Book Review of
A Gentleman In Moscow

Lynn's Review

A Gentleman In Moscow by Amor Towles was published in 2016. It is historical fiction. 

This book seems to either get rave reviews or terrible reviews. Either you love it or you hate it. There does not seem to be a lot in between.  

I loved it. 

The book starts in 1922 when Count Alexander Rostov is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a famous hotel in Russia, across the street from the Kremlin. 

It then covers what life was like for the Count as he lives over half his life in the Metropol hotel. 

I bought A Gentleman In Moscow in 2017, less than a year after it came out. It has sat on my shelf unread ever since.

The main reason it sat on my shelf was the amount of hype that it got. I often do not like overhyped books. A book that everyone loves is often a three-star, or less, read for me. I was afraid to commit to an almost 500-page book that everyone was talking about in 2016 and 2017. 

The other reason that it sat on my shelf was the two extremes of reviews. Those that didn’t love it, didn’t just rate it as an okay book, they had strong opinions on why they did not like it. 

Some people gave the book bad reviews and found the book boring. I did not find it boring at all. I am so glad that I finally picked this one up to read. 

The majority of the book is set in a hotel. How can a book about a Count sentenced to house arrest at a famous Russian hotel be exciting? To me, that is the brilliance of this book. Amor Towles incorporated so much history and so much of the human character into this book about life at a hotel. 

By following the life of this Count you also learn so much about Russian history. If you love historical fiction and want something a little different, this might be the perfect fit. I also think that this would be a good book for someone like my husband who loves nonfiction, but reads very little fiction. This is a book many nonfiction lovers would probably enjoy. 

You learn so much about Russia and the culture in this book, or at least I felt like I learned so much about Russia’s history, especially political history reading this. This was a five-star read for me. 

I am not a big rereader, but I can see myself rereading this one in a few years. At times I found myself so wrapped up in the characters that I missed some of the historical aspects that were in it.