This elegant 2016 novel crosses time (1922-1954) in a very
constrained space. The fellow of the title, Count Alexander (Sasha) Rostov,
is under house arrest in the Hotel Metropol in the center of Moscow. Holding
fast to his gentlemanly principles, he makes the best of his restrictions, in
the process offering lessons to those around him of what living well consists
of, and how it is practiced. His
“descent” from nobility lands him among the free spirits of the hotel staff;
though their tasks are menial, they perform them with enviable grace and pleasure.
The plot hangs on his relationships with a nine-year-old
girl whose impulsive curiosity draws him into friendship, and later her
six-year-old daughter whom he raises as his own child. If one were to voice
complaints about so charming a tale, one might bring up the ease with which the
Count adapts to his shrinking privileges - it seldom takes him more than a
moment, an hour, or a day, to adjust. Why, one might wonder, does he not only remain
alive while most of his aristocratic peers have been murdered or shipped off to
Siberia, but drinks in the Metropol’s lovely bar with international journalists
and the occasional diplomat? One might carp about the buffoonery of
the apparatchiks who made the existence of so many Russians so unlivable, or
quibble with the characters, so easily sorted into “good guys” who have deep,
useful skills and joie de vivre, vs. “bad guys” who are petty, vindictive, and
lack soul. And above all, how, in
such a finite space, is Rostov able to keep his secrets, the keys to his vitality?
I won’t spoil the story by answering those
challenges. But I will say that it is such a delight to read this fluid prose,
and to appreciate this kind well-mannered gentleman,
that one forgives Mr. Towles for allowing the Count a better life than he could
so easily have endured. The appeal of the novel rides in no small part on its
philosophical asides, for example:
“For however decisive
the Bolsheviks’ victory had been over the privileged classes on behalf of the
Proletariat, they would be having banquets soon enough... [H]aving gathered around
a grand circle of tables, the new statesmen would nod their heads in order to
indicate to a waiter... that yes, they would have a few more spears of
asparagus.
For pomp is a
tenacious force. And a wily one too.
How humbly it bows its
head as the emperor is dragged down the steps and tossed in the street. But
then, having quietly bided its time, while helping the newly appointed leader
on with his jacket, it compliments his appearance and suggests the wearing of a
medal or two.”
The hotel itself is as important a character as anyone who
passes through its revolving doors, and in the Count’s company we explore it from boiler
room to roof, back stairs and front suites, the finest restaurant in Russia,
and a ballroom where the Soviet assembly argues details of policy. Its position
overlooking Theater Square guarantees visits by performers and artists,
international tourists, diplomats, and spies. Its legacy as a premiere hotel is
grounded in its capable staff: doorman, seamstress, and barber; chef, maitre d’,
and headwaiter; and concierge, bartender, and conductor of the late-evening
ensemble, to name but a few.
Towles’s understanding of Russia is essential to the book,
and through his characters paying homage to their culture, offers us a taste of
Russian soul.
“ 'But with Chekhov and
Tolstoy, we Russians have set the bronze bookends on the mantelpiece of
narrative. Henceforth, writers of fictions from wheresoever they hail, will
place themselves on the continuum that begins with the one and ends with the
other. For who, I ask you, has exhibited better mastery of the shorter form
than Chekhov in his flawless little stories? Precise and uncluttered, they
invite us into some corner of a household at some discrete hour in which the
entire human condition is suddenly within reach, if heartbreakingly so. While
at the other extreme: Can you conceive of a work greater in scope than War
and Peace? One that moves so deftly from
the parlor to the battlefield and back again? That so fully investigates how
the individual is shaped by history, and history by the individual?' ” [The Count, enumerating to a German challenger Russia's contributions to the West]
The author is too modest to place himself in that pantheon, but
by honoring writers and poets throughout the book, he elevates his own chances.
