will either love it or loathe it. If you love it? Wonderful. If you loathe it? That's fine too. We're all different. 

Because I can't focus on just one thing at a time while I'm working on this, I have about 15 different browser tabs open. In one, there is a group discussion of this book where some talks about a movie that was rumored to be in production with Kenneth Branagh in the lead. I'm not opposed to that casting. I just don't think it works for the whole movie. The book starts with the Count in his early 30s. Branagh, while brilliant just might be a little too old to go start to finish. He definitely has the charm to pull it off. I would also like to throw Tom Hiddleston into the ring as a man who oozes charm. Again, the age thing might be problematic. Any one else who has read this book have any other suggestions? 

Dates read 4/24/2020-5/1/2020

Book 31/75

Not too much to say except I really loved this from beginning to end. Towles has a great character in Count Alexander Rostov. We follow the Count from his lock down at the Metropol from 1922 to the 1950s.

"A Gentleman in Moscow" opens on a trial in 1922. Count Alexander Rostov is being charged with crimes and threatened to be shot to death. However, because of his stance during his trial and him being the author of a famous poem he is eventually allowed to leave with one caveat. He has to stay in the Metropol for the rest of his life. If he ever leaves the hotel he will be immediately shot. He also is forced out of his luxury room surrounded by his family's heirlooms and lives in a tiny room in the attic of the hotel. We follow the Count through the years as he meets men and women who will change his life.

Through the Count we get to see a changing Russia, one that elevated nobility above all us to one that seemed determined to hide the ugliness under a Stalin regime. We hear bits and pieces about the Count's life prior to him living in the Metropol and start to put things together. I like that Towles did not just come out with things right away. I thought the Count was stiff at times, but his interaction with Nina, Anna, and then Sofia show how much he loves and wants to protect those around him. His philosophy about Russia through his interactions with his long-time friend and others was interesting to see. I never really studied Russian history beyond the requirements I needed to for my history degree. You get such an eye for the splendor that was Russia prior to the Revolutions. And you have to wonder about where the Bolsheviks totally in the wrong? I loved the arguments about how many in Russia were not able to read or feed themselves. So the Count had a ivory tower stance about the past that we see changes slightly over time. 

I loved all of the secondary characters even thought the jumping around at times confused me a bit due to the chapter headings saying "addendum." Nina was a pistol. Anna was great. And I did love Sofia too.  The Count also forms relationships with people in the know and even an American ambassador named Richard Wilshire that he spars with at times. 

The writing was beautiful and lyrical at times.  The ending was wonderfully done and made me smile. 

This is an interesting take on the idea of genetic manipulation of future children. I felt, however, that it was a tad bit too long.

Well not too much to say about this one except the third act one of the characters went on about actually weighed down this book a lot. I loved the concept (able to use an algorithm to choose what path an unborn child will possibly lead) but after the character of Sam lives the corporation the book just got messy. 

"You Have Arrived at Your final Destination" follows Sam whose wife Annie has talked him into having a child via a corporation called Vitek which does "genetic nudging." Vitek can supposedly use enough "science" to lead a couple to determine what type of life a child they will have one day, will experience. Sam starts off skeptical, and then dismayed when he sees what type of life his child could have and what does that mean in the end for free will. 

Sam I liked a lot initially. He was rightfully skeptical when he gets to Vitek. When he is told his wife has already selected three projections of their child's life for Sam to view, he wonders how she came to a decision so quickly. When he is shown the three projections  I had to wonder at why Sam reacted the way he did. And we quickly find out about his past and his father and start asking questions of what parts of those experiences made Sam and what parts were pre-determined? The story talks a lot about his wife Annie, but we never get to "see" her or get her thoughts on things. Based on the ending of the book, one wonders if she was trying to get Sam to some realizations cause those three projections she selected say a lot about her. 

I thought the other character in the novel we stay with the most is Sam's "projection" child and we have that character being the driving force for the choice that Sam makes in the end.

The writing I thought was really good. This reminds me a a bit of Gattaca, but on drugs a bit due to how the genetic nudging works with them able to "view" their child's life. The flow though once we get to "act three" didn't really work. Also one of the character's saying everyone's life goes around three acts like a movie just bugged me. 

The setting of this book seems to be in the not to distant future, though with a lot of things that sounded familiar to me. 

One of the few books this year I have attempted to read but just could not finish. The writing was good but I felt the claustrophobic setting of the Metropol Hotel in Moscow and the adventures of disgraced Count Alexander Rostov soon lost my attention. It would therefore be very unfair of me to rate this book unfairly as I could not fault the literary style and flow of the writing of Amor Towles....maybe later in the year I will attempt to read again :)