In the lobby, politicians whispered and movie starlets swanned across the floor, dragging recalcitrant borzois on their leashes. The Metropol, with its customs and routines, is a world unto itself.įor years, its florist adhered to the code of polite society and knew “which flower to send when one has been late when one has spoken out of turn.” The barbershop remained a kind of Switzerland, “a land of optimism, precision and political neutrality.” As post-revolution scarcity set in, the chef of the upscale Boyarsky restaurant worked magic with cornmeal, cauliflower and cabbage, while the Shalyapin bar offered candlelight and dark corners so Bolshoi dancers could sneak a postperformance drink.
The year 1922 is a good starting point for a Russian epic, but for the purposes of his sly and winning second novel, Amor Towles forgoes descriptions of icy roads and wintry dachas and instead retreats into the warm hotel lobby. $27.īeyond the door of the luxurious Hotel Metropol lies Theater Square and the rest of Moscow, and beyond its city limits the tumultuous landscape of 20th-century Russia.
A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW By Amor Towles 462 pp.
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