《莫斯科绅士》什么都带那么一点
梅琳达和我有时会同时读一本书。这通常是件很有趣的事，但当我们中的一个人比另一个人进度更快时，这就会给我们带来困扰——这种情况最近就发生了，我们都在读埃默·托尔斯写的《莫斯科绅士》。
有一次，我红了眼圈，因为读到其中一个角色受伤必须去医院。梅琳达当时落后我几章。她看到我哭，就开始担心她喜爱的角色会去世。我不想向她剧透任何内容，所以只好等她赶上我的进度。
撇开这一幕不谈，《莫斯科绅士》借用一个男人的视角，对俄罗斯历史进行了有趣、巧妙且十分乐观的审视。在书的开头，亚历山大·伊里奇·罗斯托夫伯爵被判终身软禁于莫斯科大都会酒店。那是1922年，苏联建立后不久，布尔什维克党刚刚夺取了国家的政权。这本书追踪着伯爵此后三十年的生活：尽管有种种局限，他还是充分利用了自己的人生。
虽然这本书的内容是虚构的，但大都会酒店却真实存在。我曾有幸住过那里（它看起来和托尔斯在书中描述的基本一样）。它是那种你会情不自禁想象它在不同时代下样子的地方。这家酒店与克里姆林宫仅一街之隔，在布尔什维克革命和苏联的大起大落中幸存了下来。对一栋建筑来说，这是一段很长的历史。
据我所知，书中的许多场景在现实生活中从未发生过，但有了大都会酒店的历史背景，这些场景便很容易想象了。在一个令人难忘的章节中，布尔什维克官员判定酒店的酒窖“与革命理念背道而驰”。酒店的工作人员被迫清除掉10万多瓶葡萄酒的标签，餐厅也必须以同样的价格出售所有葡萄酒。这让自诩为葡萄酒专家的伯爵感到惊骇。
罗斯托夫伯爵是一个在时光胶囊里的观察者，看着这些变化来来去去。 他给我的感觉就像是他来自于一个与书中其他人物都不同的时代似的。他总能设法在所有的政治动荡中生存下来，这大概是因为，他擅长做任何事。
他仿佛每本书都读过，每一段音乐都能认出来。当他被迫成为酒店餐厅的服务员时，他也保持了一种令人不可思议的潇洒姿态。他比任何人都了解自己的酒，而且他不羞于分享自己的观点。伯爵本应是个令人讨厌的人物，但发生的一切都顺理成章，因为他太有魅力了。
托尔斯擅长处理古怪的细节。在书的开头，托尔斯这样描述伯爵：“他的习惯是倒着看菜单，因为经验告诉他，在决定主菜前考虑开胃菜只会让人后悔。”类似的描述可以告诉你关于一个角色很多的信息。读到故事的结尾，我觉得伯爵就像是一个老朋友一样。
你不必非得是一个亲俄派才能享受阅读这本书，但如果你是，这就是你的必读书了。我认为20世纪早期的俄罗斯历史非常有趣，所以我已经读了很多关于列宁和斯大林的书。尽管情节是虚构的，但《莫斯科绅士》赋予了我观察那个时代的全新视角。托尔斯把重点放在了伯爵身上，所以大多数重大历史事件（比如第二次世界大战）都只是一笔带过。但我很喜欢看到这些事件仍然以或大或小的方式改变着大都会酒店的全局。它会告诉你，政治动荡是如何影响每个人——而不仅仅是那些直接参与其中的人的。
《莫斯科绅士》是一个令人惊喜的故事，因为它设法什么都带那么一点。这里有着梦幻般的浪漫爱情、政治事务、谍报活动、父母的故事与优美诗篇。从技术上讲，这是本历史小说，但称其为惊悚或爱情小说也是准确的。即使俄罗斯不在你必须游览的国家名单上也没关系，我觉得人人都能在这个夏天享受托尔斯带来的莫斯科之旅。
A Gentleman in Moscow has a little bit of everything
Melinda and I sometimes read the same book at the same time. It’s usually a lot of fun, but it can get us in trouble when one of us is further along than the other -- which recently happened when we were both reading A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.
At one point, I got teary-eyed because one of the characters gets hurt and must go to the hospital. Melinda was a couple chapters behind me. When she saw me crying, she became worried that a character she loved was going to die. I didn’t want to spoil anything for her, so I just had to wait until she caught up to me.
That one scene aside, A Gentleman in Moscow is a fun, clever, and surprisingly upbeat look at Russian history through the eyes of one man. At the beginning of the book, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov is sentenced to spend his life under house arrest in Moscow’s Metropol Hotel. It’s 1922, and the Bolsheviks have just taken power of the newly formed Soviet Union. The book follows the Count for the next thirty years as he makes the most of his life despite its limitations.
Although the book is fictional, the Metropol is a real hotel. I’ve even been lucky enough to stay there (and it looked mostly the same as Towles describes in the book). It’s the kind of place where you can’t help but picture what it was like at different points in time. The hotel is located across the street from the Kremlin and managed to survive the Bolshevik revolution and the rise and fall of the Soviet Union. That’s a lot of one history for one building.
Many scenes in the book never happened in real life (as far as I know), but they’re easy to imagine given the Metropol’s history. In one memorable chapter, Bolshevik officials decide that the hotel’s wine cellar is “counter to the ideals of the Revolution.” The hotel staff is forced to remove labels from more than 100,000 bottles, and the restaurant must sell all wine for the same price. The Count -- who sees himself as a wine expert -- is horrified.
Count Rostov is an observer frozen in time, watching these changes come and go. He felt to me like he was from a different era from the other characters in the book. Throughout all the political turmoil, he manages to survive because, well, he’s good at everything.
He’s read seemingly every book and can identify any piece of music. When he’s forced to become a waiter at the hotel restaurant, he does it with this panache that is incredible. He knows his liquor better than anyone, and he’s not shy about sharing his opinions. The Count should be an insufferable character, but the whole thing works because he’s so charming.
Towles has a talent for quirky details. Early-ish in the book, he says the Count “reviewed the menu in reverse order as was his habit, having learned from experience that giving consideration to appetizers before entrees can only lead to regret.” A description like that tells you so much about a character. By the end of the book, I felt like the Count was an old friend.
You don’t have to be a Russophile to enjoy the book, but if you are, it’s essential reading. I think early 20th century Russian history is super interesting, so I’ve read a bunch of books about Lenin and Stalin. A Gentleman in Moscow gave me a new perspective on the era, even though it’s fictional. Towles keeps the focus on the Count, so most major historical events (like World War II) get little more than a passing mention. But I loved seeing how these events still shifted the world of the Metropol in ways big and small. It gives you a sense of how political turmoil affects everyone, not just those directly involved with it.
A Gentleman in Moscow is an amazing story because it manages to be a little bit of everything. There’s fantastical romance, politics, espionage, parenthood, and poetry. The book is technically historical fiction, but you’d be just as accurate calling it a thriller or a love story. Even if Russia isn’t on your must-visit list, I think everyone can enjoy Towles’s trip to Moscow this summer.
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