Welcome back to SGL, thanks for spending a few minutes of your busy day with me.
As most of you probably did, I saw this book floating around the internet, especially when it came out in 2016. And while I was intrigued, I never was moved enough to actually read it. Until I learned that they were making a tv series based on it, and of course, before watching it, I knew I had to read the book first.
Synopsis:
Count Alexander Rostov, a man of learning and wit, faces a Bolshevik tribunal in 1922 and is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol – a grand hotel right across the street from the Kremlin. The Count – a man who’s never worked a day in his life- finds that his reduced circumstances have provided him a foray into a much different sort of world.
My review:
I had hopes that this would be an enjoyable novel and that it wouldn’t have any…. ‘spice’ that would cause me to immediately close it and return it to the library. I’d never read anything by Amor Towles and so, of course, had no experience with his writing.
Let me tell you, I was absolutely captivated. His writing style just pulled me in almost instantly to the world of the Count and the Metropol. It really was fascinating, reading about the grand hotel as it became the Count’s whole world. And of course, the Count himself was a wonderful character to read about – being a man of learning and insatiable wit… and seeing how he did grow and change as time went on.
Now, I’ve not studied Russian history, so I don’t know how accurate Towles’ portrayal of that was, but I did find it interesting, as well as the idea of seeing the changes without being a part of them, per se.
The descriptions of the food – for the Count is a dedicated lover of such- were wonderful. I always love it when I find a novel that somehow centers around good food (immediately, I thought of Chateau of Echoes and the Redwall series).
There is some ‘spice’ (aka sexual content) here and there throughout the story but I did find it to be written subtly enough that I didn’t dnf it. Because of these scenes, I would recommend pre-reading it before handing it to a teenaged reader.
All in all, I had a hard time putting this book down and an even harder time not picking it up again. I am interested in reading other books of his, so if anyone has a suggestion for a next read, I’d love to hear it!
All in all, highly recommend this book for the beauty of the scenes, the character development, the plot (all the things you don’t see coming!) and just a wonderful escape.
And hopefully, I’ll watch the tv series soon and will be able to come back and share my opinion on that.
~Laura
dnf = did not finish
While covering different genres, I do not read anything that has blatant sexual content. I will tell you if there is any sort of such (typically very mild and delicately put) in them and if I don’t think they’d be appropriate for young/teenage readers.
the start of a good life 