A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

I know. I read an honest-to-God novel and it wasn't based on a comic book or superhero or established TV show or film. I was inspired to find this book after seeing the trailer for the upcoming series Paramount+. But I don't have that streaming service. So I took a shot to see if my local library had the book on hand. I guess I hit the bullseye because I found it. Boy, was that one of the smartest moves I've ever made in my 40 plus long years of being an avid reader!

The story is about a Russian aristocrat at the dawn of the Russian revolution. It's 1922 and the Bolsheviks have taken power and are creating the foundations for establishment of the Soviet Union. Count Alexander Rostov has been summoned to a tribunal.  Declared an enemy of the state, normally Rostov would be taken to a firing squad and shot or shipped off to Siberia. However, because of a poem he wrote that inspired the spark of the October Revolution, he is sentenced to permanent house arrest at the Hotel Metropol for the rest of his life. 

Should he exit the doors of the Hotel, Count Rostov will be executed. Over the span of 4 decades, the confined gentleman will make do the best he can, living in exiled luxury as guests and staff of the Metropol come and go while the Soviet Union grows into a world power.

My first experience with writer Amor Towles, I was enthralled by this 2016 work. It was pure magic. After the first 100 pages, I was no longer a reader. I too was a resident of the Hotel Metropol. I could not stop reading this book. The desire to read another page turned into an extra 5, 10, 15 pages before I realized it was way past my bedtime and begrudgingly needed to call it a night.

I realize that Ewan McGregor is playing Count Rostov on the live action series. Yet no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't picture anyone else in the role other than Kenneth Branagh. Turns out I wasn't alone in this as the Murder on the Orient Express director was on tap for the lead role for a very long time. As much as in my head, I kept hearing Branagh speaking in that French-Belgian accent as Hercule Poirot, I can't get past hearing McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi instead of a Russian polymath of refinement every time I watch the trailer for the forthcoming series.

I wish I could say that this book was perfect. It was pretty darn close. If not for having recently read the massive graphic novel Petrograd, I would have been a lot more lost understanding the early days of the Soviet Union. While written by an American, this book is very Russian. The more you know of the country's rich cultural history, the better you'll enjoy this book and I just don't know jack about Tolstoy, Chekov and their kin. Thankfully, there's so much heart and wonderment in this book, it makes up for those gaps in my knowledge. 

This book is like a dream come true for me. I've always wanted to get stuck in an airport or be snowed in at an all-inclusive ski resort or have to spend a season at a research base in Antarctica. A Gentleman in Moscow was a chance to live those bizarre fantasies vicariously through the writing of Amor Towles. Unlike most novels I read, this novel is something I see myself making another stay at Hotel Metropol!

Worth Consuming!

Ratiing: 9 out of 10 stars.

Petrograd (2024 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

In 1916, just as the first World War was heating up, Germany was fighting on two fronts. The fledgling English and French in the West and the disgruntled and cold Russians to the East. Alexander Protopopov meets with German dignitaries in Stockholm before returning to Russia and immediately being promoted to the role of Minister of Interior. Czar Nicolas is away from the royal Palace in Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg but a few years away from being renamed Stalingrad), disastrously supervising the Russian army against Imperial German forces. In his stead is wife Alexandra who acts as the de facto ruler of Russia. 

Alexandra has a special advisor, the mysterious monk Rasputin. Having healed son Alexei of life threatening maladies, Alexandra has given the religious leader carte blanche to conduct affairs both professionally and personally; to equal levels of depravity. The nation is in the midst of tremendous upheaval as Russians displaced from the fighting have swarmed into the larger cities, making it impossible to feed, house and cloth these refugees in the light of the coming frigid Winter. 

The Communist party is secretly working towards overthrowing the royal family and are effectively using the crisis in Petrograd to gain public support. Though the Russian secret police have waged war against the uprising, they're losing ground faster than they can make it up.

So what does all this have to do with the promotion of Protopopov? Alexandra has been a vocal opponent to the war. Members of the British intelligence community operating in Petrograd believe that Protopopov's new role after the secret meeting with the Germans means that Russia has struck a deal with Germany and will soon pull out of the war. Should this happen, Germany no longer has to divide its forces and can focus their full might against the British and French alliance. 

Should this occur, Germany, who's already looking like the victor will most surely win the war. For the British, a Russian/German peace is unacceptable. The head of the British intelligence bureau hopes to pursue the Russian secret police designed to combat political terrorism, the Okhrana, of the meeting in Stockholm and overthrow Protopopov. However, the Okhrana believes that the proposed peace is all rumor and refuses to act on the tip further.

Here's where historic fact turns into historical fiction. Writer Philip Gelatt proposes that after the secret police rebuffed British intelligence, a pair of agents enacted a clandestine plan B. Working with jaded members of the Russian royal family, Gelatt continues this graphic novel with the conspiracy theory that the British government was somehow behind the assassination of Rasputin. If Protopopov isn't behind Russia's plan to cease hostilities on the Eastern Front, then it's the depraved Mad Monk who's giving Alexandra motivation to a peace with Germany.

Other than the influence of special agent Cleary being involved in the plotting and execution of the plot against Rasputin, this story is fairly accurate. Or is it completely accurate???

Ironically, after Rasputin is found murdered, Czar Nicolas pulls a number of his troops off the battle lines and sends them to Petrograd to reinforce the Okhrana who are searching desperately for the culprits. There had already been dissension in the ranks of the Russian army, unhappy with how the Czar was making a mess of things, so when they were greeted with open arms by the Communists who saw the death of Rasputin as an opportunity to revolution, the soldiers joined the cause of Revolution! It's by winning over the Russian army that causes the Romanov family to flee the palace and ultimately assassinated. So ultimately, if the British were behind the plot, their 'preventative actions ' actually caused Russia to exit the war!

It's interesting to ponder what might have happened if everyone left well enough alone and let Rasputin live. Would Russia have remained in the war? Would the United States have remained out of the conflict having to not save England and France because of the revolution in Russia? Would the Czar and his family have survived? Without the troops, would the Okhrana have been able to quash the Communists, who at this point were acting in secret and without the important support of the Russian military? 

This 2011 graphic novel is definitely a compelling read crafted in that very popular 'alternative history' genre- only in comic book form! It makes you think in more ways than one. While there's no argument who Rasputin is in this book, artist Tyler Crook renders several characters who frankly look the same. With not very good introductions to those characters, it takes a while to figure out who is who and that sort of recognition is important in a work about secret agents and double agents working all sides in a major conspiracy.

Petrograd was first published in 2011 in hardback. This paperback edition was published in 2023 and features both an all-new and extremely important afterward full of background information by historian David R. Stone.

Completing this review completes Task #31 (Set in a State or Country You've Never Visited) of the 2024 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.