A Gentleman in Moscow

by Amor Towles
Sept 16-Oct 28, 2017

I tend to be disappointed in myself when I breathe a sign of relief after finishing a book. Especially one like this that is insanely loved by so many like-minded readers. I just could never get past the "chore" of completing the book and not giving up. I rode a few waves of abandonment. The first was early on when I realized that I had little knowledge or interest in Russian history. While it isn't mandatory to have this comprehension in your repertoire, I definitely think it would have enhanced my experience. Instead I pushed on because I began to enjoy the story of the Count's friendship with Nina. But again, I wanted to give up as I was constantly getting lost in the political history and (gasp!) footnotes. By that point I was nearly halfway through and felt some sort of displaced loyalty to the book to find out how it ended.

At one point I even bookmarked a quote:

"I think if I were a garage door, I should rather miss the old days."

I'm sure at the time I was charmed by this sentence, but for the life of me, I can't remember why. I suppose that's what happens when it takes 42 days to get through less than 500 pages. There was no doubt a generous amount of charm and the characters were most definitely likable, I just kept thinking I would have liked it more if the story stayed focused on the personal rather than the political.

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