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A review by julialk
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
2.0
Dear god. I got to page 277 and could bear it no longer. I have read plenty of books and this is the first time in my life I could not finish one whole. I’ve finished books that I hated just because I despise to leave anything unfinished and there’s always a little uncertainty. Maybe one day I’ll revisit this book but if I wanted to read over 400 pages of an insufferable man undergoing no character development the span of his and being unnecessarily dramatic in thought and speech... well I’d go turn on the news or speak to my father. In trying to make the Count a complex character Towles got confused with tedious (in every horrible way).
I will admit I enjoyed the Counts relationship with Nina and I think something really beautiful could have come out of that in a different timeline (don’t mistake it for romantic please that’s not what I mean). Simply put, this book needed at least one other interesting, consistent character to run along side the Count to be a success. All the time spent working on Nina was over and done with when Towles made her met her fate in Russian communism. If I had a Nina returns/redemption arc to look forward I think I might have had the strength to carry on. But alas, this is the Counts story so we are stuck with for the long haul and when you have serious issues with a books sole protagonist it’s always best to get out of there ASAP.
To perfectly sum up this book, it reads as if the author got paid per word.
I will admit I enjoyed the Counts relationship with Nina and I think something really beautiful could have come out of that in a different timeline (don’t mistake it for romantic please that’s not what I mean). Simply put, this book needed at least one other interesting, consistent character to run along side the Count to be a success. All the time spent working on Nina was over and done with when Towles made her met her fate in Russian communism. If I had a Nina returns/redemption arc to look forward I think I might have had the strength to carry on. But alas, this is the Counts story so we are stuck with for the long haul and when you have serious issues with a books sole protagonist it’s always best to get out of there ASAP.
To perfectly sum up this book, it reads as if the author got paid per word.