words in scarlet ink

Amor Towles’ A Gentleman in Moscow was the last novel I got through in 2018 and was also, quite possibly, my favorite.

Our protagonist, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, was a Russian born aristocrat in the late 1880s. He and his younger sister became orphans when he was 10 or 11 (his parents died of cholera within hours of each other, IIRC). His father’s companion in the war, another aristocrat (who was a grand duke, IIRC) told 11 year old Rostov that he had to be strong for his sister and that he had to learn to master his circumstances, or else his circumstances would master him.

Rostov was later sent out of the country by his grandmother for wounding his sister’s suitor (a playboy) that broke her heart. When he returned from Paris in 1917, he was arrested by the Bolsheviks and put on trial for being a social parasite. He refuses to confess, and expects to be shot, but is saved by a revolutionary poem that is attributed to him. He is still found guilty but instead of being shot, is ordered to spend his life under house arrest at his current residence – the Hotel Metropol in Moscow.

Rostov is quickly booted out of his luxurious suite and put in the cramped servant’s quarters in the attic. Most of his possessions are taken from him and he is required to work as a waiter at the hotel to help earn his keep. One of his first friends there is Nina, a nine year old girl who is the daughter of a widowed bureaucrat who is fascinated by princesses.

Nina returns in 1938 as a married woman with a child, whose husband is sentenced to time in the gulag. She’s decided to go with him, so she drops her daughter Sofia off with Rostov and requests he take care of her until she gets back. This is the last time Rostov sees Nina, and he becomes Sofia’s surrogate father.

The story goes on from there.

This story was satisfying and optimistic and hopeful, which I loved. I enjoyed the theme of mastering circumstance – the Count, once a Russian aristocrat who had people serving him, finds himself a waiter, and is working with the people who once waited on him – the other waiters, the bartenders, the seamstresses, the doormen. His social standing drastically plummets, and yet, he becomes their peer, their coworker and confidant, and eventually their friend. He was never a bad guy, but he was someone else, and he makes these friends, and his friends make his situation bearable. He masters his circumstance.

I loved this book. It was a great way to end the year, because it was on such a high note. I highly recommend it.