By Avantika Sharma
“…what matters in life is not whether we receive a round of applause; what matters is whether we have the courage to venture forth despite the uncertainty of acclaim.”
Unbelievably heartwarming, pleasantly humorous, extraordinarily mysterious: Meet Amor Towles’ A Gentleman in Moscow, a tale that depicts the beauty of human relationships amidst the most unkempt times.
Once upon a time, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov – a creature of habit and a person of substance, one who was cognisant of his values and vested interests like the back of his hand, and loved to wander the streets of Moscow was levied a house arrest for the rest of his life on the grounds of social parasitism – a crime during the reign of the Soviet Union, brutal enough to accompany along with it a death sentence against anyone who was accused of practising it.
Luckily, however, he was spared the horror given his popularity and charisma amongst some high-ranking officers.
A Gentleman in Moscow reads us through a former Russian aristocrat’s tumultuous life coexisting against the backdrop of the 1920s Bolshevik Revolution.
Set in 1922, even though Rostov’s journey takes a turn for the worst, the Count sticks to his guns and breaks the mould. Eventually, he gambles on his life and plans a journey, fatal and dreadful in all respects. Whether he fails or succeeds… is for the universe to decide.
Towles’ book is bound to take readers on a rollercoaster ride – beginning from rock bottom and escalating to life, fulfilled and content.
“Alexander Rostov was neither scientist nor sage; but at the age of sixty-four he was wise enough to know that life does not proceed by leaps and bounds. It unfolds. At any given moment, it is the manifestation of a thousand transitions. Our faculties wax and wane, our experiences accumulate and our opinions evolve–if not glacially, then at least gradually. Such that the events of an average day are as likely to transform who we are as a pinch of pepper is to transform a stew.”
Count Rostov had to his name a lavish suite in the Hotel Metropol, an otherwise historic name in entire Moscow. He is banished to a small attic in the same hotel built to house the butlers and ladies’ maids of the guests.
Resilience and optimism in the worst of times form the foundation of the protagonist. Towles brilliantly offers substance to a doubtful readership by outlining a brief history of the Soviet Union through Rostov who creates a world of his own inside the hotel… the real world becoming a mere spectacle of some random show outside the windows of the space he now inhabits.
A day after reluctantly welcoming his house arrest, Rostov willingly sets out of his small, zero-furnished room into the outer world limited to only the hotel. Having already won over most of the staff during his years in the suite, the Count does not encounter trouble with striking up a conversation as and when possible. He tends to take on life with lively interactions, amazing delicacies, a scheduled daily and brilliant oratory as he dismisses the brutal truth of his life from spoiling his present.
A Gentleman in Moscow spins a vivid tale of human experience in all its frailties. Just like many among the lot would resolve to end the torture, so did Rostov by climbing to the roof of the Metropol, approaching its parapet in order to throw himself into the street below, “Good bye, my country,” he beckoned, but before he could mark his inevitable death, Abram, the handyman interrupted the dramatic scene to voice the return of the bees. A while later, as if oblivious to his dreadful intention, sat the Count with the handyman enjoying a spread of fresh honey on a piece of bread.
Rostov’s exiled life justifies the notion ‘Family is not about blood’, and it is not. Friends turn family in this wholesome book, with the Count welcoming each person with open arms, perhaps as the only solution readily available, given the circumstances.
Among them, Andrey, the maitre d’ of the hotel’s fine dining restaurant; Emile, the head chef of the Boyarsky and Marina, the seamstress. They become confidantes to the Count, not only celebrating his tiny achievements but grieving in his miseries.
Rostov, with his charm, finds companionship and assistance in Osip Glebnikov, a former Colonel of the Red Army and current officer of the secret police who helps him escape the authorities’ hawk eyes, in return for lessons from him meant to improve diplomacy with the West. The Count also befriends Richard, an American aide-de-camp in the hotel who offers Rostov ‘multiple favours’, provided he agrees to spy on Russian politics and gain valuable information.
Despite leading a life in exile, the Count forms numerous bonds. Expectedly, he is not devoid of romantic courtship and love, thanks to Anna Urbanova, a successful actress whose path collides with the Count in Metropol.
Amongst the many names, old and new, the Count’s presence is graced by Nina, a little child temporarily residing in the hotel with secret access to the master key. With her, every day turns into an adventure for Rostov who learns about secret doors, the joys of breaking in places not meant for him, exploring uncanny situations and binging on various ice cream flavours, until she grows up to become a wise young lady with aspiring goals and moves ahead in life…only to return one day with her 5-year-old daughter, Sofia.
Pursuing to locate her husband sentenced to a corrective labour camp for five years, Nina leaves her daughter in the Count’s care and supervision, with a promise to return within two months, only to never come back.
Spanning several years, readers see the relationship between Sofia and the Count blossom… she begins referring to him as Papa. With her father, Anna and the hotel staff beside her at all times, she grows into a fine young woman and eventually leaves for a Paris tour with a Moscow conservatory, following an emotional farewell from her father and the Metropolis staff.
The author has penned a marvel. Throughout the book, we discover the close-knit relationship between Rostov and his old friend, Mishka, ‘the last of those who had known him as a younger man’, and would pay the Count a visit every now and then. Unfortunately, Mishka is first subjected to a labour camp in Siberia, and later sentenced to death, given the oppression of Soviet politics, which takes a toll both on the lad and his career.
The concluding pages of the masterpiece are bound to give readers a little tug in the heartstrings, as the Count transpires to behold the biggest risk of his life. He escapes Metropol amidst fixated eyes on him day and night, on the basis of a plan he carefully hatched.
A Gentleman in Moscow serves the notion of how unpredictable life could be, but also how beautiful one could make of it. Parentless and having lost his beloved sister to scarlet fever, the Count wins at life with relationships, love, and parenthood – all unmarked by blood.
“‘Who would have imagined,’ he said, ‘when you were sentenced to life in the Metropol all those years ago, that you had just become the luckiest man in all of Russia.’”