A Gentleman in Moscow – Amor Towles

There are many books you like and there are book you fall in love with. This is one of those book. Over last 3 weeks – this book was the best thing which could happen to me. Plot has a parallel to our COVID situation because of which we are locked in our house for more than 2 years.

A gentleman we are talking about is Count Rostov also fondly known an Mishka who was put on house arrest in Metropol Hotel for 30 years. The whole story is based in a real & existing hotel in Moscow. It is one of the oldest Hotels in Russia which is still standing, and you can go and stay there.  

What worked for the book is of course Russia – I have not come across a fiction which is based on Russia. So, it was enlightening experience to touch and feel the country through Count’s eye. Right from pre-Stalin days to end of WW II. The good, the funny and ugly aspect of Russia. The foot notes where the author gives an historical significance or narrates an incident of significance sets the fictional incident in a real world.

Second of course is our Gentleman – Through various incidents and relationships in book the author establishes this beautiful character who is almost perfect but also flawed in many ways. It’s almost like peeling an onion – with every chapter you find something different about Count.

 In a very subtle way the book tells us about what the values and principles of a gentleman / a good human being should be? Long after I closed the book, I recalled the incidents which brought the relationship the Count had with the Chef or the watchman or his adopted daughter and actress. It’s written in a very lyrical way so that you can visualize a scene. In my mental picture Sherlock Holmes came to my mind – the B&W TV series which I grew up with. The discipline of dressing well, being true to your vocation, principled etc.

You can Google & read the principle – here are 2 Liked the most

“For what matters in life is not whether we receive a round of applause: what matters is whether we have the courage to venture forth despite the uncertainty of acclaim”

“If a man does not master his circumstances then he is bound to be mastered by them”.

After you read the books, start here:

https://www.amortowles.com/ The author’s site has the music / pictures of the hotel / Q&A on why did he write book? / what translations can you read.

I could visualize the hotel better after reading this interesting blog

https://www.have-clothes-will-travel.com/a-gentleman-in-moscow-tour-of-the-metropol-hotel-how-you-can-follow-in-the-counts-footsteps/

I am looking forward to the TV Series which will come up soon. 

The Midnight Library: Matt Haig

 

Do we live life in regrets, or do we just move on with life? In my early 50’s now, what I call the sunset years, I think it’s too late to examine this point. Now, I try and focus on what should I do to make this life more meaningful.

But for all those who joined the college along with my daughter this year under the cloud of COVID – it was a life changing decision. Because that decision is an important one for your career & life.

Written by Matt Haig who was on the verge of giving up his life and went through a depression this book looks at a possibility that you are given an infinite no of choices of living life – from being an Olympian, to a singer to a loving mother, Nora Seed the main protagonist can choose from The Midnight Library – any life she wants to live, or she can continue living the life she is living.

It is not a new philosophy – but it is written in a manner which will appeal to many of us who live in regrets. While many of us say bravely I don’t have regrets because that’s the right thing to say but of many who after 2 drinks or in heated moment take out their regrets. Of course, we have regrets it’s letting go of that which is difficult and it casts it’s shadow on all our future endeavors.  

As a book, first 100 odd pages I was not sure where it is headed it was looking like a science fiction but from the blurb you knew that it’s not. A library where you reach after you die was an interesting concept, a hub which leads Nora Seed the protagonist to all the lives which she could have. But after introducing the concept, it becomes a drab boring following Nora Seed in all her lives – it is a straightforward story line & you know that ultimately after experiencing many lives she will come back and continue to live her own life. She does. The only thing which kept me going was the nice quotes / life lessons which the librarian Elm tells Nora Seed.

Read Matt’s interview here:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/nov/17/matt-haig-i-wanted-to-end-it-all-surviving-and-thriving-is-the-lesson-i-pass-on

Some of the quotes/life lessons which I went back and read:

“Want is an interesting word. It means lack. Sometimes if we fill that lack with something else the original want disappears entirely.”

“You can choose choices but not outcomes.” (This is my favorite – it fundamentally changes the lens, there are so many parables of living life based on your choice – but that does not guarantee outcome. For outcome you must work /persevere after making the choice – most of us overlook this part.)

“The only way to learn is to live.” (Rest is only concept and stories which you make up in your mind)

“We only know what we perceive. Everything we experience is ultimately just a perception of it. It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” Thoreau (And what we see gets clouded by the memory of your experiences in your life in the past.)

Every life contains many millions of decisions. Some big & some small. But every time one decision is taken over another, the outcomes differ. An irreversible variation occurs, which in turn leads to further variations…  

The last quote summarizes the core of the book. Living our life is a continuous process - As we live our life, we keep making decisions – once decided you have to move forward because that is the only road which you can traverse.