Summary, Analysis & Review of Amor Towles's A Gentleman in Moscow by Instaread

By: Instaread

Narrated by: Dwight Equitz

Length: 28 mins

Publisher's Summary

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles is the story of a Russian aristocrat-turned-waiter who lives 32 years of his life under house arrest at the Hotel Metropol in Moscow. Set in post-revolutionary Russia, the novel follows its protagonist, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, as he develops new friendships, family, and loves, all while confined within the walls of the Metropol.

In 1922, in the wake of the Russian Revolution, Rostov, originally a gentleman from Russia's Nizhny Novgorod province, is deemed a threat to the Communist Party and sentenced to house arrest at the hotel where he has been living in luxury. The party is suspicious of Count Rostov, who left Russia after the tsar's execution in 1918, but returned four years later. What saves Rostov from being executed is a single poem published in 1913 espousing revolutionary ideals, to which he claims authorship.

Please note: This is a summary, analysis & review of the book and not the original book.

©2016 Instaread (P)2016 Instaread

What about?...

I have now listened to A Gentleman in Moscow twice and suspect I will revisit it again and again in the future. This review and analysis was good but I don't believe he and I viewed the protagonist in the same way. Although we both saw the good in him, I saw him as one who had learned young to except his surroundings...before and after the revolution. He is gifted in his ability to make friends- Mishka during University years, his handler at the Metropole, etc. etc. The revolution did not change him. He is the adaptable to life and thus is free.

you got it wrong

I was very disappointed that you got certain plot elements wrong. For instance, Nina does not give the book of gold coins - she receives it; what she gives is the backpack that contains material about Russian leadership useful to the American spymaster. Even Cliffnotes would do better than you!

Dry, if flawed, review

Having just listened to the truly marvelous A Gentleman in Moscow, I listened to this book with dismay as it offered only a straightforward review of the plot and characters. There was no analysis to speak of. Good for someone who is having a test on it and didn't remember it well.
Worse, though, is that I counted at least 4 mistakes in the plots points. One major and the rest minor, but still! This should have been caught by anyone who edited this book and who, presumably, actually read the Towles novel.

Errors

There are several mistakes in the summary and the character reviews regarding actions taken and beliefs held.

Waste of time

It Takes a beautiful written book and reduce it to s fourth grade book report

Does NOT capture ANY of the book’s essence!

Since I loved Amor Towles’s AGentleman in Moscow (I listened to it twice, all the way through!), I thought how nice it would be to listen to this Review Summary and Analysis. I wanted to hear about some of the nuances of the book, see if the analyzer and I agreed, hear about connections that I might have missed or misinterpreted. I couldn’t be more disappointed!
Even the summary was ‘off’, it didn’t capture the sweetness of the story. And the analysis kept referring to what the lead character ‘learned’, rather than what the lead character brought to the table in the first place.
I am sad!

Good summary

Nice and succinct. Just what I need. Will look at other Instaread summaries. This is my first.

decent

Good overall. Less self advertising would be better. Errors in plot mentioned by others noted.

A Gentleman in Moscow.

The analysis was a good introduction for me in getting the most out of the book.
I thought the novel was brilliant , rich deep and informative . I was disappointed that it was not available on audible.