As both a student of history and a man devoted to living in the present, I admit that I do not spend a lot of time imagining how things might otherwise have been. But I do like to think there is a difference between being resigned to a situation and reconciled to it.
Author Amor Towles has worked more than two decades in the
investment business. From 2006 he started to intensely pursue his dream of
being a novelist. The novel later known as Rules of Civility chronicled a young
plucky heroine’s (Katey Kontent) ascension in the 1938 Manhattan social ladder.
The novel was published in 2011 and proclaimed as a sleeper hit. Eventually
Rules of Civility went to sell more than 300,000 copies in US and was
translated into 17 languages. Mr. Towles followed it up with a middling novella
(set in the same universe as his debut novel) titled ‘Eve in Hollywood’. The
author’s new novel A Gentleman in Moscow (published September 2016) once again
finds him at his most suave, elegant, and relentlessly charming mode.
The characters of Amor Towles have earned the superlative
Gatsby-esque label; people of graceful manners and refinement with their own code for
social etiquette. Maybe Towles’ sophisticated retro-era fiction doesn’t fully
scale the heights reached by F. Scott Fitzgerald, but the immaculated lucidity
in building the characters and atmosphere makes A Gentleman in Moscow a
delightful read. Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov is the protagonist of Towles’
novel. In the year 1922, Rostov is summoned before the Emergency Committee of
the People's Commissariat to annul his aristocrat status and provide due
punishment for being one. He is sentenced to house arrest in a Moscow luxury
hotel named ‘Metropol’. Moreover, he is shunned from using his opulent suite
(room 317). Instead, Count Rostov is confined to a dingy attic above the fifth
floor. There the ‘former person’ tries to make the best out of his new life
with gusto and fortitude. The novel unfolds between the years 1922 and 1954 as
Rostov is transformed from being a man rejoicing the luxury hotel’s amenities
to a headwaiter, which naturally allows him to put all his knowledge of wine,
food, and culture to good use.
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| Author Amor Towles |
Rostov isn’t markedly political, although he is sympathetic
to the communist ideals (it is recurrently mentioned that Rostov returned to
his homeland from Paris after the revolution). At the same time he doesn’t
impetuously pledge himself to lifeless, inhumane schemas of Bolshevik Party. The
claustrophobic setting and heavily weighing existential questions do push
Rostov towards depression. But the other denizens/workers of the hotel -- the
chef Emilie, the seamstress Marina, and the maitre'd, Andrey -- often bestow
him with renewed purpose. Then there’s nine year old Nina Kulikova, a
determined, winsome young girl who befriends Rostov. The beautiful friendship
Nina shares with the Count later makes her (when she is a young woman) to
demand Alexander Rostov to take over an unexpectant yet profound role. For more
than three decades, Rostov’s routine in the hotel is simple: he tries and fails to finish
Montaigne’s essays; he regularly visits the hotel barbershop for a trim; he
exercises; he observes people; and enjoys his nightly rendezvous in the suite
of a wealthy actress, Anna Urbanova. As Rostov’s friend Mischka says, “Who
would have imagined 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?” Most of
the grim doings of Stalinist Russia occur out of sight, even
though the harsh realities and savagery of the era sets in motion Rostov’s
later elaborate plans.
A Gentleman in Moscow is one of those novels that must be
read for it’s breathtaking, if not overpowering, prose. The layered texture of
the novel comes from the synergy of Towles’ playful imagination and his
fascination with Russian literature & cultural history. Mr. Towles’ primary
success was transporting us into the shoes of the protagonist and watch
life unfold over 32 years without making it a claustrophobic, tedious read.
Although set within a limited space, the author’s underlying structure steadily
moves the story outward. The initial chapter begins on June 1922 and the
subsequent chapters of first-half unfold over a day, two days, then over a week,
month, year, and so on until the sixteen-year midpoint. In the second-half,
the chapters reverse the structure (or time-period). It’s called as ‘diamond’
or ‘accordion’ structure. This transient story-telling mode allows Towles to
choose particular days or weeks to deftly swirl together the characters, their
changing roles and emotions. The structure also allows to flawlessly detail
the protagonist’s early days of confinement and the later days building up to his
escape, while the ever-changing political landscape, Rostov’s parenthood status, and
career status were swiftly observed across time.
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| Kenneth Branagh to star & adapt 'A Gentleman in Moscow' for Television |
For the most part, Towles’s evocation of Russia throughout
the first half of the 20th century is well-focused and rich in historic details.
Nevertheless, it feels that the novel is packed with charm and warmth to a
fault. Especially, in the second-half where the story seems to move towards an
uncertain destination, the great gloom of Stalinism is merely used as a tool to
pursue a feel-good ending (the writing in these portions also becomes a bit
clunky and too formal). But it could be said that Towles’ novel is never
concerned with the very real-world politics of the era. It pretty much focuses on
the notion of individual resistance against a repressive regime. Furthermore,
it accounts a heroic soul’s graceful existence, in the face of diminished
circumstances. The post-revolutionary Stalinist Russia could of course be
substituted with any oppressive regime from different time-periods. In fact,
many American readers and critics interestingly find Rostov an inspiration to
deal with Trump presidency.
A Gentleman in Moscow might be accused of being too stuffed
and for not doing justice to the atrocities committed during the era. But Amor
Towles’ story is ultimately a poetic expression of individuality, which despite
its flaws offers a purely pleasurable reading experience.
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