Book: A Gentleman in Moscow
Author: Amor Towles
Pages: 462
Date: 3/26/25
I wanted to read this book because it was strongly recommended to me by one of my close friends. She said it was one of her favorite books and I am pleased to say that I really enjoyed how it started & how it progressed through time – all within the confines of a hotel in the middle of Moscow.
Main characters:
Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov
Nina Kulikova
Anna Urbanova
Sofia Kulkova
Marina – seamstress
Andre – maitre d’
Vasily – concierge
Emil – chef of Boyarsky, a restaurant in the hotel.
Bishop Leplevsky – Russian “comrade” working as assistant manager & later manager of the hotel
Richard Vanderwhile – American working at US embassy in Moscow who ultimately moves to Paris.
The book starts in June of 1922 in Moscow, Russia when the Count is sentenced to house arrest at the Metropole hotel for the crime of being an aristocrat. He is approximately 30 years old at the time and has already lived there for four years. When he returns, he finds that he has been moved from Suite 317 to a small room in the attic – courtesy of the Soviet police.
Soon after, he meets a 9-year-old girl Nina, who is staying there long-term with her dad, a widowed Ukrainian bureaucrat. She starts communicating with him to learn how to become a princess. They spend a great deal of time together, playing games, learning the secret passageways of the hotel, listening in on meetings, etc. She stays there until 1926, when she is 13 years old. In 1923, he meets a famous Anna, the famous actress and they sleep together. In 1926, he is just ready to commit suicide by jumping off the roof when he is interrupted by the hotel handyman about some issue that only he could help with. In 1928, he starts sleeping with Anna every three months or so. He also meets weekly with Osip, an officer in the Soviet Army to teach him about Western culture, English & French languages and to watch period films. He sees Nina again in 1930 when she and some friends were on their way to a regino to assist with the collectivation of farms. In approximately 1930, Bishop Leplevsky becomes the assistant manager, but he is really just a comrade of the Communist party placed there to monitor things & report interesting information to higher ups.
The book then jumps to 1938, mentioning how the 30’s were not kind to Russia. The famine of 1932 is just one of the issues faced over those years. About that time, Count starts working as a waiter in the hotel restaurant. Nina rushes into the hotel in ’38, asking a favor of the Count. She needs him to watch her 6-year-old daughter, Sofia, for 1-2 months so that she can go find her arrested husband in Siberia. The Count takes her and removes a door between two attic rooms to turn it into two rooms. He gets a second bed and makes it into a bunk bed for her. Nina never returns to retrieve her daughter.
The book jumps to 1946 – the war is over and Sofia is 14. She is a very studious, intelligent girl. Bishop has become the hotel manager. Count Rostov becomes friends with Richard Vanderwhile, an official at the US embassy. In 1950, Sofia wins her schools music competition and the Red October Youth Orchestra in Stalingrad wants her to start playing there later that year. Anna comes to the rescue and casually mentions that Sofia is of personal interest of the Minister of Culture (a lie) that causes them to withdraw the offer. In 1952, Richard offers the Count to spy for the US and he declines, just before Richard departs for an intelligence position at the US embassy in Paris.
In 1954, Sofia will go to play in Paris for hte All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. Simultaneously, there will be a combined dinner at the Metropole of the Soviet President and the Council of Ministers (46 men) with no set seating arrangement. The Count realizes that there will be some jockeying for positions there and this will determine who in the Ministry is strong with Kruschev and who is not. He gets a note passed to another American to be passed to Richard in Paris.
6/11/52 The combined dinner takes place at the Metropole where the Count is a waiter.
6/12/52 Sofia leaves for Paris with the Moscow Orchestra.
6/13/52 The Count steals the passport of a Finnish tourist as well as the raincoat & hat of an American tourist.
6/15/52 The Count is caught by Bishop with some letters & maps. The Count takes him at gunpoint and locks him in a basement room.
6/21/52 Sofia plays with the orchestra in Paris, France. Immediately after her performance, she goes to her dressing room and changes her appearance and clothes to look like a boy. She walks to the home of Richard Vanderwhile & gives him a book. He tears apart the seam and listed inside is the list of attendees to the President’s dinner and the seating arrangement. This is a home run hit for the Americans & their intelligence on who the main players are within the Soviet government. To let the Count know that Sofia made it and the message was received, they had their switchboard operators inundate the Metropole with phone calls – all at the same time. He is sitting in the lobby & when he hears approximately 30 phones ring at the same time, he gets up, puts on the stolen coat and hat and walks out of the Metropole for only the second time in 30 years.
When the KGB realizes that Sofia left, they sought out the Count, but could not find him either. They then found Bishop in the one room. The Count sent someone to the Finnish border by train to leave the coat, hat and some maps in the border bathroom. They believe he left by train to Finland. The next chapter of the book has Rostov walking in an orchard at his boyhood home. The house was burnt down long ago. He then goes to an inn in a nearby village. He walks in, sees Anna in the corner at a table for two and joins her.
What I learned from this book is that there are several different themes in this book:
1) How to be a gentleman as part of a civilized society, including knowing the appropriate foods depending on the situation or party with whom you are dining, pairing with wines, introducing yourself & others to new people, knowing & using good manners, etc.
2) Thinking about and remembering the past and the friends you had at that time. Several times throughout the book, he crosses paths with old friends & reminisces about the past.
Interesting statistics/thoughts
1) As long as there have been men on earth, there has been men in exile (think Cain & Abel). In the 18th century, the Russian Tsars realized that there was an even better option – instead of exiling their enemies outside of the country, they opted to send them to Siberia instead.
2) Placing bread & salt on a table is an ancient Russian symbol of hospitality.
3) In the 1930’s, when the mandatory collectivation was being enforced, half of the peasants slaughtered their own livestock instead of giving them up to the cooperatives. Fourteen million cattle were killed.
Interesting statements in the book:
1) A room is the summation of all that has happened inside it.
2) Our best course of action appears objectionable at the first step. In fact, it almost always does.
3) There were two succinct pieces of parental advice Rostov had for Sofia – 1) If one does not master one’s circumstances, one was bound to be mastered by them and 2) the surest sign of wisdom is constant cheerfulness.
What I learned from this book that can increase my prospects for success after prison:
1) When Nina brought Sofia to Rostov, she knew she could count on him. The paragraph there read, “When such a friend has sought out to ask for aid – particularly one for whom asking favors in time of need does not come naturally – there there is only one acceptable response.” I feel like this corresponds to me as I seek out my friends to help my family & I during my prison sentence. When the time comes, I will repay the favor.
2) There was a statement in the book that said, “One must make ends meet or meet one’s end.” I basically broke our family financially fighting my indictment and by not focusing on the business. In the future, I will pick 3-4 things to do, do them well, make money at it and not attempt to outgrow that approach.
3) Another statement said, “What husband & wife have not found themselves suddenly unnerved by fear that they might never have somethning urgent, impassioned or surprising to say to each other again.” My friend Galen has a game he used to play with his long-distance girlfriend. I intend to get that game before I am released from prison so my wife & I can play it. I also think it is time to slow down and spend more time traveling and doing fun things instead of working myself to the bone. If I do well at my 3-4 things, that will be more than enough to sustain us.
