Entertained

I finished A Gentleman in Moscow just before Hari Raya, distinctly speeding up in my reading of the second half of the novel. I notice there's quite a bit of buzz on-line for the novel with it featuring as one of Bill Gates's recommended reads for the summer. I can understand why. It's very well written and convincing in its evocation of Moscow, and Russia in general, after the Revolution and beyond, whilst somehow managing to tell a 'feel-good' story, unlikely as that may sound.

To be honest, I didn't entirely buy the character of the Count, but that didn't matter. I was happy to suspend my disbelief at the range of his accomplishments (and those of his sort-of daughter) just to enjoy the story. There's more than a suggestion of Amor Towles writing with the eventual movie in mind here and I suspect it will make an excellent and well-received film.

There's a kind of snobbery in literary studies about works that seek primarily, almost exclusively, to entertain that strikes me as being entirely misplaced. It's not easy to do, and it's rare that it's done as well as this.