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JOIN US AS WE DISCUSS
A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW
BY AMOR TOWLES. |
During February and March, we will be filling cold, gray days by reading A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles in the Senior Learn Book Club. Our prediscussion will begin on February 7. Let's introduce ourselves, and then perhaps talk about what we know of the goings-on in Russia in the early 20th century and our impressions of the Russian people. Those of us who grew up in the 50s and 60s could share how we learned of the Russians and the feelings we had about all of this. This will also be a place for questions about the discussion, the assigned reading schedule and about each other. Let's save discussion of the text until February 12 when we begin the actual discussion.
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Discussion Schedule for A Gentleman in Moscow
February 12 Book 1
February 19. Book 2 and Book 3 through Addendum p. 228
February 26. Book 3 An Arrival 229- end of book 3
March 5 Books 4 and 5
March 12 Wrap up Discussion
The author's website www.amortowles.com is a wonderful place to get to know the Amor Towles. He has a lot of supplementary information about the book. There is even a delightful video, which you will want to watch.
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Discussion Leader: MKaren
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Welcome to our prediscussion of A Gentleman in Moscow. I happened on this book browsing in Barnes and Noble. I am not sure what led me to read the flyleaf because I thought it was about intrigue, spies, and violence, which are not my favorite topics. The cover was not eyecatching or beautifully designed as so many book covers are these days. But I picked it off the shelf and read the short description inside the front cover and immediately bought the book. The idea of a man sentenced to life in a hotel, the setting in Moscow, and the time covered in the novel drew me in. That night I started the book and qi read every moment I had for the next week. I read slowly because I wanted to savor the descriptions, those footnotes, and the many tangents the Count took me on. As soon as I finished reading, I knew I wanted to be part of a discussion of this book and so it begins.
I have a couple of suggestions as you read the text. You might want to keep a list of characters, even those who seem insignificant. They have a tendency to reappear later in the story. You may want to refresh your memory of Humphrey Bogart and of "Casablanca." Some of the literary allusions I got; others I did not. I am not going to hesitate to ask questions about those I don't know or understand. I just finished reading the book for the third time and I loved it as much as I did the first time.
The reading schedule is listed above. It would be great if you could read the section before we start discussing, but join the discussion even if you haven't finished reading. Try not to go ahead in the discussion as it may spoil the reading for someone else.. So I am interested in the impressions you had of Russia as a child. Are they different today? Have you travelled in Russia? Have you been to Moscow? stayed at the Metropol Hotel? Do you have any questions or concerns about the schedule?. I am flexible so speak up if we are moving too fast or too slow. So let's start with introductions and we will move on from there.
My name is Karen Mathews and I spent my whole life in Maine in a small city called Hallowell. I was a high school history teacher but because it was a small school of about 400 students in grades 9-12, I also taught literature, writing, and for 1 painful year, business math. When I retired after 30 years in 2010, I moved to Sarasota, FL full time. I came to Senior Learn because I wanted to take Latin which I had loved in high school and college. From there it was a small step to the book club.
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Hello Mkaren,
I had never heard of this book till it was mentioned on SeniorLearn - I bought a copy online and have been racing through it (currently around page 200, but I will make every effort not to commit any 'spoilers').
Even though I've read that far I had no idea it referenced Casablanca, which I saw many years ago and hardly remember anything about. I may need to order a copy of that now!
I was at primary school in the late 60s. In those days every adult was terrified of Russia and convinced we were about to be nuked. Whilst on holiday a while ago I visited The Secret Bunker, now a tourist attraction in Fife (other side of the Forth estuary from Edinburgh) - but it was a real bunker, built to protect 'important people' (ie not us) should nuclear war happen. It is a fascinating place to visit - so much of the public information advice dished out at the time now seems nonsensical - 'if the alarm sounds go to the shelter. If there is no shelter nearby, hide under your kitchen table - or make a shelter by taking a door off its hinges and placing it, sideways on, against a wall to make a sort of 'lean-to' in your living room. If you are outside and can't get home, jump into a ditch' - really, I kid you not.
In those days, at least in the UK, there was no real terrorism. Our fears were about this unknown, imagined enemy, and they were fuelled by the right wing press, which constantly went on about the 'red threat' and hounded anyone who had anything to do with the Communist Party. (Incidentally, an elderly couple who attend the cathedral where I work are the most unlikely looking Communist Party members you can imagine. They tell fascinating stories of their political activities in the 60s - they were persistently followed to their meetings and generally treated as criminals (it is not an offence to belong to the CP in the UK). They hold firm to their beliefs now. I find them most interesting.)
Around 1990 I went to Moscow and Leningrad (as it was still called then) with a group of lawyers. We went in winter, and I remember everything being very bleak and cold. We stayed in a huge hotel - but there were many like it - that must have been built during the Communist era - basically just a fairly modern block. On every single landing there was a table presided over by a woman selling a few toiletries (including prophylactics!). It was widely believed that these women were low grade spies. The food in the restaurant was appallling - slabs of fatty processed cheese, hard bread, dismal soups - UNTIL we went out to a restaurant, where it looked like the same dismal fare awaited us. The minute we mentioned dollars we were cheerfully escorted to a charming back room with a roaring fire, where we dined on fabulous lamb stew, drank delicious wines, and came away well fortified against the biting cold.
I remember going on the subway - how clean and magnificent the stations were in comparison to our dirty old London tube; in Moscow there were high ceilings and chandeliers in the ticket halls! But everyone, almost without exception, looked miserable. No-one ever smiled or made eye contact. Some of our party, more enterprising than I was, met a group of local teenagers who told them they could get them tickets for the Bolshoi - in those days at least, residents could get very cheap tickets to cultural events, whereas foreigners would pay prices more akin to London or New York (probably only fair, as roubles were worth very little, whereas hard currency - sterling and dollars - could buy you anything on the black market.) I did not go to the ballet as I was so scared of being arrested for using an illegally obtained ticket! The others went and had a great time with no questions asked.
We went on the overnight sleeper train between the two cities - at the end of every carriage there was a lady with a samovar to make tea. When I stepped out into the corridor to look out of the window, our lady was horrified because I wore no coat or hat - she thought I would freeze to death. All I saw outside was what seemed like an endless panorama of factories and industrial sites. We also visited a huge cemetery, where, day and night, sad, patriotic (I presume) music was blasted out through permanent speakers.
I was - and still am - woefully uninformed about Russia. Until quite recently, I am ashamed to say, I had no idea that before the revolution Moscow and St Petersburg were cities full of amazing architecture, music, art, literature, haute cuisine and all the things one might expect to find in other great European cities like Paris or Amsterdam. If anyone can recommend a good (but not too long and complicated!) book about Russian history I would be interested to read it. I also only realised after many years what a huge area the old USSR covered - how different the residents of Moscow must have been from, say, the inhabitants of Armenia or Uzbeckistan. Coming from so small a country as I do, it is hard to imagine the variations in ethnicity and race that were all encompassed by the Soviet Union. Even though the US is also vast, do you think there are such huge differences between a resident of California or one of Massachussets? Perhaps not.
So that is my experience of Russia. As to how the country is perceived today - I think we in the UK see a corrupt economy with a thug of a president. It seems such a shame after the excitement of the Gorbachov years. Many unbelievably wealthy Russians now own vast amounts of central London property, and spend obscene amounts of money in high class shops. I'm sure the shops welcome their cash but we all wonder where it comes from. It is a shame that once again our perception of a country is so warped. We do not often meet 'normal' people from Russia, with whom, I am sure, we would have many things in common. Here in Edinburgh we do at least have a Russian Consulate, and its cultural staff - who are the only ones we really have contact with at the cathedral (as the consulate is literally a few yards from our door) - are unfailingly friendly and helpful. A couple of years ago we held an exhibition about the Arctic Convoys - ships that kept the north passage open throughout the war. A few of the now very elderly men who worked on these ships were able to come to the exhibition - in fact a colleague made storyboards about them, their memories of their war service, and what had happened to them since. I think there is a permanent museum about this somewhere up in the far north of Scotland. The Russian Consul and his staff were involved in the exhibition, and contributed a great deal to it.
I will stop now and go over to Amazon to see how much a copy of Casablanca might set me back. And having started the book, I'm now also wondering about reading authors like Pushkin and Chekov, whom, I am embarrassed to admit, are all new to me (I mean, I had heard of them but I'd never read anything by them.)
Sorry to have rattled on so long, and I look forward to next Monday!
Rosemary
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What a wonderful introduction, Rosemary. Russian history! Off hand I can't think of a book that would tell you everything. I have been googling Russian History 1900-1960 as I read this book, and it was very helpful. Others may have books that they have read or used. The period from 1905- 1954 is chaotic with revolutions, power grabbing, class conflict. Dr. Zhivago, besides being a great love story, presents a great picture of Russia during this time. Keep sharing.
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Rosemary you never cease to astound me! Your travels are something I could only imagine in my wildest dreams or watch on the travel station. The only place I have ever been outside the USA is our neighboring country Canada, where our dear Jonathan resides. You have heard of the book, The Road Less Traveled, well I am the girl less traveled. I grew up in a small rural town with so little income, books and travel were not even in my vocabulary. I really feel like my world and knowledge expanded once I married and moved from small town Monroe, Michigan to Toledo, Ohio. So, needless to say I know next to nothing about Russia.
Much like Rosemary states, I too can only remember thinking back in the 60s as Russia being a huge threat to the world. When I heard the word Russia as a child, fear was invoked inside of me. Not so much today. I think Russia realizes today that any threat they would bare on the world, is a threat to their own nation. I certainly don't want to imply a threat does not exist, but I do think clearer minds prevail in all our leaders that would become involved, should one feel the need to activate that so called, "red button."
I have only read the first fifteen pages of A Gentleman in Moscow and am so intrigued with a wealthy man having to scale down from his luxurious lifestyle, to living in an attic. How does one decide what they will bring with them should they be faced in having to do so in such a limited space? I really gave this a lot of thought, and I came to the conclusion the things I would want most of all are in no particular importance of order are: my photo albums, my Bible, my books, music, computer (assuming I would have access to wifi), my toiletries, and of course my own comfortable pillows and blankets. Isn't it interesting how little we can do without if need be?
Something interesting I saw on the internet the other day really stopped me and gave me that whoa wait a minute, back up moment, and made me think of this book, and Alexander Rostov's exile in Russia.
Julian Assange was asking the courts to free him from the charges, so he could leave Ecuador's embassy. Ecuador granted him asylum in August 2012. He has been inside the embassy ever since. He has been living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for more than five years, fearing extradition to the US for questioning over the activities of WikiLeaks.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/02/06/julian-assange-uk-arrest-warrant-still-valid-court-rules-blow/
Like I say over and over...... history repeats itself. I wonder if anyone considers Assange a "gentleman"?
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Wow Rosemary you had the opportunity to visit Russia - but in winter brrrr - although I bet the snow covered landscape was beautiful to see. Have talked with several who visited and like you, the ordinariness of Russia is what they came away realizing how the nation is so easily imaged by the news as this alternate monster nation and one of supreme beauty with domes and palaces, art and music. Seems to me it was during the Cold War that Van Cliburn, only 23 when he won the most revered International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition held in Moscow.
Since Stalin, all we can think of is the artists depicting workers and statues illuminating Communistic thinking - but there were some who created some interesting art - here is a web site of well known Russian artists from various periods in history that include 20th century artists showing a bit of their work... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Russian_artists
I do like this painted in 1998 by Nickolay Anokhin - (permission given as long as the artist is named). seeing interior rooms is a change from the portraits and landscapes. The work in English is "in the old house of Rakitin"
Rakitin is the young seminarian and general gossip with a nose for scandal in The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky. Cynical and sarcastic, Rakitin is too sophisticated to have real religious faith, so he satisfies himself with adopting various fashionable philosophical theories. He quotes Nietzsche and claims to be a socialist.
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As the artist, Nickolay Anokhin depicts the character of Rakitin by painting an interior, featuring a child representing the new and the cat representing the Wily, Independent, Secretive, Mysterious, Intuitive and Watchfulness nature associated with a cat, so too I see the Gentleman from Moscow in his attic rooms as an interior story with the happenings in Moscow and Russia almost like a movie or book that feeds his mind but he takes no action in the events and so as I read I will be looking for his interior reaction and struggle.
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'Good-bye, Rick. God bless you.' No matter what the cost, Rosemary, treat yourself to Casablanca. You will want to watch it several times. Nothing so moving as that last farewell. But who can doubt that they will meet again and fall into each others arms. Perhaps some vodka dive in Odessa.
Marvellous posts! Yes, we all remember Russia as the great threat. My people were among the kulaks who were dispossessed and scattered around the world during the revolution. My parents got out with very little. A samovar, which is still a great treasure. On the other hand. Who could feel more threatened than the Russians, invaded by the likes of Napoleon, Hitler and Ghengis Khan.
I'm in, but I have to get out. And that means clearing my driveway of all the snow. Canada is like Siberia. Mom was very disappointed. She had hoped for a new life in San Fransisco. She had heard or read so much of California. But she never ceased to be homesick for the Crimea.
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Bellamarie - it is much easier to travel to Europe from the UK than from the US, at least distance-wise. Like you I grew up in a very poor home where the farthest we ever went from London was to the south coast (about 30 miles away I think) for occasional summer holidays - one year we branched out and went as far as the West Country (Devon) - we felt very daring! When cheap package holidays became popular in the 70s, lots of not particularly affluent British people flew off to Spain and Italy - we most certainly didn't! By then my father had died and my mother had enough trouble putting food on the table. Virtually all of my overseas travel has been as an adult, and I do fully appreciate how lucky I am to have been anywhere.
You make a very interesting point about what one would take if having to downsize. My mother moved from a 3 bedroomed house to a flat 12 years ago, and last year she moved from that to sheltered housing, where she has one bedroom and one living room (and shower room). She found it hard to decide what to offload, and in the last move she left it mostly up to me and my husband - she took the basics with her; her favourite chair, her sewing machine, bookcase, double bed, chest of drawers, table, etc - but we then spent a week going through her cupboards and wrapping her hoardes of china and glass to take to charity shop. 5 months later she has only regretted not taking one or two very small items, both of which I have been able to replace for her. It's amazing how much clutter we (or should I say, I) manage to accumulate. Also, as we discussed quite recently I think, in the UK we tend to have much smaller houses than you do - especially in cities like London and Edinburgh, where property is eye-wateringly expensive - so maybe Americans accumulate more than we do, simply because you have more space?
I'm not sure what I would take with me. My books would be important, some old photos, the few items of clothing that I have saved from my children's babyhoods. My radio - though nowadays I can get every radio programme on my i-pad, which would certainly save space. Some luxurious toiletries - fine soap, body lotion - would certainly ease the transition!
Barb - I love that picture It almost looks more Scandinavian to me than Russian - but then, as you say, we are conditioned to think that all Russian painting - especially modern painting - is propaganda posters (not that we in the UK don't have our share of those).
Jonathan - I have ordered Casablanca - it should arrive by Saturday. Looking forward to it.
How fascinating about your family, what a history to have - and a samovar too!
I remember shovelling snow off the very long drive when we lived in Newfoundland. One day when i was out there the house door swung shut. It was not locked but it immediately started to freeze. I was truly terrified - we lived in a very small community outside St John's and the only neighbours I knew were away on holiday. Despite having full cold weather clothing on, I started to feel as if the blood in my fingers was swiftly turning to ice. These were the days before mobile phones so there was no way I could call anyone, and although the car was outside, the keys were not. After a few minutes of my increasingly anxious pushing and kicking, the door opened. I've rarely been so relieved in my life. Take care out there!
Rosemary
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X Marking spot since I'm still a long way down on the reserve list for a copy of the book. I will be able to read Chapters 1 and 2 in the "sample" so will, at least know a little of what the story is about.
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Callie, so nice to see you joining the discussion of this remarkable book.
This is lovely and I hope I'm not injecting a spoiler, but Rosemary's mother managed her downsizing with as much aplomb as the gentleman in our story managed his. Okay, I'll try to restrain myself in what I have to say about the book.
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Thank you Jonathan - she would be flattered!
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Ah Russia ....I've been to St Petersburg twice in the last 10 years. Its the most beautiful city I have ever seen. The restoration of the palaces and streets when you consider the demolition of Leningrad during the war is breathtaking. I tried to learn some Russian before I went...the alphabet is really quite daunting but the actual language is a bit like Polish which I have a smattering of, so I was able to read the signs and so on....but I've forgotten quite a bit now. I've always been fascinated by Russia which made my Polish father angry.....so I've read a few Russian novels and a play or two, as well as biographies of Stalin, Lenin and Beria of all people....a bit of a creep.....
So I suppose that's why I'm struggling through Crime and Punishment...actually the characters are so well described, but the story remains so depressing. I shall definitely read Fathers and Sons next, except first I have got Barb's recommendation Generations of Winter ( Asilykov) waiting for me.
If you would like to read about Russian history Rosemary, Robert K. Massie writes very readably and "Nicholas and Alexandra" would be a most gripping and really unbelievably unbelievable place to start...if it was a novel you would not believe it....I think it put me off novels for a while, the truth is just so much more wildly satisfying. He also has written good books about Catherine the Great and Peter the Great and you can get Russian made documentaries about them both on amazon....but not as good as the books.
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Thank you for the welcome, Jonathan.
Quick introduction: I live in central Oklahoma (if Oklahoma City were a clock face, I'd live "north of noon") and have also lived in the Texas panhandle (Amarillo) and the Colorado mountains (Leadville). My working background was as a Second Grade teacher. My years of volunteer work were at local historical museums and, most recently, as an Education Docent at the Oklahoma History Center Museum.
I have traveled extensively in western Europe, Canada and the USA - but not to Russia. I'm rather vaguely familiar with early Russian history - not so much with the Communist era.
Doubt that I'll be researching and reading other books on the subject but am looking forward to reading the posts from those of you who do.
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Good Morning All,
Thank you for your wonderful entries yesterday. Bellamarie Whenever I read, I feel like I am traveling. Certainly I do in Gentleman. All your reading has taken you to so many places. Keep reading! Barb Thank you so much for the painting. Rooms opening into rooms. Jonathan I know it is so hard not to talk about the book. I want to, too.
The Kulaks have such a sad history. When did your parents leave the Crimea? CallieFollow along as you can. Feel free to join in. Dana Thank you for reminding me of the Massie books. They are wonderful for Russian history. In fact, I think a good biography is a great way to learn history.
I am excited that the Olympics start tonight. I did stream curling at 5:00 AM!!! I am sort of an Olympics addict. I hate to tell you this but it is a gorgeous sunny day on the Suncoast of Florida. I am sending you all some of that today. :D
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Good morning. Since we're trading biographies, I'll fill in mine, though I've probably said it all before one place or another. I'm a native of Washington, DC, and still live in a suburb, though I now also have an apartment in Portland, OR, and spend about a quarter of my time there. I've only lived elsewhere twice--a year in Zurich, Switzerland 1957-8, and a year in Strasbourg, France 1968-9, both related to my husband's job as a chemist (though in Zurich, I managed to get permission to putter in the lab too). I spent my working life as a chemist at the National Institutes of Health, with time out when my children were small, and have been retired for some time.
I've done a lot of traveling in Europe, but never reached Russia, alas.
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For part of my grade school years, the Russians were supposed to be good guys, our allies in the war, but that didn't last. We got the Cold War, McCarthyism, missile crisis, fallout shelters, etc. The feeling of threat cooled off, but relations remain uneasy. Throughout it all, of course, most Russian people are good people trying to do their best.
Russia's history was really turbulent immediately preceding the start of our book in 1922. After a lot of strife and partially effective revolutions, the czarist rule was overthrown in 1917, leading to an interim period in which warring factions fought each other in a vicious civil war, culminating in the formation of the USSR in 1922.
My knowledge of Russian history is pretty minimal, and I had to look this up to get it sort of straight. Please correct anything I have wrong.
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Just realised we were supposed to introduce ourselves - instead of which I just rambled on about Russia...
I live in Edinburgh, Scotland, where I work mornings only in the office of our Episcopal Cathedral. Before that I used to be a probate lawyer but thank goodness I haven't done that for several years. I am not Scottish - I come from London, where all sides of my family have lived for as long as anyone can remember. I originally moved to Scotland (Aberdeen0 because my husband works in the oil industry, but he now works in Paris most of the time. We moved to Edinburgh when he spent a few years working in renewables (wave power). Two of my daughters currently live in London; my son lives in the Highlands of Scotland.
Although I've been able to travel a bit in adult life, I'd still very much like to see Japan, Greece, Norway and some African countries. Not sure if this will ever happen!
I agree Mkaren, one can 'travel' so well through books - wasn't it Joan who said everything she knew about the world she'd learned from reading detective novels? I know what she means - I've been to Venice with Inspector Brunetti (and also with Salley Vickers' wonderful Miss Garnet), Perpignan with Inspector Sebag, Shetland with Detective Perez, Oxford with Morse, Cambridge with the Rev Sidney Chambers, Botswana with Mme Ramotswe.... Although I have been to several of these countries 'in the flesh', books give you a completely different take on them - for example, I've been to the Venice of tourists, but never to the seedy side explored by Donna Leon - or even the world of those restoring the city's great buildings. And you're right, a biography is a great way to learn history too. That's why I love The Assassin's Cloak, Alan Taylor's collection of extracts from diaries across the years, arranged according to the days of the year - everything from Pepys experiencing the Great Fire of London, to Francis Ford Coppola's wife Eleanor writing about her marraige while they are both on on the set of Apocalypse Now.
Our entire Radio Times is full of the Winter Olympics this week. Unlike you MKaren I am not a fan of any sport - so it's good to know that somebody enjoys this!
Thank you Dana for the Robert K Massie recommendation - I will look him up. I have never seen Nicholas and Alexander, nor Dr Zhivago - I should probably now remedy all of these omissions, while I'm in Russian mode.
One book that my reading of the first part of A Gentleman in Moscow has slightly bizarrely brought to mind is Kay Thompson's Eloise at Christmastime. I'd better not say anything else about that until we start properly!
Rosemary
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I don't think we were necessarily supposed to introduce ourselves, but Karen and Callie started it, and it fits in with our telling what we know about Russia and whether we've ever been there.
Rosemary, I was reminded of Eloise too, though I haven't read that particular one.
Karen, thanks for the warning to keep a list of characters. I'm really bad at keeping track of minor ones. The Amor Towles website will have to wait a while, though. As soon as I started the video, it began telling me things I wanted to find out by reading them in the book.
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Ooops.... I missed the part about giving a background biography in introducing ourselves. I reside in the most northern part of Ohio near the Michigan/Ohio line. Born and raised in Michigan, I am a huge Michigan Wolverine football fan! I always say, "You can take the girl out of Michigan, but you can not take the Michigan out of the girl." I lived in a small town called Monroe, rural upbringing, lots of land for farming, playing outside, but little access to friends and the exciting things happening in the uptown area of my town. I moved to Toledo, Ohio when I married in 1971 and love that it is only twenty minutes from visiting my hometown. I was hired as a computer instructor at a Catholic elementary school in 1984 and began the first computer lab, with very little knowledge or experience with computers. I spent the entire summer before school began learning what I was to teach. My principal/boss Sr. Myra told me, "I have faith in you." I not only was very successful in bringing technology to our school, but was selected to teach a computer course to high school teachers at our local college. Our elementary school was noted as one of the best technology schools in the diocese. This is one of my proudest accomplishments in life, since I had no college or tech classes in the beginning. (Just wish I would have taken the advice of an Apple technician back in 1984 when he told me I should buy some stock in Apple because it would one day be worth a lot of money.) I also was hired by the same principal, Sr. Myra, to teach religion classes in their CCD program back in 1983. Again, NO official prior knowledge or teaching degrees, and as she said to me, "You have the faith in your heart, leave the rest to the Holy Spirit." I have to giggle because last night getting out of the car going into the school to teach my third grade CCD class, some thirty years later, I said to my hubby, "Okay Holy Spirit, do your thing." We both laughed.
As far as traveling abroad, I have no such luck to have been any further than Canada as I mentioned earlier. I have traveled to many states throughout the forty-six years of my marriage, but now I am satisfied to stay close to home near my six grandchildren. So, no Russia, Europe, Asia, etc., knowledge here. Only Italy is on my bucket list, possibly for our 50th Wedding Anniversary! I wrote a poem and it was published in the International Library of Poetry back in 2006, about the travels I imagined while rocking my grand babies in my arms. I will have to share it with you all one day. One more tidbit about myself, I am a novice writer who has written a children's book, waiting to get up my nerve to submit for publication. Like many writers, I never feel like my work is worthy of print.
Casablanca, a movie I have not seen either, but Jonathan you are definitely making it enticing to rent. I love all the recommendations you all are posting to help learn about Russia.
Rosemary, I have the video of Eloise at Christmastime, my granddaughters love that movie.
Yes, PatH., thank you for reminding me of Karen's suggestion to keep a list of characters, including the minor ones. I'm getting my spiral tablet out.
Dana, Happy to see you are with us, and sharing your travels to Russia. I will also check out Robert K. Massie and Nicholas and Alexander.
I have a feeling once we begin discussing the actual book we will all get a good idea of what it's like to live in Russia, through Alexander Rostov's exile there.
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Love reading the posts - and Dana, you also spent time in Russia - And Jonathan, you are of Russian decent - wondered if your family continued to feel an attachment to Russia after they had to flee - If so, I am imagining their attachment was to an old Russia that no longer existed - Marvelous treat to be talking with fellow readers who can conjure up first hand the looks, sounds and smells of Russia. My own closest connection is a couple of Russian lacquered boxes ;) and my love of Tchaikovsky - which, if we are downsizing, I MUST have my collection of Tchaikovsky, Dvorak and George Strait and squeeze in Gershwin and Alan Toussaint.
Ah yes an intro - live here in Austin in the same house for 51 years - early married years, in Kentucky - teen and childhood going backwards, City Island N.Y. - near Helen, Georgia - Tampa, Florida - Been a Real Estate Broker since 1980 and I'm semi-retired. Only closed a transaction last month. My life, as my interests are very eclectic -
Spent years teaching various Needlearts locally and nationally. Also many years as a Board member of local area Girl Scout Councils both here in Central Texas and in Lexington Ky. and as a trainer both locally, nationally and once in Canada. For several years worked various jobs at G.S. camp during the summer both here and in Ky. bringing my youngest with me from the time he was age 4.
Traveled many times to Europe but never Russia and many trips to our next door neighbor, Mexico. For years the typical Thanksgiving weekend included driving down for a shopping trip to Monterrey or at least to Laredo. Researched needlework all over Britain and Wales for a couple of months, mostly by appointment visiting the holdings in museums that were stored in the basements and attics. Did a lot of hiking in Mexico, Germany, Switzerland and France - oh yes, spent several years studying cooking that included our group visiting the 3 and 4 star restaurants in Southern France and in Paris.
My only constant, since I was age 5 has been reading books - pretty much doped out reading on my own - Mom signed me up at a local Library, mostly as a safe place to leave me while she shopped - I was in heaven - my big childhood accomplishments included reading the entire children's section at the library with a good start on the adult section by the time I graduated from 8th grade and my swimming medals. ;D ;)
Best job, I loved all that went with being a mom to growing children - Oldest boy died 10 years ago now, my daughter lives in NC and my younger son is over in Magnolia which is now almost a suburb of Houston - His boys are in Lubbock - my daughter's oldest is in Seattle and her younger is currently in Costa Rico, next Peru and spent last year traveling and hiking Iceland, Ireland, Europe and Thailand staying with Friends - Spent his Collage Junior Year in China and a summer in Norway and another in China and Singapore - yep, he travels and he learns languages.
Oh lordy I do get wound up - as to downsizing - have not yet made a huge clear-out but slowly been getting rid of what I no longer use - to move into an attic I too would need my books, pens pencils paper, my CDs, my computer, my piano, my knitting and embroidery supplies, my sewing machine, scissors etc, some flower pots for the window sill, my good pots and pans and knives because I prefer to do my own cooking along with a couple of place settings - a 9 foot long table, large enough for study space as well as, sewing space and dining space, table chair, shelves and more shelves, bed, if space a comfortable chair, if not lots of pillows for the bed/sofa -
Nope, enough, I would hate it - I like being out of doors - I love my various indoor activities but I cannot imagine being confined to a room - no more talking to my trees or seeing what the plants are doing, the sun coming up or the moon lighting my nighttime walk or chatting with neighbors while poking around the front garden or with folks as they walk by - no, no, no - no one room living or even an apartment with no yard for me!
OK, that being said, let's see how the Gentleman in Moscow handles his confinement - I'm sure far better than being thrown in jail.
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I for one was scared to death of the Russians when I was little. I would go to the movies on Saturday and see films on what to do when the Russians dropped the bomb and before my eyes a house with a dummy family inside would be blown to bits as sirens blew. I would have duck and cover drills in school. I would crawl under my desk and cover my head. I put water and food in my cellar and formulated a plan to dig to China to get away from the Russians. This didn't stop. Some of the families in my neighborhood built air raid shelters and they told me they would shoot me if I wanted to get in. I must have been 8-9 years old. My senior year in high school I really thought the end was near during the Cuban Missle Crisis. Just recently someone asked a group of us. "What was the first news story you remember?" I said that the first news story I remembered was the executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg as Russian spies. I was a weird kid. So, the fear persisted really until the Wall came down and the Soviet Union broke up. William Faulkner in his Pulitzer Prize acceptance speech said something like "The fear of the bomb is so ingrained in us that we hardly notice it's there"
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Well, I was close. It was Faulkner but it was the Nobel Prize. This is the actual quote.
Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only the question: When will I be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat.
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Some took the red scare seriously and some took to the concept of living our life to the fullest and leaning on our faith - I remember talks with my children after conversations with some friends who were building and stocking shelters - thinking it through and discussing it as a family, we realized even if we saved ourselves the earth would be destroyed and we could not last our entire lives living in a shelter - and to fear death was silly when we all eventually die. The upshot that I did not expect, the children came out of those discussions with an inner strength that over-rode their leaning on faith. My eldest, in middle school at the time, unfortunately shared his thinking at school and was bullied unmercifully because he did not agree with their thinking - ah so and we all lived through it - fear is a terrible thing isn't it... Faulkner sure nailed that with "universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it." Seems to me every generation has a monster to fear - today Cancer is taking its leading role front and center.
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Just saw the video you included Karen in the heading - witty and typical 1920s look isn't it - I forgot Amor Towles wrote Rules of Civility - that was the big read a year or so ago wasn't it.
Found this web site entitled The Lost Poets of the Russian Revolution - nice bits of information - so Poets really do have an august position in Russian power politics - In the US we do not couple art with politics, not even poster art any longer, but it appears that art is or was the way of things in Russian politics.
http://newmexicomercury.com/blog/comments/the_lost_poets_of_the_russian_revolution
A thought - all those scary years I'm remembering we referred to Russia almost exclusively as the Soviet Union and the people, we called Soviets - a harder sounding word filled with all that we could imagine that was harmful where as, using the word Russia seems softer and brings up memories of the great novels, ballet and music of pre-revolution - Trying to figure out why, after the break-up of the Soviet Union that same pre-revolution romantic view of Russia is not what comes to mind - I wonder if it has to do with the years of Soviet rule focused on the extinction of the Russian Orthodox Church which was so severe that today Russians are not bound by and ruled by a Church equal to the President, as the Church was equal to the Monarchy and so Russia has a different tone.
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Around 1992 I went to the second of the NEH workshops that I wrote about. It was at Oberlin on Nineteenth Century British Women Writers. I digress. The professor who led the workshop was married to a Russian Immigrant who was also a Professor. This interested me, Barb. She wanted to restore the Romanovs as rulers of Russia. Apparently there are those around who would like to turn back the clock to that time you speak of when the Orthodox Church supported the Czar and the aristocracy lived in amazing luxury. When it was a slow day in the classroom (or once on the world history final exam), I would ask the kids if they could live in another time period what would you choose and why. I always said I would have liked living in nineteeenth century and be rich.
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That's the thing, isn't it, MKaren - so many periods in history would be great provided one were rich. Personally I think nostalgia is a pernicious, dangerous thing. So many people go on about how it was 'better in the old days' - one of my late aunts never stopped. She somehow forgot how poor they were as children, when they did not have enough to eat and their worn-down mother had to take in people's washing and do other women's cleaning, as well as trying to care for five children and an unemployed, irrevocably war-damaged husband. None of the children were allowed to stay in education past the then compulsory age of 14 - my mother and her oldest sister would have thrived at university, but all that was denied to them purely by poverty.
I sometimes think I would have liked to have been an adult in the 60s - but then I remember how far we have come re women's rights, LGBT rights, etc since then. Rewatching Our Friends in the North, a fantastic TV series set in Newcastle around that time, reminded us just how much corruption there was in local politics and the police force (especially the Met in London), and how hard it still was for a woman to have a career. Only a very few people enjoyed the 'swinging sixties', though of course the wind of change was in the air.
Rosemary
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I love reading all your posts of the Russia you understood back in your childhood. I never experienced those scares, drills or knew of shelters built in the event of an attack. My first memory of paying any attention to world news was when President Kennedy was struggling with the Cuban Missile Crisis, in October of 1962. As a child I had no idea what exactly was happening, I just knew it was monumental to our country.
Oh the 60s, the best thing that comes to my mind about that time is the Beatles came to America! I was twelve years old in February 1964 when they first appeared on the Ed Sullivan show. I will never forget watching them thinking how dreamy they all looked. They were my first awareness of music, in deciding what I really like, other than listening to my older sisters music playing on American Bandstand.
Rosemary, I think the "Good ole days" is more about the sense of faith & family regardless of whether you were rich, middle class or poor, at least in my own opinion. Money and food was scarce for many, but my large family and strong faith was plenty. Would I like to go back to those days.... not so much. Like Karen, I think I would love to experience the the eighteenth or nineteenth century, provided I am in the circle of being invited to all the grand balls. So I suppose I too, would need to be rich as well. Ah so.... to dream of another place and time.
We are being bombarded with at least seven inches of snow today, I plan to spend it reading, so I will be ready for our discussion on Monday. Speaking of keeping a list of characters in the book, I happened to find a list last night while roaming the internet. This list is in the order as the characters enter the story. My printer is out of ink, so I just copied and pasted this list to my documents on my computer so I can refer back to it. I don't think knowing the list will give away any spoilers.
http://www.bookcompanion.com/a_gentleman_in_moscow_character_list2.html
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Getting to know you. To know all about you. What fun!
But woe is me. I've spent another sleepless night, wondering what to tell you about myself. Such an uneventful life. Don't misunderstand me. I've enjoyed nearly every minute of it. That wise man was wrong who said the unexamined life is not worth living. The contrary may well be closer to the truth.
I've been a gentleman of leisure for the past thirty years, and a widower for almost two. Before that it was thirty years wholesaling in the food industry. Feeding the hungry. My mission in life. I owed God that much, who directs everything. For me to be born a Canadian, the Russian revolution had to happen. As the second greatest blessing in my life, I was born on U.S. soil, just north of the border, in the Red River valley, which is, after all, the erosion of the Dakotas and Minnesota.
Among my heros is someone like Aby Warburg, of Warburg Library fame, the bibliophile in a family of bankers. And that reminds me of my darling wife, who was both a librarian and a shrewd money manger. And a ringer for Ilsa, the star in Casablanca. Just as beautiful and just as gracious. And the strange part. Ilsa was, of course, Ingrid in real life. My wife's given names were Ingrid Ilse. Happy Valentine's Day, my love.
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Oh Jonathan, you brought tears to my eyes. Ingrid Ilse was a very blessed and lucky lady to have you for her husband. God bless your for your feeding the hungry, a corporal work of mercy.
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Didn't realize I was part of the "start" to introductions. Thought I was just trying to participate a bit. :-[
Bellamarie, thank you so much for the link to the characters. I've printed out the page listing them by chapter as well as the one listing them alphabetically.
I'm still way down on the reserve list but will be able to read a synopsis and the text through the second chapter in the "sample" available from the library.
I was in my 30's and a stay-at-home Mom living 10,200 feet above sea level in the Colorado Rockies by the time the "Russia scare" occurred. So, although I vaguely remember reading about events, I missed experiencing it - as well as all the other social upheavals of the era.
Although I agree that literature can be connected to history, I lean more toward reading the history than trying to interpret what an author is saying about it. Never was good at that sort of thing in college literature classes.
I remember my h.s. English teacher being very impressed when I did a book report on "Anna Karenina". However, she didn't tell me it was because I was reading TOLSTOY and I doubt I made very much of a connection between the story and Russian history.
Nevertheless, in my "older years" (82), I'm still interested in learning and shall do my best to keep up with all the comments and references.
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Wow Callie, the mountains of Colorado - was skiing a part of your life? It was great that you started us off sharing about ourselves - one of those happy accidents on your part - my take on our sharing the history is to get background on the why and wherefore of the characters in the book and to get a feel for their circumstances - my bet is since the story is not Historical Fiction, our topics of conversation will probably not be rattling our brains and researching Russian History - and so your thoughts shared will move us into appreciation of the story tra la - looking forward to your posts.
Yes, I think you said it Rosemary - when we see paintings of peasant life during other historical times it sure is not all that inviting is it and as you say Bellamarie, food and money were not as easy to obtain - we forget how we depended on the seasons for our foods which meant that we did not enjoy the variety we have available today or the security of the crop production that we take for granted today.
Jonathan so glad you are a part of our discussions - your feelings are always refreshing and today's post is filled with the memory of your love - thanks for sharing.
Karen you attended the neatest workshops - how do you learn about them?
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Link to the seductive Second Waltz by Dimitri Shostakovish danced at a nineteenth century court ball
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEk-0BBbUmw
And this one from Anna Karenia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5QpOBVyinI
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Barb, after two attempts at skiing on the Beginners' Slope at the local area https://www.coloradoski.com/resorts/cooper (https://www.coloradoski.com/resorts/cooper), it was obvious that I was only going to get cold, wet and in everybody's way. So I bought a smiley button to wear on my parka. It read: "I Don't Ski" and I always wanted one for the other side that read "Because I Don't Want To."
Then I stayed home and made hot chocolate and hot buttered rum for the returning skiers. ;D
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Well, Callie, what anyone wants to share in an introduction is fine, but I don't want anyone to feel pressured. Same thing when we get to the discussing the book. Contribute what and when you want . Jonathan, thank you for your introduction. What part of Canada are you in now? Barbara, most of these workshops were for teachers and sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities. That organization used to hold these workshops every summer. They paid my expenses and provided money to have fun with. They were promoting a humanities approach to teaching history and literature together and including philosophy, art, music. I believe NEH was cut.
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Barb, thanks for the link to Russian poets. I particularly like this:
Mendelstam recognized this about Russia, when he said, “only in our country is poetry respected.” He continued: “People are killed for it. And there’s nowhere else that people are killed for poetry.”
That kind of sums up the role of literature in Russian politics, and it also throws a different light on the first few pages of our book.
The link mentions music too, though briefly, quoting Dmitri Shostakovich. Stalin was no music lover, and Shostakovich spent too much of his career dodging around Stalin's corny notions of what was appropriate to the Soviet regime, though he avoided prison or being shot. Musicologists argue a lot about the details, but he definitely couldn't write some of the music he wanted to, and he did often push the limits of what he could get away with.
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Advice, please.
Watching the movie "Casablanca" has been suggested. It's showing tonight on my PBS station and I plan to watch it carefully. Please help this "interpretation-challenged" reader ;D know what I should look for in relation to "A Gentleman In Moscow".
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Callie, movies in general play into the story. "Casablanca" figures into the ending of the book. Don't worry about finding symbols and things to analyze. Think mostly about the mood of the movie and the situation that Rick and Ilse are in. Most of all, enjoy the movie; it is a classic. Callie, I was as frustrated as you are about things meaning something else than what they are. I still miss those things. That's what I love about book discussions with people I know will help me "get" anything I miss. So, make some popcorn, sit back, and let this movie take you to Casablanca during World War II. Have fun.
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Let's go to the movies. Thanks, Callie, for letting us know about the showing of Casablanca. With such good advice from Karen: 'Catch the mood.' See the conflict. Between love and duty? Perhaps it's in the lovers' favorite melody. Play it again, Sam. As time goes by.
And then there's the poetry. Thanks for the quote, Pat.
"Mendelstam recognized this about Russia, when he said, “only in our country is poetry respected.” He continued: “People are killed for it. And there’s nowhere else that people are killed for poetry.”
I don't want to jump the gun, but what was it about the Gentleman's poem that saved his life? I need help with this one.
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Jonathan:
I need help with this one.
So do I. But Mendelstam's quote reminds us why poetry is even a serious part of such an inquiry.
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Mkaren, thanks for saying that "Casablanca" figures into the end of the book. I've seen the movie several times (probably saw it when it first came out) and am aware of the time, mood and situation. Thought there might be something more subtle I needed to find.
Please don't misunderstand. I don't feel like a misfit here and can't wait until I get my copy of "Gentleman...." so I can read farther than the end of the 2nd chapter. Won't be long now.
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| (http://www.seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/gentleman/hotel-metropol-moscow-2.jpg) |
JOIN US AS WE DISCUSS
A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW
BY AMOR TOWLES. |
During February and March, we will be filling cold, gray days by reading A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles in the Senior Learn Book Club. Our prediscussion will begin on February 7. Let's introduce ourselves, and then perhaps talk about what we know of the goings-on in Russia in the early 20th century and our impressions of the Russian people. Those of us who grew up in the 50s and 60s could share how we learned of the Russians and the feelings we had about all of this. This will also be a place for questions about the discussion, the assigned reading schedule and about each other. Let's save discussion of the text until February 12 when we begin the actual discussion.
| (http://www.seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/gentleman/Gentlemancover.jpg) |
Discussion Schedule for A Gentleman in Moscow
February 12 Book 1
February 19. Book 2 and Book 3 through Addendum p. 228
February 26. Book 3 An Arrival 229- end of book 3
March 5 Books 4 and 5
March 12 Wrap up Discussion
The author's website www.amortowles.com is a wonderful place to get to know the Amor Towles. He has a lot of supplementary information about the book. There is even a delightful video, which you will want to watch.
(http://www.seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/gentleman/Metropol-Hotel-Moscow.jpg)
Discussion Leader: MKaren
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Callie, nobody's a misfit here. We all bring something and learn something.
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Pat, agreed.
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I've ordered Casablanca - I'm 3/4 of the way through the book and I don't have a clue what Casablanca's got to do with it - looking forward to finding out! I always miss lots of references in books. When I first went to university I was torn to shreds by an old battleaxe of a tutor, who was infuriated because I had no idea whatsoever about the Book of Common Prayer and therefore had not a clue about all the references to it in early literature. I can see what she meant, but I still don't think that justified a public humiliation!
As you said, that's the joy of reading along with others - we'll all bring something different to it (I'll bring all the uninformed questions...)
Rosemary
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rosemarykaye,
I always miss lots of references in books.
You are not alone. I always envied those who seem to be able to not only find so many references, but gee zoo golly they come up with so many references my head spins. Sometimes a book is just a book to be enjoyed, rather than analyzed.
I still don't think that justified a public humiliation!
I agree, there is never a time any teacher of any kind should publicly humiliate a student. I remember when my daughter was in 6th grade (she was diagnosed with audio perception, which for those who aren't familiar with it, it means she has difficulty learning through audio instructions.) She was at the blackboard attempting to do a math problem and her teacher was speaking to her with her back to her. My daughter got so nervous and confused, this teacher called her a "dumb ass" in front of the entire class. She was mortified!! I taught at this school and visited this teacher outside her classroom the next morning. She had the nerve to try to tell me that "ass" means donkey so she did not use it in a vulgar sense. I asked, and just what excuse to do have for using the word "dumb" referring to my daughter? I told her she better never humiliate a student again in front of their class, if I hear about it, I will have her job. Some people were NOT meant to be teachers. Ughhhh...
Callie, thank you for the heads up about PBS airing Casablanca tonight. I may record it on my dvr.
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Alas, Casablanca isn't on here tonight, but I have seen the movie, and will no doubt be able to manage to rewatch it sometime soon.
Surely the job of a good teacher is to make you understand, not sneer at you for not already knowing something.
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Bellamarie, What an awful experience for your daughter. No student of any age should ever be humiliated at any time in any place for any reason.
My grandson is the opposite of your daughter. He is an "audio learner" and had great difficulty with teachers whose teaching method was "read the chapter and answer the questions at the end". He is now sailing through college lecture classes.
Jonathan, I'm already humming "As Time Goes By".
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How horrible, Bellamarie. There were so many teachers like that when i was at school.
When we first moved to Edinburgh we sent my youngest - then about 12 - to one of the well known private schools in the city. She was bullied, sidelined and generally made miserable by the ethos of the place (which was very 'old Edinburgh') but the very worst thing was the sports master, who had moved there from an all boys' school. [This school she was at had only recently started taking girls, and the place was still run like a very hearty boys' school. (We should never have sent her there, but it had an extremely well equipped art department).] This sports master shouted at her in front of the whole class about her poor running skills (she has always been a little uncoordinated) and yelled that he wanted to see her running until she was 'physically sick'. I removed her from the school after that episode - she was coming home in tears every day - and moved her to the Steiner School, where she flourished and is now at art college in London. And this episode with the gym teacher was only 7 years ago - I imagine he's still carrying on just the same (in fact I know someone whose son was at the school he came from, and he said this guy was far from their worst gym teacher - imagine). It's a 'make them into men' culture that dominates our old private schools - and see what it turns out? Politicians with no empathy whatsoever.
Well done for standing up to your daughter's teacher! I was brought up never to answer teachers back - they, along with vicars, bank managers, etc, were set on pedastals by my parents' generation. I wish I had given that gym teacher a piece of my mind. I would now.
Rant over! I will now return to the book....I'm nearing the end, and eagerly awaiting both the discussion proper and the arrival of my Casablanca DVD.
Hope everyone is having a good weekend - I am off now for a walk in the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens, then I will go to Evensong, come home and enjoy Call the Midwife. Perfect!
Rosemary
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What fun this is going to be. I look forward to sharing my off-the-wall answers to your 'uninformed questions'. I seem to recall thinking that the Book of Common Prayer was at one time, practically, a political pamphlet, much like Mao's little Red Book in the time of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. I was of the opinion that English schools are models of efficiency and enlightenment. No longer the pedagogical disasters of the 19th century. The many accounts were an early 'me-too' phenomenan'.
The movie last night was so enjoyable. It's relationship to the book will no doubt unfold as time goes by. The film was made as events unfolded in Moscow. Did the Gentleman watching it perhaps say to himself 'That's me! That could be me!' Book and film do have one thing in common. They both do grow on one.
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Holy Hannah Jonathan - there is not that much in the news - is it the norm for girls to come from English Schools that defiled and traumatized that they are part of the 'me too' phenomenan - how is any parent sending their daughters to any English School - I would think this is one that would by now have the entire country in a national uproar with the guilty teachers in the court room. We cannot even talk about bullying then which would be mild in comparison - oh I'm sick - I knew the suffragettes were given a harsher time with such demeaning experiences in prison but little girls just going to school are that defiled - does no one know what that does to a girl for the rest of her life - where do you think PTSD started - the soldiers only learned of the phenomenon from the life long experience of those sexually abused as children, never mind adult women sexually harassed - has the British news just decided not to make public these teachers because maybe their actions were not as prolific as Dr. Nassar - is this the experience of your daughter in Scotland as well Rosemary or is this only taking place in English Schools? I am shattered. Need to get off here.
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Barb, I think "defiled" is the wrong word to use for what Rosemary described. Humiliation and bullying in an inexcusable and harmful way, but not defiled.
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Rosemarykaye, I am certain today you would do differently and stand up to that gym teacher. So glad to hear you pulled your daughter and look at her today! This same teacher I mentioned told me and my hubby a few years later that our youngest son would not succeed in the world because he does not know how to be loyal. She went on to explain how he got her in trouble with another teacher because the class was told to bring in a newspaper about the results of the election for History class. This particular teacher heard the students being concerned they would get in trouble because their parents do not have the paper delivered to their home, so she spoke up and told the students the History teacher should not assign something all students are not able to do. My son did indeed repeat her words to the History teacher, which caused the two teachers to have some words. I had to giggle as she relayed this story to me, and then responded, "I beg to differ with you, I see my son being very successful in his future because he is willing to stand up for his fellow classmates." Years later I ran into this teacher and she asked about my oldest son who she favored. I told her he was doing well and that my youngest son is now creating programs working for UPS Logistics saving Ford Motor Co. millions of dollars a year in saving them transportation costs. I said he is highly respected managing thirty-five employees under him and just recently was honored by his company as one of the most successful in his department, with his supervisor and others higher up telling me at the awards dinner how well liked he is and how his loyalty to the employees and company have earned him high respect from everyone. I think that teacher could have fainted! Alas... never underestimate a mother's insight.
Path., Yes, humiliated, but not defiled.
Barb, I am in shock with all that is on the news of sexual assaults happening to these Michigan State athletes for years on end, not to mention Hollywood keeping silent for years knowing what was and continues to happen. Shame on them for staying silent, they feared it would harm their own fame and fortune.
Well, I realize we do not have PBS station so no Casablanca for me last night. I accidentally clicked Direct TV Cinema station and almost purchased it for $15.00. I hurried and contacted Direct TV to make sure that was not a purchase. Don't want to spend that kind of money for that movie. I may rent it for a couple bucks.
We woke up to all ice, so it's a stay off the roads and sidewalks for me.
Rosemarykaye, your day does indeed sound perfect.
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I agree, my daughter was not defiled.
Barb - this was in Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. It has an exceptionally high number of private schools, but they're not all as bad as that one. The state schools would never get away with that kind of thing nowadays, thank goodness. The Steiner school is actually 'private', in that there are fees, but they are kept low and there is a lot of help given to those who can't afford it. For any trip or event, costs are kept to a minimum and the classes do lots of energetic fundraising - whereas at some of the very traditional Edinburgh schools the fees are very high and the numerous trips can cost £1000s per pupil - with a lot of pressure put on parents to cough up. One school took a class to Antarctica! It's an awful lot of oneupmanship.
Bellemarie - how wonderful that your son had the bravery to stand up for his classmates. No wonder he is doing so well. I want to emphasise - as I know some of our fellow senior learners are retired teachers - that most of my children's teachers have been fantastic, hard-working, inspirational people, some of whom I'm still in contact with today. And now my elder daughter is training to teach primary school. Unfortunately there are just the very few who aren't so good, and even more unfortunately it's often their mishandling of situations that stays with us.
Read some more about the Count on the bus coming home from the Botanics this afternoon.
Off to catch up with Call the Midwife now!
Rosemary
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Has anyone read the author's first book, Rules of Civility? Manhattan in the late-1930's. And is our book more on a similar theme? Looking for gentility in revolutionary Moscow compared to civility in cosmopolitan New York?
That reminds me of an experience many years ago. I was lolling in my bunk, in a wilderness lodge in upstate New York, reading Philip Roth's latest: Sabbath's Theater. After a long day's hike. In came two fellows from NYC, it turned out. They took note of what I was reading and to my question what was it like to live in NYC, one replied succinctly: On a busy street or on the subway, don't make eye contact and if you should jostle someone, apologize profusely.
I've just finished reading Tina Brown's The Vanity Fair Diaries. The English editor and journalist's ten busy years in New York (1983-1920 A very stimulating read. I'm still not over those opening paragraphs describing her shocking first encounter with New York mores. Unprintable.
About the English schools, I was thinking of the many stories of boys being flogged. In Victorian times.
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Not in sever reaction to your description Rosemary of your daughter's bullying by a teacher - as bad as this behavior is there is a way to confront the teacher without having to hire an attorney - what I cannot cope with is "'me-too' phenomenan'" I see it as far more than a phenomenon except maybe it took this many hundreds of years for women to not only open their mouths but to band together and make public this horrendous abuse - and deeply disturbing that it is part of the experience in English Schools for Girls - and for it to be taken so lightly... as if still there is something wrong with saying aloud "Me Too" as if a phenomenon which suggest a temporary simple and questionable culture thing. Sorry this hits me in the gut that this movement could be considered so lightly.
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I'm sorry that I was misunderstood.
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Jonathan, I'm currently reading "The Vanity Fair Diaries" and wasn't too surprised with her description of New York. My 24 year old granddaughter moved there from Oklahoma just over a year ago and was told the same thing - do not make eye contact! Hard for an Okie who's used to smiling at everyone but she has adjusted. She also had to get used to hearing "cat calls" from Hispanic guys hanging around the street corners as she walked from the subway stop to her apartment - particularly since she's a fair-skinned redhead. However, she says she knew not to react and has never felt in danger .
'Tis a different world out there!!!
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Good Morning, Everyone. Today is the big day. It is Abraham Lincoln's birthday. When I was a little girl I used to tell people that Old Abe was born on my birthday. I was so sad when someone told me that I had it backwards: I had to say that I was born on his birthday. However, the real importance of this day for us is that we begin discussing A Gentleman in Moscow.For this week we will be in Book One. I loved Barb's sharing of this article http://newmexicomercury.com/blog/comments/the_lost_poets_of_the_russian_revolution.
Let's talk about the actual beginning: the poem and the transcript. What were your first impressions? What questions did you have? What did you learn about the Count?
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Happy birthday, Karen.
I agree about Barb's poets link--very valuable.
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Jonathan - please do not apologise, I quite understand what you meant. Yes those Victorian boys' schools were terrible places, but unfortunately English 'public' schools (which for some ancient reason means the really expensive private ones - like Harrow, Eton, Winchester, Stowe, Downside, Marlborough - that sort of place) in particular can still be pretty brutal places (though of course flogging is no longer a thing). Some of the Edinburgh ones model themselves closely on the English schools, others less so. Some began as charitable foundations, started by merchants' guilds and organisations like that - they are generally much better.
Steiner was perfect for my youngest but it would not suit everyone. In almost any other city in the UK the vast majority of the children would go to state (ie government run and funded) schools - Edinburgh is very weird in this way. People send their children to private schools partly because for some it is a family tradition, but also because people are increasingly alarmed by the huge class sizes and dismal funding cuts affecting the state schools. In some, discipline is a huge problem, plus there are very serious shortages of teachers, especially in subjects like Maths and sciences. Arts subjects like music, art and drama - anything that does not form part of the government's core curriculum - are being ditched, so that's another thing people move their children for - private schools tend to have better facilities for all of these things.
Teachers are leaving the state schools in droves as they are overwhelmed by the ever increasing work load, the constant criticism in the press and other media (eg there are now websites on which people can anonymously rate their teachers - you can imagine how that can go...), the paperwork, and the complex social and domestic issues affecting many pupils. My son works in an outdoor adventure centre to which many schools bring groups for a week's stay - he says the only happy-looking teachers are the ones working in the private schools.
I must read that Tina Brown book. London is also a place where eye contact is not encouraged. People are busy, frantic even, and no-one knows anyone else so they are also suspicous. Having said that, my mother has lived there all her life and has numerous friends, and my two daughters, both of whom grew up in Scotland, love living down there.
Anyway, enough about all that and onward with the book!
Rosemary
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Karen - happy birthday!
I have reread the poem and the report. I still don't have a clue what the poem is about really. I liked the line about the 'eye-averting peeling of a pear' but all I thought it was was a reference to the way people often seem not to be concentrating when they are making some life-changing statement. They seek refuge in doing some mundane thing, almost as if to avoid any repercussions.
The report didn't make me like the Count very much. I thougt he was far too full of himself, with all his clever-clever answers. (Of course we gradually learn a lot more about this apparently simple situation..) I was prepared to find him irritating throughout the book. How quickly that wore off!
I await enlightenment from people who read more deeply than I did/do...
Rosemary
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Thank you, Rosemary. I am still trying to figure out the poem myself. I think the line. "Well, where is our purpose now?" is important. It also seemed that the Count was being tried for becoming all he was supposedly critical of in the poem. I am trying patiently to let understanding evolve.
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Sorry but the 'me too' initiative has my insides jumping around as it is and when it is minimized I can't handle it - I'll be ready Wednesday - just need a day or so to get my head back on straight and my tummy where it belongs - :-*
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Happy Birthday Karen!!!
For those who do not have your books yet I will post the poem:
How well I remember
When it came as a visitor on foot
And dwelt a while amongst us
A melody in the semblance of a mountain cat.
Well, where is our purpose now?
Like so many questions
I answer this one
With the eye-averted peeling of a pear.
With a bow I bid goodnight
And pass through terrace doors
Into the simple splendors
Of another temperate spring;
But this much I know:
It is not lost among the autumn leaves on Peter's Square.
It is not among the ashes in the Athenaeum ash cans.
It is not inside the blue pagodas of your fine Chinoiserie.
It is not in Vronsky's saddlebags;
Not in Sonnet XXX, stanza on;
Not on twenty-seven red...
Where Is It Now? (Lines 1-19) Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov
In reading the poem I immediately felt the Count is asking, where is our purpose in life? He seems to say in the beginning that he remembers when it came, but then he seems to feel we have lost our purpose in life, and is now trying to find it, and realizes it is not in the places we have traveled, music we have listened to etc., and nor is it in the changing seasons. All the things he has listed seems as if they are all the things one would find their purpose in life in, and yet he feels we have lost our purpose in spite of having all these things. He goes on to tell us where it is not. In so doing, I feel he is telling us we look for our purpose in life, in all the wrong places and things. In reading this, it makes me feel we must find our purpose in life from within ourselves, rather than in the outside world and material things. You can travel the world over, have the best of the best, the finest of things and still not know your purpose in life. He states:
pg. 5 "I have lived under the impression that a man's purpose is known only to God.
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Oh well done Bellamarie - brilliant analysis, I can see exactly what you mean, but I could never have got that far myself. No wonder I gave up English Lit and switched to Social & Political Studies!
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Karen - I think I must be really dim but I don't understand your thoughts on the poem. What is he supposed to be criticising? Sorry, I'm probably asking really stupid questions.
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Rosemarykaye, we were posting at the same time as I was addressing Karen's thought.
Karen, It also seemed that the Count was being tried for becoming all he was supposedly critical of in the poem.
This all seems well and good, except the tribunal reads much more into the poem, feeling he is possibly sending a secret message to the people to uprise against all these things.
pg. 4 "What concerns us here is your return in 1918. One wonders if you came back with the intention of taking up arms, and if so, whether for our against the Revolution."
pg. 5 Ignatov: Alexander Ilyich Rostov, taking into full account your own testimony, we can only assume that the clear-eyed spirit who wrote the poem Where Is It Now? has succumbed irrevocably to the corruptions of his class-and-now poses a threat to the very ideals he once espoused.
The Count did not help his case by being flippant and unapologetic to the court. He almost seemed to be daring them with his arrogance. They clearly resent his position, attitude and answers.
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Barb,
Sorry but the 'me too' initiative has my insides jumping around as it is and when it is minimized I can't handle it.
I hate to say it, but I think Hollywood is the cause of people now minimizing the "Me too" initiative. It is a real concern and needs to be addressed on a larger level, but because so many celebrities, coaches, high esteem schools, networks etc., are involved in the behaviors it was bound to be swept under the rug, and let the next news cycle take it's place. I am disgusted, appalled, and frustrated along with feeling a sickness inside me as well. Some will be prosecuted who are not a part of the "celebrity scene." Look how fast they prosecuted Nassar. Where is Harvey Weinstein, Roman Polansky, Matt Laurer, Bill Clinton, and all the other celebrities who have been accused? There is a double standard in this country and it is clear the upper echelon will protect their own. This list is the reason it is now being minimized:
https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/sexual-misconduct/weinstein-here-s-growing-list-men-accused-sexual-misconduct-n816546
So, as harsh as it may seem, I have decided not to get myself involved in listening to any more of the reports, because even the media is a part of cover ups. I hope this helps you in some way. Take the time you need to regroup. Looking forward to your participation in A Gentleman In Moscow.
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I think that when the poem first appeared ,(1913) the revolutionaries found it supportive of their position; they sae it as being critical of the aristocracy, who had "lost their purpose" wallowing in their own wealth and power. The revolutionaries saw the poem as a "call to action " Since the Count returned from Paris in 1918, the Bolsheviks see the Count still living as an aristocrat. They accuse him of betraying the goals of the Revolution. I agree that he seemed arrogant at times, but the prosecutor calls him "charming" which he claims is typical of an aristocrat.
If he irritated the judges, why did they not "send him to the wall.
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Yes, that is the big question Karen. Of course if he'd been shot there wouldn't be much of a story! I haven't quite finished the book yet, so maybe we eventually find out why he was spared. I think it'd be quite cool to be banished to live at Claridges for a few years....
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Karen,
the prosecutor calls him "charming" which he claims is typical of an aristocrat.
In context, from what I am gathering, Ignatov is pretty much letting the Count know he thinks even though he is an aristocrat, and some find him charming, he sees him as a lost soul. He uses the word charming to actually insult him. A man without purpose.
The very beginning of the trial says:
pg 3 Vyshisky: You may have your titles; they are of no use to anyone else.
Before we begin, I must say, I do not think I have ever seen a jacket festooned with so many buttons."
Rostov: Thank you.
Vyshisky: It was not meant as a compliment.
Rostov: In that case, I demand satisfaction on the field of honor.
(Laughter)
pg 5 Vyshinsky: Count Rostov, you do not seem to appreciate the gravity of your position. Nor do you show the respect that is due the men convened before you.
Ignatov: I have no doubt, Count Rostov, that many in the gallery are surprised to find you so charming; but I, for one, am not surprised in the least. History has shown charm to be the final ambition of the leisure class. What I do find surprising is that the author of the poem in question could have become a man so obviously without purpose.
They are not at all impressed with the Count, and the Count is making a mockery of the court. As in the good ole USA, Judge Judy Scheindlin would call this a pissing match. (excuse my language) :-[
The logical reason they did not send him to the wall is as Rosemary stated, there would not be a story to tell. But they did make it very clear to the Count he has run out of chances.
pg 6 Thus, it is the opinion of this committee that you should be returned to that hotel of which you are so fond of. But make no mistake; should you ever set foot outside of the Metropol again, you will be shot.
I was reading an interview Amor Towles gave where he said there are parts of the book he drew from real life and facts, but the book is not based on anyone in particular and he blended the facts in with fiction. So in reality, maybe a person like the Count would not have been given exile, and been shot.
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Bellamarie:
So in reality, maybe a person like the Count would not have been given exile, and been shot.
I think the Count feels sure he will be shot, and that at least partly explains his behavior. The trial is a foregone conclusion, no point in trying for any sort of meaningful defense. Much better to give his simplistic, absent-minded non-answers. He has plenty of courage though, to behave this way.
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You all are doing such a splendid thing with these few iines of poetry and the few lines of trial transcript. Whatever will become of this abject gentleman without a purpose in life? Do we have a great literary figure in the making? A Don Quixote? A Private Schweik?
Barb, I love your spirited replies to controversial social issues. They deserve a hearing; but not at the expense of gastroenterological discomfort. I wish you a speedy recovery. Thanks for the splendid link to the Russian revolutionary poets. They were so ardent in helping to create a new, ideal society in Russia. And the Commissars were anxious to get their support. Orders must have come from Moscow to spare the Count. Four years into the revolution, perhaps some felt the party had lost its purpose.
Happy Birthday, Karen. How grand to share it with Abraham Lincoln and the Groundhog! A clear shadow today. Six more weeks of Winter. Blah!!
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Thank you all so much for a wonderful Day 1. I agree with Jonathan that the Count and everyone back at the hotel believe that he will be shot. I love the wit and humor that the count uses at his interrogation. Apparently house arrest was a fairly common sentence for political prisioners and it makes sense that somwome wants him to be spared, Jonathan. I wonder how the Count feels as he walks to the hotel with his guards. I have a lot to consider tonight. I love the next section as the Count settles into his new situation. Have a great night.
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PatH., that is an interesting thought, the Count felt for sure he was going before the firing squad, so he played it off as flippant, giving no apology or defending his words in the poem. Brave, I am not so sure, arrogant indeed!
Jonathan, yes, he does mention a few characters as he assesses his situation:
pg 20 On the Grand Duke's desk stood a champagne flute and a brandy snifter. With the lean uprightness of a former looking down upon the squat rotundity of the latter, one could not help but think of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza on the plains of the Sierra Morena. Or of Robin Hood and Friar Tuck in the shadows of Sherwood Forest. Or of Prince Hal and Falstaff before the gates of___
I especially loved this part:
pg 21 Leaning to his side in order to peer around a high-back chair, the Count discovered that this will-o'-the-wisp was non other than the Metropol's lobby cat. A one-eyed Russian blue who let nothing within the hotel's walls escape his notice, he had apparently come to the attic to review the Count's new quarters for himself. Stepping from the shadows, he leapt from the floor to the Ambassador, from the Ambassador to the side table, and from the side table to the top of the three-legged bureau, without making a sound. Having achieved this vantage point, he gave the room a good hard look then shook his head in feline disappointment. "Yes, said the Count after completing his own survey. "I see what you mean."
When I read this I could imagine Towles deciding, hmmm.... let's add a cat to the story who roams around the attic, and oh let's have him have only one eye! Sort of made me think of the Cheshire cat in Alice In Wonderland, up in the tree observing things. Did you know:
The Cheshire Cat is the only character in Wonderland who actually listens to Alice. With his remarks, he teaches Alice the 'rules' of Wonderland. He gives her insight in how things work down there.
https://www.google.com/search?q=what+type+of+cat+is+dinah+from+alice+in+wonderland&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS722US722&oq=what+type+of+cat+was+in+Alice+&aqs=chrome.3.69i57j0l3.11495j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
So will the Count's new found feline friend play an important role in this story, or will he just roam around keeping him company?
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I can't leave the first bit without commenting on what a nice little bit of theater it is--an almost jewel like little scene.
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Pat, the beginning of this novel was a writing lesson for me. Towles starts his novel by showing the reader(theater), not by telling (It was a dark and stormy night). Former writing teachers, I just learned what you have been telling me all the years. Without realizing it, by the time the Count entered the hotel, I already knew much about him from the dialogue and had hints of what the book is about. And I was hooked. I wanted to know more. Was being forced to stay in a luxury hotel a problem? Or is it like my bacon fantasy? When I was a little girl, I used to think what it would be like if I could have all the bacon I want. I would be in heaven. But what would happen if the only thing I had to eat was bacon? More to consider for me.
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PatH., A theater is a perfect word to use. Just in these first pages I could see myself sitting out in an audience watching this play on stage.
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! there could be spoilers in this link.
As Towles states in his inteview:
http://www.amortowles.com/gentleman-moscow-amor-towles/gentleman-moscow-qa-amor-towles/
I hope to create a work of art that, while being satisfyingly cohesive, contains such a richness of images, ideas, and personalities that it can prompt varied responses from reader to reader, and from reading to reading.
In essence, I want to gather together a pile of brightly colored shards of glass. But rather than assemble these shards into a mosaic with a fixed image, I want to drop them into the bottom of a kaleidoscope where, thanks to a glint of sunlight and the interplay of mirrors, they render an intricate beauty which the reader can reconfigure by the slightest turn of the wrist.
Not only does the Count capture my interest, but Mr. Towles the author has truly captured my interest with the descriptive words he uses to show the reader his thoughts as he wrote the book, and how he wanted to give us such a rich picture of everything including the Count's memory of his childhood, places he has visited and what brings him joy, such as a coffee in a cafe, over listening in on a couple of young ladies conversations. Just brilliant writing!!
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I agree the writing is brilliant, Bellamarie. I was going to suggest that as we come to a sentence or a phrase that we love, that we share it. It will be fun to look at these "shards" that form the novel. For instance as the Count walks across the square to the hotel, the narrator describes the cupolas of St. Basils: Their pinks, greens, and golds shimmered as if it were the sole purpose of a religion to cheer its Divinity.. Page numbers are hard because we are all using different forms of the novel. I have a hardcover and the quotation is onpagr 9.
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The Order of St. Andrew, the highest order of the Russian Federation, "was established in 1698 by Tsar Peter the Great, in honour of Saint Andrew, the first apostle of Jesus and patron saint of Russia. It was bestowed in a single class and was only awarded for the most outstanding civilian or military merit.
Peter learned of the practice of bestowing awards from his travels in the West during the Great Embassy. In the past, service to the Russian state was rewarded with money or large estates. He witnessed first hand the awards ceremonies for England's Order of the Garter and Austria's Order of the Golden Fleece and noticed the loyalty and pride of the awardees. It also saved the state land and money.
..Until its abolition following the Russian Revolution of 1917, just over one thousand awards had been made... The Order of Saint Andrew continued to be awarded by the Russian Imperial House in exile. The first post revolutionary presentation was to HH Prince Georgy Konstantinovich of Russia on attaining his dynastic majority in April 1923...
An order with the same name but with different insignia and statutes was first unofficially re-established by the Orthodox Church of Russia on December 27, 1988. The order was officially re-instated as the highest Russian civilian and military award by Presidential Decree №757 on June 1, 1998. The Order's award criteria were modified by Presidential Decree 1099 of September 7, 2010."
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Thanks Barb. The fact that Rostov introduces himself with those titles must have galled the court, which is just what he intended, I think.
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I don't trust the cat. The 'Metropol's lobby cat...who let nothing within the hotel's walls escape his notice.'
What a rich writing style. Such amazing detail from different points of view. I'm reminded of Proust and Kafka...the despairing detail and the moral confusion. Caught in a whirlwind of history...'surely at long last it was time to drink the health of this nation.' (health!?)
Count Rostov's godfather was the Grand Duke Demidov, who left him the desk with all the hidden gold. That reminds me. We had Grand Duchess Olga, the Czar's sister, living here in
Toronto for many years. In humble lodgings on the floor above a storefront on Queen St. This book has me remembering Dumas and the Count of Monte Cristo. This book can be lived as well as read. Going to take some time.
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Since my days in St. Benedicts where we were taught either the first line or the first paragraph or the first page summed up what we would be reading about and the way, or color a story was going to be presented, and so, not only have I smiled reading the poem followed by the descriptive exchange between our Gentleman and his adversaries which highlights the poem but, where various aspects of the poem caught my attention in order to catch a few alluded bits, I had to look them up for their symbolic meaning - after all this is poetry ;)
First the title just has to be a nod to Proust Things Remembered, but also to, Wadsworth's Ode speaking to the transitory nature of all things;
THERE was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Apparell'd in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore;—
Turn wheresoe'er I may,
By night or day,
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.
The rainbow comes and goes,
And lovely is the rose;
The moon doth with delight
Look round her when the heavens are bare;
Waters on a starry night
Are beautiful and fair;
The sunshine is a glorious birth;
But yet I know, where'er I go,
That there hath pass'd away a glory from the earth.
Now, while the birds thus sing a joyous song,
And while the young lambs bound
As to the tabor's sound,
To me alone there came a thought of grief:
A timely utterance gave that thought relief,
And I again am strong:
The cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep;
No more shall grief of mine the season wrong;
I hear the echoes through the mountains throng,
The winds come to me from the fields of sleep,
(and so forth) and now more from Towles poem that tells us more than the surface words.
A melody in the semblance of a mountain cat. Ah the juxtaposition with such irony between a melody and not a household cat but a mountain cat - here we would call them cougars or a puma - in Russia mountain cats are silent, elusive and what really catches the irony and therefore strengthens the inward looking, self aggrandizing and therefore transitory nature of all the sound of a Revolution is the story of how hunters/poachers captured mountain cats - they first capture the cubs and then litter their trail with mirrors. Chasing these kidnappers the mountain cat is attracted to the mirrors and stops to gaze at them, thinking it sees the cubs, as a man when he is dawn into the devil's traps, lead us to see things that do not exist, creating vain illusion.
With the eye-averting peeling of a pear The pear was already during the Homeric age sacred to Venus. suggests the female womb and Juno and statues of Hero were carved in pear wood. In the Psalms the taste of a pear is alluded to the sweetness of virtue. For some, the pear is identified with the famous tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden. Later during the Middle Ages the pear was no longer favored since the tree's wood easily rots. There is a painting of the Madonna holding out a pear branch to Jesus alluding to redemption.
Since our Gentleman rides the cusp before and after the Revolution his references could include Christian symbolism and his visit to Paris would connect the art and poetry that was an easy coupling between Russia and France before the Revolution.
With a bow I bid goodnight not the words typical of a peasant or a revolutionary and so we know the story will be about a gentleman's viewpoint. Through Terrace Doors which suggests open air and a simple garden of a temperate Spring - door usually in poetry suggesting an opening to a new life. Compared to Autumn leaves, Ashes, and the blue pagoda Chinoiserie, the pseudo-Chinese decorative style which flourished in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries, a sort of populist art form.
Vronsky's saddlebags in Anna Karenina, Vronsky gives 200 rubles to the watchman's family. ... After Anna's husband accuses her of having an affair.
Sonnet XXX - Bellamarie - remember - who knew our struggle through all 154 would come in handy :)
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unus'd to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,
And moan th' expense of many a vanish'd sight;
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restor'd, and sorrows end.
Not on twenty-seven red; 7- in the west is seen as a lucky number, and 27 contains a 7. People who like covering the sevens with, a 'Finales Cheval Plein' bet, will end up covering 7, 17 and 27 with one easy bet. The no. 27 is a red number.
We catch with Rostov's returns, his wit, his use of droll quips - he is buttoned up, not open to the thinking of Vyshinsky, representing the Party - his association has been with the upper class of old Russia and his "remembrance of things past" under a guise of manners, cultured learning that charm, achieves a small success, (his life ;)) from self satisfied change agents, who do not appreciate their temporary hold on history.
So that is what I will be looking for in this story - examples of how this gentleman of charm shows us the old Russia dancing around the Soviets while hidden behind doors where he controls his life rather than, being controlled as those on the other side of the door. His world may be small but it is his to use as he will. There will be no Sturm und Drang - or characters that bludgeon their way through life for power.
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Thank you! Thank you! When each of the allusions is explained it just takes us deeper into the poem, and into the novel. I can't believe that you weren't a Lit professor; before your introduction I had no doubt that you were.
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Barb, OMG I can not thank you enough!! I kept feeling something very familiar and could not put my finger on it. I knew if anyone could show it to me it would be you. You've been very busy, great research. So glad to have you back.
Jonathan, I don't trust the cat. The 'Metropol's lobby cat...who let nothing within the hotel's walls escape his notice.'
Did you miss my post #3182 on the prior page, about the cat? I think the cat will have some sort of significance, just like the Cheshire cat in Alice In Wonderland.
I grew up with cats, I had a beautiful white & black cat with green eyes for 14 years. Now, I don't really want to own a cat. They are so quirky and untrustworthy in their actions. I don't think cats are meant to be a loyal pet, they are the single species who owns their domain and will unexpectedly show you by jumping at your legs for no reason. My son has a cat that is so enjoyable to watch. My other son has a cat that refuses to come out of their bedroom, completely anti social.
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Happy Valentine's Day! I got a job once because I liked cats! I was interviewing for a job as a social worker at a juvenile correctional facility. The interviewer asked if I liked cats and I said yes. Then she explained that it is easy to love a dog because they are always glad to greet us and want to be near us, et. BUT it is hard to love a cat because they want us on their terms and often are downright unaffectionate and turn of us. Then she told me that is exactly the way these girls are. She was very right about that. I got the job!
I thought you might like to know that although Czar Alexander II outlawed "serfdom" in 1865, in actually existed until the Russian Revolution in 1917. Most people did not own land and had to produce crops for their "masters," who lived in absolute luxury on large estates like Idlehour, where the Count was raised. These aristocrats controlled all the power and the wealth in Russia.
Rostov believes that "a man must master his circumstances, or otherwise be mastered by them." In what ways does he act on this belief? What is the significance of the incident in the barbershop?
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Bellamarie: 'When I read this I could imagine Towles deciding, hmmm.... let's add a cat to the story...'
Of course I was mindful of what you had posted when I brought the cat into my post. Then I wondered...why not bug the cat with a listening device and use it for surveillance purposes. The Soviets got so good at that. When my Dad returned to Russia in the Seventies to search for family he hadn't seen in sixty years he was well received, given a car and chauffeur and intourist guide and sent on his way. He was quickly made aware that there was a listening and recording device in the car.
You did a fine bit of poetic analysis, And so did Barb. And Karen's comments made me wonder what Wordsworth would have done with St. Basils on a sunny summer morning. Russian poems could be like their dolls. Meanings within meanings. No doubt the revolutionary poets buried many coded things into their poems. It is well known that Stalin puzzled over them.
I watched a glorious Russian film last night. I've had it around the house for years. On the magnificent Hermitage and Winter Palace in Tsarist times. What splendour! In art and architecture. A grandly formal ball with a cast of thousands. In splendid formal dress or uniform. Taking stock of all the buttons was awesome. Something called: Russian Ark. Made in 1985, with English subtitles. I have a guide to the Hermitage in the house which tells me 'the collections, arranged in 330 rooms, contain over 2,700,000 items.
And now I've got to get out and get my Valentine some flowers, to put by her favourite reading chair, which is now occupied by her favourite stuffed dog, up on his four spread-out legs defying anyone trying to sit on it. For almost sixty years it lay curled up at the foot of the bed. Charming!
Just checked it agin. The guide was published Leningrad in 1983, and the film was made in 2003.
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Happy Valentine's day to all of you!!
Jonathan, Wow! You had an insight to draw on, with knowing your Dad's car was bugged. Now you really have me thinking more about this darn cat!!
Karen, What an interesting story about getting hired due to liking cats. A great comparison of a disloyal cat to the in female inmates. Indeed both can turn on you on a dime. My cat growing up would hide in my closet which had only a thin curtain for a door. I would come up to my bedroom and sit on my bed after turning off the lights and that darn cat would leap out of the closet and attack my legs. Scared the beans out of me every time.
Okay more sweet tears came to my eyes Jonathan, what a dear loving gesture for your beloved.
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Good heavens - glad I looked it up - Resurrection Gate and I am expecting maybe some artistic wrought iron scrolling with a large emblem in brass or gilded but not this (http://www.tripsthatwork.com/uploads/8/2/6/6/8266673/5190216_orig.jpg)
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Wow.
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During the Cold War, there were all sorts of bugging stories floating around, including tiny transmitters in martini olives, and the visitor who found wires under the rug in his hotel room, leading to a hole in the floor. He cut them, and was rewarded by the crashing sound of the chandelier falling in the room below.
Our government sent my father to a meeting in Russia during this time (patent law, not anything classified). They were warned they would probably be bugged, and told if they noticed anything just pretend they didn't see it.
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Their pinks, greens, and golds shimmered as if it were the sole purpose of a religion to cheer its Divinity..
Thanks for reminding me of that, Karen.
One I liked supposedly isn't Towles' writing, but if it isn't, I suspect he chose the wording of the translation to reinforce his point: describing some of the work of the constitutional drafting committee:
"Thus did the typewriters clack through the night, until that historic document had been crafted which guaranteed for all Russians freedom of conscience (Article 13), freedom of expression (Article 14), freedom of assembly (Article 15), and freedom to have any of these rights revoked should they be 'utilized to the detriment of the socialist revolution' (Article 23)!"
Footnote on page 15 in my hardback.
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Yes, Pat, I loved that sentence from the footnote as well. I do think the cat was to symbolize the Bosheviks lurking everywhere. Just like my cat used to, they sneak up on you and all of a sudden they are there. Didn't the new American Embassy in Moscow have to be vacated before it even opened because of the bugs?
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Mikhael Fyodorvich Mindich, the Count's friend from student days, turns up. Describing their former life together:
"It was fortuitous that they ended up above a cobbler--for no one in all of Russia could wear out a shoe like Mikhail Mindich. He could easily pace twenty miles in a twenty-foot room. He could pace thirty miles in an opera box and fifty in a confessional. For simply put, pacing was Mishka's natural state."
I won't forget that image.
On the next page Mikhail notices What Rostov has used to prop up his three-legged bureau:
"'The Essays of Montaigne?'
'Yes' affirmed the Count.
'I gather they didn't agree with you?'
'On the contrary, I found them to be the perfect height....'"
pages 80, 81
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Oh Pat, that is funny! I have not gotten this far in the book, but I suspected when the Count flung that book onto his bed, after counting down the minutes and pages he would not finish reading Montaigne.
Barb, beautiful pic of Resurrection Gate.
Gosh how exciting is this to learn not only Jonthan's father visited Russia, but now Pat's did too, and both were concerned about bugging devices. Funny how our news since this election ended has been all about bugging and Russia. Some things never change.
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That's disappointing. Where I am in my reading, our Gentleman is still getting a lot of 'practicalities' from his Montaigne. By page 80 the book is more useful as a prop for a piece of funiture.
Thanks, Pat, for drawing our attention to the footnote on page 15. Isn't there a lot of irony in all those freedoms? And the new found peace and quiet on the sixth floor? But in a strange way the footnote adds to the problems I have with the narrator. He seems, almost, to be controlling the Gentleman. He seems almost like a bolshevik apparatchik with complete access to the Gentleman's files. Perhaps if I pick up my reading pace I won't get into such difficulties.
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OH my Jonathan – how Montagnon your thinking on Towles controlling the story. Yes…
In Michel de Montaigne essays, he says, “It seems that it is, rather, the property of Man’s wit to act readily and quickly, while the property of the judgement is to be slow and poised. But there is the same measure of oddness in the man who is struck dumb if he has no time to prepare his speech and the man who cannot take advantage and speak better when he does have time…
I know from experience the kind of character which gets nowhere unless it is allowed to run happy and free and which by nature is unable to keep up vehemently and laboriously practicing anything beforehand. We say that some books ‘stink of lamp-oil’, on account of the harshness and roughness which are stamped on writings in which toil has played a major part.
In addition, a soul worrying about doing well, straining and tensely drawn towards its purpose, it held at bay – like water which cannot find its way through the narrow neck of an open gutter because of the violent pressure of its overflowing abundance. Moreover, the particular character which I am speaking of does not want to be driven and spurred on by strong passions such as Cassius’ anger (for such an activity would be too violent): it wants not to be shaken about but aroused; it wants to be warmed and awakened by events which are external, fortuitous and immediate. Leave it to act by itself and it will drag along and languish, its life and its grace consist in activity.“
Which makes sense as we share our thoughts and experiences we are not filtering them through the story telling devises used to get published - we are freer and can call on memory where as a story is constrained by literary devises just as, a movie is further constrained limiting the plots so the movie flows, leaving many of us, who read the book beforehand, disappointed.
We are so lucky to have you Jonathan with your first hand knowledge of this time in history to make richer our reading this book. Thanks...
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Oh how I simply enjoyed the conversation between the Count and the little girl in yellow, who appears to be far older than her age. I love how she pulls back the empty chair, sits down, and the Count asks:
pg 41 "Would you like to join me?" he asked. By way of response, she wiggled back and forth to make herself comfortable then rested her elbows on the table.
She seems to be a bit intrigued in him being a Count, asking "How would a princess spend her day?" after he responds she says, "My father says that princesses personify the decadence of a vanquished era." But then tells him that her Papa knows nothing about the workings of princesses. Then she goes on to ask if he has ever been to a ball, about castles and duels, and mentioning "Lensky was killed by Onegin in a duel." She seems to know quiet a bit for her age. And lastly which brought me to a laugh out loud moment she is done, Placing her napkin on her plate and nodding her head once to suggest how perfectly acceptable the Count had proven as a luncheon companion, she rose from her chair. But before turning to go, she paused.
"I prefer you without the mustaches." she said. "Their absence improves your countenance." Then she performed an off-kilter curtsy and disappeared behind the fountain.
I could imagine the look on the Count's face once she left, him bewildered by her presence and questions, then simply leaving. What was the meaning of all of this in the book? Is it to show the softness and kindness of the Count? She says they are traveling to the Black Sea. I wonder if they ever meet up again.
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Wait - hold it - listening devices - can't be - this is 1922 that the Count is committed to live out his life in the attic of the Metropol - here is a link about technology available referring to a film that many think shows an early mobile phone and is only walkie-talkie's - it will be too easy to confuse experiences y'all know taking place in the 40s and 50s with life in the 20s and early 30s
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/a-mobile-phone-from-1922-not-quite-21291812/
Hope that makes it easier to see the story through different eyes :-*
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Thanks for the reminder Barb. It becomes more evident as the book goes on that good old fashioned spying is going on.
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This book is hilarious, with its extravagant notions. Count Rostov, the Gentleman, finds himelf in an awkward situation, forced to accomodate himself to a new lifestyle, to drop his aristocratic airs and become a 'comrade'. He consults Montaigne for tips on survival. Along comes nine-year-old Nina Kulikova who turns out to be a more practical guide to the new life than Montaigne. Think of what Ariadne did for Theseus, what Tiresias meant to Odysseus, or what Vergil did for Dante. (p55)
Nina would like to be a princess. How comes she by this notion? We're four years into the revolution. Hasn't she learned that princesses get murdered for being princesses? Who knows? Perhaps she will inspire a Comedy in Count Rostov. The Boshevik Comedy? From a Gentleman's view. But what will become of Nina?
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I must get the author's other book. Rules of Civility. I always enjoyed meeting New Yorkers on the trails in the Adirondacks. I had one who did his best to explain Zen to me as we walked along. I found it difficult to comprehend. Finally, in exasperation, he told me the experience was like jumping from a great height and experiencing the feeling of wonderful freefall, unhindered by anything. I suppose that could be seen as revolutionary.
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Jonathan, you always ask the best questions. What will become of Nina? For now, what role is she playing in the novel? I am fascinated by the description "the girl with a penchant for yellow". What does Nina do for the Count?
I am still reflecting about you said Jonathan about the narrator? It seems to me that much of the narration comes from the mind ans voice of the Rostov. Yet there is that other voice that appears in footnotes. Does that narrator appear other places in the text?
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Jonathan,
Hasn't she learned that princesses get murdered for being princesses?
Nina was a delight! Not only does she intrude on the Count's lunch, but she manages to get him to share his fish with her, and engages him into a conversation on princesses. I have a feeling she did indeed know all about princesses, she was wise beyond her years.
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Good Friday Morning,
Getting to know Nina! In the chapter "Anyway..." I love the exchange between Nina and the Count about the "rules for being a princess". I remember as a child feeling in a quandry about "respect for elders" and "thank you." It was particularly perplexing when I learned after I was called to the principal's office to be punished, I needed to say, "Thank you Mr. Varney." Now in my childhood I did "show respedt for my elders" and say 'Thank you" because my parents would have punished me if I had not. Respect for elders seems a thing of the past in our society. I wonder if these "rules for princesses" which the Count tries to get Nina to understand are necessary for a society to work. Or are these just empty norms for the aristocracy, or as we say, the elite?
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The entire bit about the little girl in yellow had an un-worldliness about it - as if I was reading one of Eowyn Ivey's book - since he mentions the color yellow several times decided that made it worthwhile to look up - - Yellow is ambivalence, light of the sun, intelligent, intuition, faith and goodness, light, life, truth, the west.
The bit I liked was earlier when he associated what we keep with memory and how we attach memory to 'things'. Those two paragraphs gave me pause just as I've been slowly embarking on clearing my lifetime of 'things'.
So far the story seems to me to be small vignettes of experiences - all harking back to a past that like his mustache is no longer - and in that respect the story reminds me of Things Remembered or even the vignettes of life that de Montaigne uses as topics for his essays.
And so the books are his father's where as his library were mostly novelists - most of the authors, like Dickens would have been freshly published or not yet written during his father's lifetime.
Cannot figure out when he spreads out and commandeers the additional room if he fixes it up as more livable quarters or just uses it as a storage area. What do you think... I prefer to think he uses it as a second room and in time will clear out the other rooms so he occupies the entire floor of rooms - who would know except the staff and they seem to all like him so I cannot see them reporting him to any outside authority.
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Thanks, Barb. I have done nothing but move during the last half of my life. The one constant that I have carried from place to place is boxes and boxes of books. They do hold memories for me: the two books I got for Christmas from my husband that I devoured in a red plaid chair during Christmas vacation, the summer I bought And Ladies of the Club and it helped me cope with my divorce, reading Gone with the Wind on the beach as I babysat. Gradually I have rid myself of college textbooks, books I have had for decades and never read. Isn't he reading Montaigne because he promised his father hhe would? It feels to me like he is not really reading it for content: 25 essays in a morning. I took a summer course once and had to read Das Capital overnight. I also looked more at the clock than the book. How about the Count's travels with Nina?
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Have not listened to much beyond this first section, and my copy won't be coming any time soon. But I certainly am enjoying this, especially the pre-discussion.
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Oh my! Where do I begin? I just finished the first book and am just in awe. This author is magnificent in his style, he manages to grip you in the beginning, keep you focused, bring levity to the story, distract you from certain important pieces of information, draw on your emotions, and keep you wanting to read to see what is in the next pages. I am so intrigued I seriously didn't want to stop at the end of book one but I did.
I absolutely love the interactions the Count and Nina have with each other. Every person that comes into contact with the Count seems to like him and want to be of service or help him in some way. Even the hotel manager Mr. Halecki acknowledges how his staff is referring to him with high regard and respect of nobility and carefully tells him it will not be allowed. So, while the author creates this reason to call the Count into his office, he is pulled away long enough for the Count to discover a secret hidden door that shows him where the "brass fittings" are hidden.
How can anyone NOT like the Count?
Now this scurrying around with Nina is just so fantastical! She is having so much fun showing him all the secret hidden rooms, and rooms behind rooms. She is one sharp little cookie. Why do you suppose she attaches herself to him and becomes such a close friend? Is it believable? Where in heavens sake is that Nanny, allowing her out of her sight so long? But, I am not complaining because I simply love it! Why do I suspect all this is to come of help to the Count in some time in the future? Not to mention for a Christmas present he give Nina his grandmother's opera glasses, and she gives him the hotel pass key! They have both given each other a valuable gift. I simply loved how she wrapped box, after box, after box. My hubby did that for me one year in giving me a precious ring. Oh I still remember the fun and anticipation I felt as I unwrapped one box, only to find another, and another.
Barb, Cannot figure out when he spreads out and commandeers the additional room if he fixes it up as more livable quarters or just uses it as a storage area. What do you think... I prefer to think he uses it as a second room and in time will clear out the other rooms so he occupies the entire floor of rooms - who would know except the staff and they seem to all like him so I cannot see them reporting him to any outside authority.
It is in the chapter Around and About. After Nina has shown him that rooms have secret door to discover more rooms he goes into his attic and opens his closet and finds behind a panel there is another room. I love how he makes it into a study room, so he can feel less cramped in his other living space. She showed him where all his other things were stored that he had left behind in his room, and so he helps himself to them to decorate his study.
I could go on and on with my excitement, but I do have to pause for dinner. This book is so much fun, with a whole lot of intrigue! I will be back later.
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Bellamarie, I am so excited that you have finished the book and I am even more excited by your reaction to it. I have someone else who will be biting her tongue to not react to what others are asking. Why she is drawn to the count is a great question. It probably has something to do with the warmth with others she sees in him as she is doing her spying.
Barbara, you talked about how so this is a series of incidents. I didn't think about th.at when I first read it . Now I see everyone and everything being revealed a little at a time, including, in book one, the Metropol itself.
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Thanks, Barb, for the helpful meanings with regard to the little girl in yellow. Isn't she a character! For some reason I find myself wondering how Van Gogh would have painted her. Or how Blake would have poetized her. The Count seems enchanted.
Bellamarie, that's just the way I feel about this book. It just keeps getting better, every time I reread a section. Afraid of missing something.
Karen, I was convinced Count Rostov was looking to Montaigne for help. He is, after all, determined to control the new circumstances in which he finds himself. Like others, down through the years, looked to Boethius' Consolations of Philosophy, or Marcus Aurelius's Meditations. I wonder he didn't try Das Kapital.
I just remembered. I have a book which at one time I thought I would propose for discussion. Published just a few years ago: How To Live, A Life of Montaigne, by Sarah Bakewell. So it seems he's still a 'go-to-guy' for advice. Montaigne is all-purpose. His Essays make a great door-stop. But how to make the best of it in a revolution? Whom can you trust? Well, Nina, for one.
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Karen, you have misunderstood my post, I have NOT finished the entire book, I have only finished "Book One" our weekly reading assignment. I never read ahead when we read books to discuss. First of all, I would forget half of what I would read, secondly, I would end up giving away spoilers which I hate when that happens. Believe me, I so wanted to keep on going when I came to the end of Book One, because I am so anxious to see what happens next.
So many things I want to touch on in Book One's final chapters. It seems Nina has given the Count a new purpose in life. His poem was about lost purpose, and look now how this sweet, little, dainty princess-like, nine year old has him crawling around on his hands and knees, splitting his very expensive slacks to snoop on the assembly. I was laughing out loud when he had to take the slacks to the seamstress for the second time to be sewn up.
Interesting how the hotel manager Mr. Halecki, calls the Count into his office to discuss how he must stop all the staff from giving him so much respect and regal titles, only for him to be distracted long enough for the Count to discover the secret wall that holds the "brass fittings." Wonder if those will come into play down the road?
Do you notice like in Hansel and Gretel, crumbs are being dropped all along the way of his roaming the hotel? Then for a Christmas gift he gives Nina this grandmother's pair of opera glasses, and she in turns gives him the hotel pass key. Very valuable gifts I might say. I loved how Nina wrapped the boxes one inside another, and another, and another, til he finally came to the smallest box holding the key. My sweet hubby did that one year to me and I discovered a beautiful diamond tennis bracelet in the final box. So, just what significance is the key being passed on to the Count? Seems our sweet little Nina is showing him things, secret places, and providing him with a hotel pass key. Make me wonder why she is providing him with all of these things, we will have to wait to find out how he will benefit from these little nuggets. I'm beginning to feel like Inspector Jacques Clouseau, from the Pink Panther all of a sudden.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTQCjnYZjUo
Now what really has my interest piqued is this:
Prince Nikolai Petrov. He plans to meet up with the Count but is picked up after the men from the Cheka search his room and find the textbook__ a Latin grammar from Nokolai's days at the Imperial Lyceum. pg. 101
"Is it yours?" There is no point in lying. "Yes," he says. "I attended the academy when I was a boy." The officer opens the book; and there on the front plate looking regal and wise is a picture of Tsar Nicholas II--the possession of which is a crime. The Prince has to laugh, for he had taken such pain to remove all portraits, crests, and royal insignia from his room. The captain slices the page out of the grammar with the blade of a knife. He marks the back with the time and place and has the Prince undersign it. The Prince is taken to the Lubyanka, where he is held for several days and questioned once again regarding his loyalties. On the fifth day, all things considered. Fate spares him. For he is not ushered to the courtyard and put against the wall; nor is he shipped off to Siberia. He is merely given a Minus Six; the administrative sentence that allows him to roam Russia at will, as long as he never sets foot in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Kharkov, Yekaterinburg, and Tibilisi--that is the country's six largest cities.
......you needn't bother to remember the name of Prince Petrov, I should note that despite the brief appearance of the round faced fellow with a receding hairline a chapter hence, he is someone you should commit to memory, for years later he will have great bearing on the outcome of this tale.
https://travel.sygic.com/en/poi/tsarskoye-selo-lyceum-poi:47836
The Imperial Lyceum in Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg, also known historically as the Imperial Alexander Lyceum after its founder Tsar Alexander I, was an educational institution which was founded in 1811 with the object of educating youths of the best families who would afterwards occupy important posts in the Imperial service.
So, just where does Prince Petrov fit into this mystery? What was he doing playing in the quartet despite a clear prohibition against doing so? After attending the Lyceum, what position of importance in the Imperial service did they intend him to have? What did he want to meet up with the Count for? Was it a coincidence this quartet was playing at the Metropol hotel? His old instructor is picked up later, they haul him before a troika, what seals his fate and end him to the camps is evidence that on multiple occasions he had hired Former Person Nikolai Petrov to play in his quartet despite a clear prohibition against doing so. And lastly, why tell us he will have great bearing on the outcome of this story? pg 102 So many questions, so little answers.
We finally learn the name of the one-eyed cat is Herr Drosselmeyer. Does it have any significance to the God father/uncle to Clara in the famous ballet "The Nutcracker" ,who gave Clara the nutcracker doll for Christmas, then she falls asleep and dreams, after the Nutcracker defeats the king, he transforms into a handsome prince, which Clara falls in love with. I don't think anything is coincidental in the book.
Did you also know Arkady Renko is a fictional detective who is the central character of eight novels by the American writer Martin Cruz Smith?
In Gorky Park, the first novel, he is a chief investigator for the Soviet Militsiya in Moscow, where he is in charge of homicide investigations. In the sequels, he takes on roles varying from a militiaman to a worker on a fish processing ship in the arctic.
Born into the nomenklatura, Arkady is the son of Red Army General Kiril Renko, an unrepentant Stalinist also known as "the Butcher", who sees Arkady as a bitter failure for choosing the simple life of a policeman over a military career, or even a career in the Communist Party.
This is an interesting read....... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkady_Renko
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Jonathan, I have no doubt I am missing some things. I have been taking notes as I go, trying to keep track of things I feel are clues. Why do I even feel like I am in a mystery? I borrowed this book from the library so I am not able to use a highlighter or add side notes in the pages. Grrrr....
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Good morning, and apologies for m absence - I've had one of my daughters staying and we've been out and about a bit. I've just caught up with all these fascinating posts.
Books - MKaren, I too have moved very frequently, and the only thing I've insisted on lugging everywhere are my books. I even took all the books I then owned (not so many then as no charity shops existed!) to university, where i was surprised to find that most other students had not.
Like you, for me books hold particular memories. I think of Great Expectations, which I read on the beach at Crail when my children were little, or my very first Barbara Pym, which I devoured in its entirety one Saturday afternoon in Cambridge. I did not inherit books from my family, as they had virtually none, though my parents were great library users. And I so agree about the burden of 'having to' read a book. That is why I never join face-to-face book groups. I didn't even read most of the set books at school, but still got high marks in the exams, which just shows, I think, the ludicrous nature of our exam system. I really don't like that Kindle thing whereby people tweet that they are '50% done with' a book; it sounds positively barbaric, as though someone is just ploughing through the words as fast as the can.
As to whether the Count's friendship with Nina, or Nina's unsupervised antics all around the hotel, are realistic, I think the more you read, the more it seems that nothing in this book is strictly realistic. For indeed, where is the nanny? And on another point entirely, where is the count getting his money from? - he's still leading quite a comfortable life, he's not dining on gruel. Would not his assets have been confiscated?
I loved this book but I sometimes felt Towles was ignoring reality to make his plot work. Then I began to realise that he had no intention of making everything strictly realistic. It's a story but it's also an allegory.
Rosemary
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Rosemary,
And on another point entirely, where is the count getting his money from? - he's still leading quite a comfortable life, he's not dining on gruel. Would not his assets have been confiscated?
The thing about reading the book too quickly, is you tend to forgot many parts. Here is where much of his income is coming from:
pg. 18 Built in the Paris of Louis XVI with the gilded accents and leather top of the era, the desk had been left to the Count by his godfather, Grand Duke Demidov. The Count ran his hand across the desk's dimpled surface. How many of the Grand Duke's words did those faint indentations reflelct? He ran his hand behind the desk's right front leg until he found the catch. When he pressed it, a seamless door opened to reveal a velvet-lined hollow that, like the hollows in the other three legs, was stacked with pieces of gold.
Then on pg. 24, 25 The Count meet with Konstantin Konstantinovich a Greek money lender and shows him the coins. He took the coin, turned it once, and handed it back with reverence. For not only was the piece pure in the metallurgical sense, the winking double eagle on the reverse confirmed to the experienced eye that it was one of the five thousand coins minted in a commemoration of Catherine the Great's coronation. Such a piece purchased from a gentleman in need could be sold at a reasonable profit to the most cautious of banking houses in the best of times. But in a period of upheaval? Even as the demand for common luxuries collapsed, the value of a treasure like this would be on the rise. "Excuse my curiosity, Your Excellency, but is that a....lonely piece?" "Lonely? Oh, no," replied the Count with a shake of the head. "It lives like a soldier in a barracks. Like a slave in a galley. Not to moment to itself, I'm a afraid."
In a matter of minutes the two men had struck an arrangement without a hem or a haw.
Yes, indeed this story is fiction and fantastical, an allegory as well. I'm not looking for reality, the author himself stated he took facts and mixed them with fiction to write the book. Just simply wonderful so far.
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Not to jump too far ahead, and with no intention of ending the discussion on "Book One," I must say the last lines in this section have me perplexed, to say the least:
pg 105 But had the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come suddenly appeared and roused the Count to give him a glimpse of the future, he would have been that his sense of well-being had been premature. For less than four years later, after another careful accounting of the twice-tolling clock's twelve chimes, Alexander Ilyich Rostov would be climbing to the roof of the Metropol Hotel in his finest jacket and gamely approaching its parapet in order to throw himself into the street below.
I'm going to go ahead and begin "Book Two," since we begin discussing it on Monday.
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Have not yet completed reading Book one - getting there - but I was struck by how it takes youth, a child to show us a deeper look at life - I remember how much I learned when my children were exploring everything that was new to them.
I'm also remembering being aboard a large boat for an entire day and my cousin, who was 2 years older and myself explored all parts of the boat, from the captains bridge, that we were told we could not enter, to the engine room and mop closets while our mothers sat on deck chatting and serving from huge hampers, lunch and later dinner and at night the leftovers were finished off. Our fathers stood by the rail smoking and talking during most of the day - it was before WWII so I must have been 6 or 7 - I do not think 8 because by then I was being very blasé and independent - I remember my sister, who is 2 and half years younger and the youngest of all the cousins, was not allowed to roam the ship since she was "too young" and had to stay near Mom - I remember being so excited late in the afternoon taking Mom and Dad down to see the huge engine when they were taking a stroll - and so in keeping with the 1922 time frame and my experience in the late 30s, I bet it was not unusual for a 9 year old to be unaccompanied for hours, as long as she stayed in the hotel.
I loved the Count's thinking when they found all the silver behind the blue door - I remember, again - all this remembering - it seems to be a story that dredges up memories - anyhow, I remember when I was a member of the board of directors for the area wide Girl Scout Council - after a couple of years I remember thinking at the time that we were like two wheels and if by happen chance anything we do on the board level fits and helps the large wheel of troops, girls and adult leaders it was purely by accident - the cogs of those two wheels did not automatically fit and work each other. And so when the Count realized that another group was running the show and that with all their austerity and less look of pomp and circumstance they too would, at times be surrounding themselves with fine dining and 'occasion' to which the masses would not be invited.
I also smiled, how boring the Count thought the topic for the assembly of railroad workers. He was witness to this sort of rule making by a more educated and cultured group and for the most part was not discussed since the Royal head of Russia made all these decisions - it took the wide eyed curiosity of a child, who experiences everything as new, to open his eyes even if he only came away with a few more synonyms and antonyms. Given his views on the whole bolshevik movement splitting his breaches seemed apropos ::)
Ah and rooms within rooms - that are nailed off and made secret - reminds me of our inner rooms and how some of our thinking and even past experiences are closed off from public view and yet, in these closed off rooms is where we do our most in-depth thinking without the pressure of anyone agreeing or approving. Saint Teresa of Avila's The Interior Castle - St. Anthony the Abbot, whose living space was a cave in the dessert that was the example for him of his interior room. Saint Catherine of Sienna, whose last three years of her life were in her cell where during this solitude, her life became almost one continual vision and ecstasy, as her union with God became more and more intimate.
I think we are now learning that secret rooms and rooms within rooms are not only a part of our interior life but, the way of things - the way governments operate, the way industry operates as they develop new techniques or products in secret and glory only knows what other secrets in secret rooms are a hidden part of life for good and for evil.
Come to think of it anyone who is separated from their community and family would have to have or create a secret room within to get through the isolation without going mad.
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All great insights Barb! This especially rings true for me:
I think we are now learning that secret rooms and rooms within rooms are not only a part of our interior life but, the way of things - the way governments operate, the way industry operates as they develop new techniques or products in secret and glory only knows what other secrets in secret rooms are a hidden part of life for good and for evil.
In my neighborhood just a mile and a half away, our county want so build a new jail to house six hundred and fifty inmates. There are several residential streets across from this site and a mobile home subdivision directly behind the site. We are hearing from our Mayor, and council men and women why this seems to be the perfect spot, while our surrounding neighborhoods are opposing it and letting them know why it is NOT an ideal spot considering how close it is to residential neighborhoods, several elementary schools, day care centers, parks and child activity businesses within a one to three mile radius. Secrets and secret meetings have taken place and continue to pass this levy coming up in November to give them the income to afford to build this jail. We feel like it's a done deal, yet we will not give up. The things active members in our group to oppose is digging up is beyond our wildest imagination. I'm an optimist by nature and a faith filled person, but I can tell you as these things come to light, the shooting that just occurred in Florida finding out the FBI dropped the ball and so much more in the news I find your last statement is oh so helpful. Isolation is not the only determent we find necessary to deal with, society as a whole is becoming maddening.
Come to think of it anyone who is separated from their community and family would have to have or create a secret room within to get through the isolation without going mad.
Spring is around the corner, so I will go to my happy thoughts even though today I was looking out my kitchen window at the birds coming to my bird feeders, only to see several mice eating the seed off the ground. Ughhhh..... not only a few minutes later I see a huge hawk land on my shed, he waits patiently for a few minutes turning his head toward the area where my feeders are. Within seconds he swooped down and hate himself a mouse, carrying him off for I suspect his lunch. I told my hubby it is time to take down the bird feeders!!!
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Bellamarie, I have a birdfeeder across the street. Every morning he comes out with a pail of feed and finds a huge flock of pidgeons waiting for him. Later in the day he uses the pail when he rakes the lawns on either side for poop. He talks to them while they're feeding . Perhaps it's a sermon.
What will become of our Count? In his confined space. A spiritual odyssey? A life of vision and ecstasy, like St. Catherine of Sienna.? I believe he is too philosophical for that. He finds additional space in the second room, whose dimensions are limited, the author tells us, only by the dimensions of his mind. And he does have his memories. The railway workers' assembly hall is the former grand ballroom where he used to meet the aristocracy. Listening to the gossiping, cursing old women in the company of Nina is worth the split pants, not so?
This morning's walk took me to our neighborhood pharmacy. What caught my eye on the newstand? LIFE's glossy, 75th anniversary celebration of Casablanca: "The Most Beloved Movie of All Time.' It cost me almost as much as the book. It's a modern day Romeo and Juliet.
Rosemary, I'm taken by your suggestion that the book may be an allegory. I was already thinking of it as a new literary genre.
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It has been quite a week in Moscow. Book One has so much in it that I know we will have more to say as we move on in the book. Don't hesitate to revisit something we have already talked about or point out places that we skipped over or that you want to note in some way. Tomorrow we can begin the discussion of Book Two and part of Book Three. Let me say that the schedule as I put it together a month may not be working. Please suggest any changes you would like to make. Happy reading!
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JOIN US AS WE DISCUSS
A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW
BY AMOR TOWLES. |
During February and March, we will be filling cold, gray days by reading A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles in the Senior Learn Book Club. Our pre-discussion will begin on February 7. Let's introduce ourselves, and then perhaps talk about what we know of the goings-on in Russia in the early 20th century and our impressions of the Russian people. Those of us who grew up in the 50s and 60s could share how we learned of the Russians and the feelings we had about all of this. This will also be a place for questions about the discussion, the assigned reading schedule and about each other. Let's save discussion of the text until February 12 when we begin the actual discussion.
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Discussion Schedule for A Gentleman in Moscow
February 12 Book 1
February 21. Book 2
The author's website www.amortowles.com is a wonderful place to get to know the Amor Towles. He has a lot of supplementary information about the book. There is even a delightful video, which you will want to watch.
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Discussion Leader: MKaren
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What will become of our Count? In his confined space. A spiritual odyssey? A life of vision and ecstasy, like St. Catherine of Sienna.? I believe he is too philosophical for that. He finds additional space in the second room, whose dimensions are limited, the author tells us, only by the dimensions of his mind. And he does have his memories. The railway workers' assembly hall is the former grand ballroom where he used to meet the aristocracy. Listening to the gossiping, cursing old women in the company of Nina is worth the split pants, not so?
What will become of the Count? I think the snipping off of his mustaches is the start of a process. He is going to be divested of much of the trappings of his identity as an aristocrat, leaving him to figure out who he really is. He either will have to examine his inner self, come to terms with it, or decide who or what he wants to be now.
I haven't read ahead, have no clues as to whether I'm right or how this is going to play out, but I'm eager to find out.
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Karen for my part I wish we had one more day before we go on - I only finished Book One last night and I sure would like another day for it to sit and think on before we move ahead - and then to have time to at least start Book Two tomorrow evening so I have something to share on Tuesday. We've also read a couple of post from folks who still have not been able to get their hands on the book - if I am in a minority, please go ahead but if others would like another day please could we consider it... I think to read ahead for the story that is gripping and capturing us with superb writing is one thing but to give it the kind of thinking and relating to what is under the surface that these discussions have provided I just need a bit more time to mull... thanks...
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I could use another day too, am in the same place as Barb, but whatever anyone wants.
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Barb, I like your observation about 'superb' writing. Some of it I find quite lyrical. It would be easy to listen to. Many passages are little prose poems. He has a delightful alliterative style. The book is a piece of art. 'Mulling' this one is rewarding. Somehow, I feel the style is Russian. Has it been translated into Russian? Is it being read in Russia.
I do believe I need another day myself, before continuing into Book 2. Your right, of course, Pat, about the 'change' in the Count beginning with the loss of his moustaches. I must go back. I've forgotten if Nina likes him better with or without the moustaches. Such lyrical names: Nina Kulikova, Anna Urbanova. The cat seems to have several names. Kutuzov, in his latest appearance. Wasn't that a prominent Russian military man? In War and Peace?
The Grand Ballroom must have been where he caught the attention of the Tsarina, as mentioned in the trial transcript. Now working men argue linguistic, socialistic resolutions there.
A most interesting book. With others to follow, since all forty vignettes in this book begin with the letter A. I have the feeling he may want to work his way through the alphabet. Already I have him winning a Nobel.
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Yes, I agree, I would also like one more day on Book One. There is just so much to take in. I'm not certain as far as the scheduling is concerned, I feel like 100 pages per assigned week seems a bit much to read and discuss. I'm sure we will all figure it out as we go.
Yes, good catch Jonathan, I thought I was seeing things when he referred to the cat first on pg 102, as Herr Drosselmeyer, and then later on pg 111 during the dog/cat chase he calls the one-eyed cat Kutuzov and mentions "Kutuzov__who like his namesake had the advantage of familiar terrain__"
General Mikhail Kutuzov: one-eyed defender of Moscow.
General Mikhail Kutuzov was a charismatic Russian general, most remembered for his defense of Moscow against Napoleon. He was in and out of favor with the emperor, Alexander I, but in times of crisis, on more than one occasion he was called back to lead the Russian Forces. From the standpoint of ophthalmology, it is of interest that while fighting the Turks, Kutuzov sustained two separate severe head wounds that ultimately led to loss of sight in his right eye. A portrait of General Kutuzov hangs in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, Kutuzov's birthplace. In the portrait Kutuzov is standing with his left side facing forward, presumably to hide his disfigured right eye. He lost the Battle of Austerlitz against Napoleon and at best gained a draw at the Battle of Borodino. Nevertheless, the latter battle was the beginning of the end for Napoleon's Grand Armée. They entered a deserted Moscow, part of Kutuzov's scorched earth policy that left no food or housing for the enemy, and with the Russian winter rapidly approaching, Napoleon began his long retreat from Russia. As with the German army, the harsh winter claimed many casualties while Kutuzov added to the French misery by harassing the retreating army from the rear. Of 450,000 French soldiers, only 10,000 returned to France.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10941592
In my prior post Herr Drosselmeyer, was the Godfather/uncle to Clara in The Nutcracker.
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Of course, we will slow down. Thank you so much for letting me know AND let's read just book two for the next week. We will decide about book three when we see how we do on book two. So, let's start discussing 2 on Wednesday, Feb 21. I hope others will gain access to book and will join the mulling, savoring, and sharing of this story. Towles describes the structure of the novel as diamond shaped: it moves from a point (the Count entering the hotel) and widens out with more characters, images, and twists. Then about halfway through the text begins to narrow to the resolution. We are clearly still expanding. Thje one image that I love is the window in the Count's attic room. At first the Count describes it as the size of a chessboard, then an invitation, then a postage stamp. Before Nina the Counts world was getting smaller and smaller.
"In the time Nina had been in the hotel, the walls had not grown inward, they had grown outward, expanding in scope and intricacy" Around and About page 57.
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I was interested to read Barb's account of running about on a ship unnoticed, as I could not otherwise have believed that Nina could have had such a free rein in the hotel. As we have mentioned before, this aspect is slightly reminiscent of Eloise at Christmas - she lives in a fabulous hotel in New York with her nanny, (while her mother is sunning herself on the French Riviera) and has all kinds of largely unsupervised adventures. The Eloise books are no more set in the present than Towles' story.
Nowadays no child would be left alone for 5 minutes before someone took them to the receptionist or something. I think this is true for all of us, not just children - recently I went into a chain chemist here in Edinburgh, and just stood a moment thinking about what i wanted to buy. The assistant immediately came rushing up to me with the standard 'Can I help you?' - I said no thank you, I am just thinking what I want to get - she was most taken aback and continued to watch me like a hawk, presumably in case I was either mad, about to pass out on the floor, or a shoplifter. You cannot now just 'be' - you have to have a purpose and get on with it, at least in cities. The one indoor place where you can still wander more or less at will is, of course, the public library. I do it often. Otherwise, indoors or outdoors, people in cities (and I am one of them) are very suspicious of anyone who isn't rushing about looking busy.
The book also puts me in mind of The Grand Budapest Hotel - they both have a slightly surreal air.
Rosemary
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Karen, that sounds perfect reading Book Two for the next week and holding off on Book Three. I feel I can relax a bit and savor this magnificent writing!
When I read the window was the size of a "postage stamp" I tried to imagine being inside a room with no windows or one as small as that. I remember one time my hubby and I were going out of town for a week-end getaway. We entered our hotel room and immediately I felt claustrophobic because it had no windows. I called to the front desk and asked for another room with windows. Luckily, they had one with a full glass sliding door that opened up onto a deck near the pool. The Count seems to be a person who can make do with any circumstance. I suppose this helps us understand him a bit more:
pg 103 The young Count's self-mastery did not stem from a precocious administration of military regimentation, nor a priggish adherence to household rules. By the time he was ten, it was perfectly clear that the Count was neither priggish nor regimental (as a phalanx of educators, caretakers, and constables could attest). No, if the Count mastered discipline of marching past the closed drawing-room doors, it was because experience had taught him that this was the best means of ensuing the splendor of the season.
He not only sees manners and discipline as refined and necessary, thinking back to him teaching Nina it was important to say, please and thank you, but he also makes the best of any situation, and finds the fun in it. Kind of like when his mustache was clipped off, well what more could he do than simply accept it for what it was. I like the Count more and more, he is far from your usual stereo typed aristocrat, who would seem stuffy and snobby. If anything, he knows he is of aristocracy, and yet he makes even the seamstress feel as if she were on his same level. It's no wonder everyone seems drawn to him, and likes him so much.
“if a man does not master his circumstances then he is bound to be mastered by them.”
― Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow
Rosemary, Yes, in a review I was reading, drat if I can find it again, although I saved the quote: And he even finds himself acting as the father to a young girl whom Towles has called his “Eloise of the Metropol."
Indeed, today any child that is roaming by him/her self with no adult nearby would immediately be approached and inquired as to where their parent is. We are in a world of child abduction and trafficking, it is unthinkable to allow a child to roam around a ship or hotel, let alone allow a nine year old little girl have lunch with a perfect male stranger, or scurry around secret doors with him. Interesting how Towles could date back to the times where this was not only acceptable, but no concern or fear for the child back then, compared to today, although this book was only written in the past few years.
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thank you thank you Karen - there is tons on every page of this book - back this evening - appointments today...
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Jonathan,
With others to follow, since all forty vignettes in this book begin with the letter A. I have the feeling he may want to work his way through the alphabet.
Nothing gets by you does it Jonathan? I love it when there is really no real explanation to why an author does what they do.
From the interview I previously posted a link to: What’s with All the Chapter Titles?
As you’ve probably noted, all of the book’s chapters are titled with words beginning in A. Why is that so?
To be perfectly honest, I don’t have a good answer. Early in the drafting of the novel, I had the instinct that I should follow the rule, and I trusted that instinct. One reader has suggested that it was my own version of playing “Zut”; another has suggested it was a tribute to the first letters in the names Alexander and Amor; a third has suggested it was because the book is about new beginnings. All of these answers strike me as excellent!
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Along with many other fine things one could say about this book...is how picturesque it is. Your quote, Bellamarie, describing the young Count's self-mastery, on page 103, sent me back to the book. I reread it along with the preceding paragraph and suddenly I was staring at the photograph on the wall in front of me. I'm very proud of it. I took it myself, in London, when I stuck my camera into his face. With his shiny, plumed helmet and red coat', and 'the unflinching stare of a Buckingham Palace guard.'
I thanked him for the fine picture, but nothing could make him bat an eye.
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Picturesque indeed Jonathan! Reading about the opening of the drawing room doors on Christmas Eve, had me mesmerized, imagining it as a child:
pg 103 For on Christmas Eve, when his father finally gave the signal and he and Helena were allowed to pull the doors apart__there was the twelve-foot spruce lit up from trunk to tip and garlands hanging from every shelf. there were the bowls of oranges from Seville and the brightly colored candies from Vienna. And hidden somewhere under the tree was the unexpected gift__be it a wooden sword with which to defend the ramparts, or a lantern with which to explore a mummy's tomb. Such is the magic of Christmas in childhood, thought the Count a little wistfully, that a single gift can provide one with endless hours of adventure while not even requiring one to leave one's house.
This is poetry in motion for me. It takes you back to the days as a child, anticipating that very moment you creep down the stairs while your parents are still asleep on Christmas morning, peeking at the one gift you are hoping Santa has left for you, that you spend endless hours playing make believe with, days after the holiday has come and gone. One gift is usually all I ever got as a child on Christmas morning, and it was a doll I would give a name to, and cherish like a treasure of gold. To this very day I collect dolls, which continue to give me such joy!
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So the cat is called different names, appropriate to whatever it's doing at the moment. Bellamarie, thanks for the information on General Kutuzov. Yes, Jonathan, he is a big figure in War and Peace. Tolstoy admires him tremendously, and makes him represent true Russian military tactics, superior to all other generals. I wasn't totally convinced.
Jonathan, Nina thought the Count looked better without his mustaches,
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Thanks, Bellamarie and Pat, for the information on General Kutuzov. What a curious way to bring this historical figure into his book. A one-eyed cat! I can't remember when I've been so entertained by a new, new for me, writing or narrative style. Yes, I do. It was when I was young and started to read my newly acquired book by Rabelais, which I had just purchased at the Strand in NYC. I had a place on W47th, and walking the 35 blocks seemed like an adventure. On the way I stopped at the old Pennsylvania Station, went in, sat down, and started reading my new/old book. Looking up I found everyone near staring at me. I realized I had been guffawing over what I was reading.
Ahead are the street sweepers, sweeping up the casualties of a society regenerating itself. A footnote in this author's history!
Wasn't that old Penn Station an architectural gem.
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Here it is!! I still have it.The very Horrendous Life of the Great Gargantua Father of Pantagruel, Set down of Yore by Monsieur Alcofribas, Abstractor of Quintessance Inside I inscribed my experience, with: "Pennsylvania Station, 1959". What a lot of laughs. If you don't hear from me for a few days, you can easily imagine what's keeping me occupied.
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Jonathan, please don't get so involved you leave us for too long, we look forward to your input. Penn Station, now that would be a fun place to people watch.
PatH., Yes, he does change the cat's name, depending on it's activities. From a loving Godfather giving Clara a Christmas present in the Nutcracker, just before he opens his gift from Nina, to a General in Russia, as the cat has the two dogs in complete chaos chasing after him. It was a howl- a- bah- loo!!! (just a little play on words)
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Love it about the cat - oh and yes, Christmas eve - as child we had on a small scale something along the same lines - the front room that was not heated was closed off - mysterious boxes would arrive that we were told contained the little men, elves and if we went near we would have sand thrown in our eyes - and during the night before falling asleep we would hear sounds like the whirring of a sewing machine or a hammer - on Christmas morning our stockings were on our bedpost that always included an orange and a Lebkuchen with a decal of sorts that showed an old fashioned skinny St. Nickolas - kept us busy and our tummy's fed till Mamma and Daddy came for us - the door to the room was opened and yes, the tree ablaze - our dolls had new clothes and one year there was a new doll crib, another a new doll highchair - we never did put it together this was all that whirring and hammering - there was always, again handmade new Pjs along with a new toothbrush - but that same wondrous uplift of lights, color, scent, with ornaments that some from the tree of my mother, father and grandmother and always the stable under the tree - it was all there.
I will be back later- getting tires today after a full day yesterday of showing property and grocery shopping - I am so glad for the extra couple of days.
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Barb, you sound like you had the idyllic childhood, something I could only have wished for! It's no wonder you still have the heart of a child today. Whirring and hammering...... oh my, I would wonder if the elves had come straight down from the North Pole to set up shop in your front room. How wonderful these memories must be for you.
It's raining here in Ohio, and I am headed for my third week at the dentist. I guess this has shown me to not let my fears keep me away so long in the future.
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Or being watched. Don't we all love watching others. And now, all the characters in this book. Aren't they an entertaining lot? Why The Bishop? The waiter. Is he called that because he resembles a chess piece, or has he found a new occupation, or purpose, in the new society? Or the willowy one who thinks she can handle a Count as well as her two dogs? Dogs, whose breeding matches that of the Count. At least, the Count recognizes it but will not take warning.
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I could be a professional people watcher if there were such an occupation, I am so curious of people so much so, I have become addicted to all the reality TV shows, and yes, before you ask, one of my secret dirty pleasures is Keeping Up With the Kardashians. Don't judge! Today's world is a world of selfies, tweets, snap chats, instagrams, and for the older folks Facebook posting. We have become a world of voyeurism. I suppose that is part of why I love reading, especially non fiction novels. I get to get a glimpse into the lives of other fascinating people from centuries ago, up to the modern world, and in some cases, not as fascinating as they would like us to think they are. Ah so.... it shows me just how boring my life is. But to be honest, I prefer boring, over the rest.
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Oh great - you have all thought of my next project - just waiting for nicer weather - I need to get better at using a camera given to me a few years ago that allows me to take a digital photo and upload it - What I want to do is combine using it with people watching - I thought of going to several places in town where I can easily observe what happens and lay a fresh rose either at the curb or on a cafe table or in the park on a picnic table and see what folks do who spot the rose and take their photo. Will they pick it up - toss it - smell it - keep it - look around as if to see where it came from - lay it back down - kick it off the curb...
Waiting for my tires to be replaced had a chance to go back to the beginning of our story - amazing how I thought this or that came before a certain scene and was befuddled when the way the story unfolds was not as I remembered. I completely missed his "passing the young girl with the penchant for yellow who was reading a magazine in her favorite lobby chair," Right there on the second page of Book One she was mentioned.
So much was describing his sister that I am wondering how she will be included as the story moves on.
And yes the Desk that was passed to him by his godfather Grand Duke Demidov - the godfather was for real...
"The Demidov family (Russian: Деми́довы) also Demidoff, was a prominent Russian noble family during the 18th and 19th centuries. Originating in the city of Tula in the 17th century, the Demidovs found success through metal products, and were entered into the European nobility by Peter the Great. Their descendants became among the most influential merchants and earliest industrialists in the Russian Empire, and at their peak were predicted to be the second-richest family in Russia, behind only the Russian Imperial Family. The Demidov family lost its fortune after the February Revolution of 1917, but continues to exist under the rendering Demidoff."
I also thought it interesting that a painter's name contained two of the names used by Towles - Makovsky Konstantin Zhukovsky - Russian painter (1839-1915) Konstantin the old Greek money lender and Zhukovsky the sir name for Emile the chef. A pair of the artist's paintings I thought send off vibes of the pomp and circumstances in the Count's exotic and colorful lifestyle before the Revolution.
The transfer of the Holy Carpet in Cairo ( from Cairo to Macca ) in 1876 and The Arrival of the Holy Carpet in Cairo ( from Macca to Cairo ) - 1876
| (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sZ1CjrNOWXY/T1q1LYT9IPI/AAAAAAAAAQs/gejtI_poOM0/s640/The+transfer+of+the+sacred+carpet+in+Cairo+in+1876++by+Makovsky+Konstantin+Zhukovsky+%281839-1915%29.jpg) | (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-36YagWbxWOk/T1q1G7_x0mI/AAAAAAAAAQk/mameoJ2OPXw/s640/The+return+of+the+Saint+Carpet+from+Macca+to+Cairo+%281875%29+by+Makovsky+Konstantin+Zhukovsky+%281839-1915%29.jpg) |
Although the painting nor the artist is named in our story, somehow the work seems to fit and I cannot but wonder if the name of both the Old Greek and the Chef was a nod to the artist who created this work in Paris, at the order of the Russian crown prince, future Emperor Alexander III.
About the painting, the special unique nature of the tradition along with excellence that was celebrated reminds me of how the Count is portrayed - giving us a glimpse of all that was pre-revolution wonderful, encased in a tiny space like a small Fabergé egg.
"The painting refers to an ancient Muslim tradition. The holy carpet of kiswah, a relic for all Muslims, is used to cover the most sacred shrine of Islam, the Ka’bah in Mecca. Every year the best Egyptian masters wove and embroidered a holy carpet to be transferred to Mecca. The carpet was placed into a special reliquary called mahmal that was fixed on a camel’s back. The train walked around the streets of Cairo surrounded by pilgrims and believers and then left for Mecca. In the end of hadj the pilgrims received small parts of the carpet and brought them home to different parts of the world. Upon return the pilgrim were usually met by festive crowds of Cairo citizens. The meeting ritual celebrated the return of the pilgrims and the mahmal that was considered sacred. "
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Thank you Barb, Jonathan, Bellamarie, and Pat for all the information you have added to the discussion. You all have enriched the discussion immensley. Book one ends with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come with the warning that the Count's Christmas sense of "well being" will turn in four years to the Count "climbing to the roof and standing on its parapet in order to throw himself into the street below."
As book two opens it is June 21, 1923, one year that the Count has been confined to the Metropol. We all have more "people-watching" to do and we will be watching more people. Has the Count changed in the last year? Has the hotel changed? In fact is the rapid change going on outside the Metropol reflected inside? All in good time.
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Pages 13-14: the Count's grandmother is reproving him for crying and losing self-control when defeated in a game: "There is nothing pleasant to be said about losing, and the Obolensky boy is a pill. But, Sasha, my dear, why on earth would you give him the satisfaction?"
Page 23, quoting Montaigne: "The commonest way of softening the hearts of those we have offended, when, vengeance in hand, they hold us at their mercy, is by submission to move them to commiseration and pity. However, audacity and steadfastness--entirely contrary means--have sometimes served to produce the same effect..."
Bellamarie: "pg 103 'The young Count's self-mastery did not stem from a precocious administration of military regimentation, nor a priggish adherence to household rules. By the time he was ten, it was perfectly clear that the Count was neither priggish nor regimental (as a phalanx of educators, caretakers, and constables could attest). No, if the Count mastered discipline of marching past the closed drawing-room doors, it was because experience had taught him that this was the best means of ensuing the splendor of the season.'"
We get plenty of pointers about the way the Count reacts to his arrest, trial, and confinement.
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Good Morning! So today we begin Book Two, and I am already finding it to be as intriguing, and fun as Book One. Talk about a page turner, how does one not leap to the next book when the last sentences in Book One leaves you with this:
But had the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come suddenly roused the Count to give him a glimpse of the future, he would have seen that his sense of well-being had been premature. For less than four years later, after another careful accounting of the twice-tolling clock's twelve chimes, Alexander Ilyich Rostov would be climbing to the roof of the Metropol Hotel in his finest jacket and gamely approaching its parapet in order to throw himself into the street below.
I didn't know what to think after reading this because from all my senses in getting to know the Count, I do not see him as a man of suicide. So my mind started wondering, why would he throw himself off the rooftop into the street?
PatH., we were posting at the same time, and your points of how the Count was taught to react to life situations strengthens my feelings he is not a man of escaping life, in death of his own making. Or would he decide his own destiny, if he were being presented with a situation of such magnitude? Hmmm... he sure didn't cave at the trial, knowing he could have been put to a firing squad. I guess I will have to continue reading to find my answers.
Book Two opens with the Count meeting the willowy actress Anna Urbanova and her two ill behaved dogs of perfect breeding. Kutuzov the one-eyed cat has given the two borzois dogs a bit of a stir as cats seem to do. The Count is able to command the dogs with just a couple of G major whistles, and they come and heel at his feet. I had to laugh at the dialect the Count and the willow have:
pg112 "Thank you," she said (with a smile presumed to launch armadas). "I'm afraid that they are quite ill bred." "On the contrary," replied the Count, "they appear to be of perfectly bred." The willow made a second effort at her smile. "What I meant to say is that they are ill behaved." "Yes, perhaps ill behaved; but that is a matter of handling not breeding." "Handling does seem to have a way of eclipsing breeding." she said acerbically. "And for that very reason, I should think that even some of the best bred dogs belong on the shortest leashes." "An understandable conclusion," replied the Count. "But I should think the best-bred dogs belong in the surest of hands."
Are they still speaking of dogs, or people? I guess only time will tell.
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Clever 'watching' everybody. And it's not just the people. Keep your eye on the cat and dogs, as well.
I have a book on my shelf: The Moscow Puzzles, a compendium of 359 puzzling recreations. Our book, I've decided, will make it 360, and will stand next to it, after the discussion.
Of course, I agree. Gentlemen don't commit suicide. Unless it's a matter of challenging someone to a duel because the buttons on his jacket don't get the respect they deserve. So, is our book about the making and undoing of a gentlman? What does it take?
Christmas is the best time for achieving self-discipline! The immediate reward? Ensuring the splendor of the season. More likely, it's another opportunity for the author to add one more alliterative jewel to his collection. Have you noticed how many there are? Charming.
Is it the author who speaks in the footnote on page 100:
'...we Russians like to make use of honorifics, patronymics, and an array of diminuitives - such that a single character in one of our novels may be referred to in four different ways in as many pages.'
Haha. It certainly gives a puzzle a whole new dimension.
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Another quote from de Montaigne Pat, that shows what you have picked up - added to my question, how is he grieving all this loss -
I had to refresh with a look into the 5 stages of Grief and thought - oh he is so disciplined he is just riding over what I thought was the initial feelings of Grief and simply handling all of it with the discipline learned from his grandmother.
Denial - he sure did not seem to be denying anything
Anger - maybe but again such the Gentleman there I thought were no outward signs
Bargaining - he had no chips, no way to bargain with God or the Proletariat
Depression - as soon as he catches himself letting down a proper front he bucks up so I saw no sign of Depression - and finally
Acceptance - which is where I thought he was with his situation.
Until I re-read the defining behavior for each and there it was - the Count living out his Grief. I read that the 5 stages are not necessarily experienced one at a time following each other - and the grieving can go back and forth with these various reactions after you've experienced them the first, second or many times, even after the final, Acceptance.
Denial description includes, "As you accept the reality of the loss and start to ask yourself questions, you are unknowingly beginning the healing process. You are becoming stronger, and the denial is beginning to fade. But as you proceed, all the feelings you were denying begin to surface."
Looking at the Count he has a lot of memories of living his social and organized day. At first he did rustle himself to his surroundings, going tit for tat with friar's lantern and their minion soldiers alike - the Count acting as a man of renown till the first morning - "in the shapeless moments before the return to consciousness" then quickly goes into his Anger mode "savored the taste of the day to come."
Reading the description for Anger, it was written for the Count - "Anger is a necessary stage of the healing process. Be willing to feel your anger, even though it may seem endless. The more you truly feel it, the more it will begin to dissipate and the more you will heal.
There are many other emotions under the anger and you will get to them in time, but anger is the emotion we are most used to managing. The truth is that anger has no limits. It can extend not only to your friends, the doctors, your family, yourself and your loved one who died, but also to God. You may ask, “Where is God in this? Underneath anger is pain, your pain.
It is natural to feel deserted and abandoned, but we live in a society that fears anger. Anger is strength and it can be an anchor, giving temporary structure to the nothingness of loss. At first grief feels like being lost at sea: no connection to anything. Then you get angry at someone... maybe a person who isn’t around, maybe a person who is different... Suddenly you have a structure – – your anger toward them.
The anger becomes a bridge over the open sea, a connection from you to them. It is something to hold onto; and a connection made from the strength of anger feels better than nothing.We usually know more about suppressing anger than feeling it. The anger is just another indication of the intensity of your love."
Finally here it is Pat, adding to your quotes this one also from de Montaigne - I thought it also nailed it... "The most usual way of appeasing the indignation of such as we have any way offended, when we see them in possession of the power of revenge, and find that we absolutely lie at their mercy, is by submission, to move them to commiseration and pity; and yet bravery, constancy, and resolution, however quite contrary means, have sometimes served to produce the same effect."
Then re-reading and noting over and over, the Anger was there - He took the brandy after he noticed the smug soldiers eyeing the bottles - he walks briskly and makes decisions when ever the chance allows, to even bounding up the stairs bringing him closer to his confinement. With bravado he says, "All the books", "All of them", said to impress unfortunatly the un-impressable. Later, he is dismissive of the declarations constructed during the Assembly and minimizing the meeting to his learning a few synonyms and antonyms - minimizing is a form of aggression which is Anger.
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Starting Book Two he enjoys every minute of the uproar created by the 'hotel' cat and the visiting dogs - the Count appears in command with a sense of ownership of not only of his room(s) but the lobby, restaurants, the entire hotel - but of course - we know he has the keys to the entire building and has visited every nook and cranny as well, he knows personally the staff.
Thought - describing the cat seems to reflect the emotional status of the Count - when we first meet the cat he was a silvery shadow similar to the Count in his ageing years, reduced to living quarters that were a shadow of his former rooms - the cat appears as a puff of smoke and the Count not much more. He must remake himself into substance that is more than the decaying gasses of the past that describe the cat, a will-o'-the wisp, (gases from decaying plants in marshy areas also called friar's lantern) However, most important to cat and man, "...let nothing within the hotel's wall escape his notice," and further following the cat's good hard look... the Count after completing his own survey...The crowded confusion of furniture gave the Count's little Domain the look of...
Compared to the dogs with their "silver" coats, "raised to give chase in the cold" now, the cat is a "slender shadow" that jumps from behind - the cat taking higher ground to measure his foe - just as the Proletariat assumes they have the Count out in the cold the Count has been assessing the lay of things taking advantage of what his circumstances has to offer then, like the cat copying the work of a renowned Russian General, both cat and the Count can cause a flurry, or in the case of the Count stop a flurry, head back toward the staircase and disappear around the corner.
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Brilliant, Barb!!! Your posts are a lesson in reading.
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Good grief - thanks for the compliment Jonathan but please - it is just my usual obsession with finding some understanding, that I am convinced are in myths and symbols, so that life will finally make sense - plus, making connections is the way I think - can't help it -
Since a kid I see every issue in life, every film, every piece of music and every book as a schematic of colored lines against a black void. Sharing I'm just following the lines and the connections, often at right angles and then, the understory, like the understory of trees in a forest, I see the next level of colored lines reaching up, down, horizontal and so forth - Thanks to Sister Imelda, 4th grade, who told us every sentence is only a question answered by the next sentence therefore, my seeing connecting colored lines was justified as my head has a continuous dialogue of questions, without words, strung together with an answer making a connection that becomes another system of lines/questions.
Here on Senior Learn I can share the connections as I see them where as, most folks including family simply roll their eyes. The biggest problem is trying to explain, put words to the connections and how they are further connected --- I often laugh at myself trying so hard to speak these colored lines and connections. This book is a wonder opening my head to building scaffolding that grows and grows in all directions. As Towles says, rooms within rooms...
OK - Random reading - found on line Proust Remembrance of Things Past - years ago I read Swan's Way but the other 6 out of 7 books I had not read - After thinking on the losses the Count was experiencing and his continuous remembering the past I opened up Proust's book to Time Regained and within chapter II, M. de Charlus during the war, his opinions, his pleasures came across this which sits well with the Count's, sting of envy when Mishka, with pleasure, re-tells the story of his romantic skirmish. The Count remembers roles reversed and realizes, reversed or not, he will no longer dine with 60 and there will be no more late night esoteric discussion in basement cafe's with an impressionable young student at his side - Mishka and other new faces will continue without him. Life will renew and go on... Regardless the splendor of the menu the Count dines alone and is becoming passé.
Proust says,"The ladies in the new hats were young women come one hardly knew whence, who had become the flower of fashion, some during the last six months, others during the last two years, others again during the last four. These differences were as important for them as, when I made my first appearance in society, were those between two families like the Guermantes and the Rochefoucaulds with three or four centuries of ancient lineage.
The lady who had known the Guermantes since 1914 considered another who had been introduced to them in 1916 a parvenue, gave her the nod of a dowager duchess while inspecting her through her lorgnon, and avowed with a significant gesture that no one in society knew whether the lady was even married. "All this is rather sickening," concluded the lady of 1914, who would have liked the cycle of the newly-admitted to end with herself.
These newcomers whom young men considered decidedly elderly and whom certain old men who had not been exclusively in the best society, seemed to recognize as not being so new as all that, did something more than offer society the diversions of political conversation and music in suitable intimacy; it had to be they who supplied such diversions for, so that things should seem new, whether they are so or not, in art or in medicine as in society, new names are necessary (in certain respects they were very new indeed).
Thus Mme. Verdurin went to Venice during the war and like those who want at any cost to avoid sorrow and sentiment, when she said it was "épatant", what she admired was not Venice nor St. Mark's nor the palaces, all that had given, me delight and which she cheapened, but the effect of the search-lights in the sky, searchlights about which she gave information supported by figures. (Thus from age to age a sort of realism is reborn out of reaction against the art which has been admired till then.)"
I put the breaks in to make this section from Proust easier to read.
And on the next level, "(Thus from age to age a sort of realism is reborn out of reaction against the art which has been admired till then.)" easily translates to the wider story of Russian History, as the Proletariat is the realism reborn out of reaction against the art which had been admired by the Count and the old Tsarist regime.
So now a new character - we will discover, along with the Count, if the willowy actress Anna Urbanova is a 'child' reborn or, a 'child' who admire the art which had been admired. Will she, like the girl who prefers yellow, find the child within the Count?
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Will she, Anna, the fisherman's daughter, now occupying the grandest suite in the Metropol, like the girl who prefers yellow, find the child within the Count?
But isn't it the Count who must wonder about Anna's childish behaviour, in dropping her clothes, her finery, on the floor, and then out the window? If she had left them there, wouldn't the sweepers have been surprised? To pick up such lovely things, along with the other thrown-away stuff like 'newspapers, journals, and pamphlets: the catechisms and hymnals, histories and memoirs; the contracts, deeds, and titles; the treaties and constitutions and all Ten Commandments.' (p114)
Is it the child in Anna, or is it her own personal revolutionary fervour?
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Barb,
Regardless the splendor of the menu the Count dines alone and is becoming passé.
Oh but do not discount him out just yet. I mean who would have ever seen the willow's aggressiveness coming? Surly not him, nor I!
pg 117 As Audrius returned to his work, the Count unfolded the piece of paper, which bore the following request in a willowy script:
Please allow me a second chance
at a first impression
in suite 208
When the Count knocked on the door of suite 208, it was opened by an older woman who regarded him with impatience. "Yes?" "I am Alexander Postov. . ." "You're expected. Come in, Miss Urbanova will be in a moment."
As I read this I had to stop and pause..... I thought, why does this have a familiar ring to it? Ah, yes, in a commercial of the book of Fifty Shades of Grey.
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Jonathan, But isn't it the Count who must wonder about Anna's childish behaviour, in dropping her clothes, her finery, on the floor, and then out the window?
The Count, much like Anatasia was not quite prepared for such childish behaviors from the willow, or Christian Grey. My response in both accounts was the same, whoa.... a bit aggressive if I do say so myself. But, why did the Count and Anatasia allow themselves to be seduced by people they did not even know? This says much about them, if I do say so.
Barb, I'm not on the same thought process as you with the inner child concept. I'm not so sure the willow is looking for any child in our Count. As for little Nina, I felt she was just seeing him more as a friend/father figure. But I do like your "obsession with finding some understanding, that I am convinced are in myths and symbols, so that life will finally make sense - plus, making connections is the way I think - can't help it -
You always bring so many dimensions to our discussions.
Anna toys with the Count as they are eating:
pg. 121 Take the simple of Anna Urbanova's voice. In the context of the lobby, where the actress was struggling to rein in her hounds, the hoarseness of the voice had given the impression of an imperious young lady prone to shouting. Very well. But here in her suite 208 in the company of charred lemons, French wine, and memories of the sea, her voice was revealed as that of a woman whose profession rarely allowed her the chance for repose, never mind the enjoyment of the decent meal.
The Count speaks of his childhood growing up in the world capital of the apple. Anna asks, "I take it you ate your fair share of apples." He responds, " Actually, there was one apple tree we did not eat. . ." The actress raised one of her bedeviling eyebrows. "Which?" "According to local lore, hidden deep within the forest was a tree with apples as black as coal__and if you could find this tree and eat of its fruit, you could start your life anew." "So would you the actress asked?" "Would I what?" "If you found that apple hidden in the forest, would you take a bite?" "There's some allure to the idea of a fresh start; but how could I relinquish my memories of home, of my sister, of my school years." The Count gestured to the table. "How could I relinquish my memory of this?" And Anna Urbanova, having put her napkin on her plate and pushed back her chair, came round the table, took the Count by the collar, and kissed him on the mouth.
It's almost a bit humiliating the next morning when they awake and she says:
pg. 123 "As you go, be sure to draw the curtains." and then the sentence, After all, as the Count himself had observed just hours before: the best-bred dogs belong in the surest hands.
Hmmm..... has he seen himself as one of her best-bred dogs in the light of day? Why did Anna decide to seduce him, then dismiss him? Was this her way of showing him who was in charge, after he humiliated her in the lobby, when he was able to whistle her dogs to heel at his feet, and then point out to her that they are ill- behaved due to their owner? Certainly food for thought. The apple is known as the forbidden fruit, nice little addition to the meal for conversation, leading up to the seduction. Eve tempted Adam and he fell from grace with God. Anna tempted the Count, and he too fell for it. I would have expected more insight from the Count.
pg 122 As a young man, the Count had prided himself on being one step ahead. The timely appearance, the apt expression, the anticipation of a need, to the Count these had been the very hallmarks of the well-bred man.
So, I have to ask myself.....who is actually seducing who?
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I think that being under house arrest for a year without the companionship of a woman might make the Count vulnerable to a seduction by a woman who interests him. I wonder more about why Anna wanted to seduce the Count? What are you thinking this all says about the Count, Bellamarie?
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I am only up to pg. 129 Addendum, so I need to see if there is more with the willowy actress, before I can conclude the "whys" of their behaviors that night. I realize his vulnerability as a man, and he has just had a conversation with Mishka, who has revealed he is dating a particular woman. The Count is feeling a bit low, and lonely, but he keeps referring to best-bred, and well-bred. It's obvious both Anna and the Count found each other attractive, they both yielded their powers and egos, he with the dogs, she with him. I wonder if the Count keeps falling back on his memories because he feels like more and more of the man he was/is could be changing before his own eyes, due to being cooped up in this hotel, not being able to come and go as he pleases.
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'...because he feels like more and more of the man he was/is could be changing before his own eyes, due to being cooped up in this hotel, not being able to come and go as he pleases.'
I like that obsevation, Bellamarie. What is the revolution doing to his world? And now what has driven him to contemplate suicide? Surely not Nina's experimenting with falling objects. A wannabe princess at nine, now, at thirteen, a budding scientist. Obviously a lot of things are preying on his mind. He longs to be down at the family estate. Street names in Moscow are being changed. A civilization is being thrown out the window. But worst of all is being offered the choice of white or red wine in the elegant dining room, served by an unqualified waiter who's place is in the bar, not the dining room. This in a place with the best wine cellar in the world. And then being shown that all the thousands of bottles have had their labels removed, reducing them all to either red or white. His world has crumbled. But he has the ability to bounce back. A fascinating tale. But he is still being treated deferentially.
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Oh dear Jonathan, I haven't gotten there yet, but imagine how he feels about all wines with no labels, just red or white. I mean that would be like a woman going into Neiman Marcus, Barney's or Harrods all her years buying the best labels in clothing, and then one day walking in to find no brand name labels any longer. Heavens for bid, some women would never walk back into those stores. People of their status rely on the best of the best, knowing exactly what goes with what, whether it's food, alcohol, liqueur, cars or clothing. They have been raised from childhood that this is important to who their identity is. I agree, he has the ability to bounce back.
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Bits and pieces of history...
After the Russian Revolution of 1917 the French wine-savvy professionals fled Russia - Wine was drunk in Russia only by the aristocracy before the 1917 Revolution. But all this changed under Stalin, who believed wine had to be affordable for every Soviet citizen.
"All around me I see treason, cowardice and deceit," wrote Nicholas---an accurate perception to the hysteria of refugees in Odessa and Baku when the phantom regimes of the Whites collapsed, the last act of the bejeweled, uniformed upper crust was one of abject retreat. The St. Vitus dance of St. Petersburg society continued even as the Red Guard marched on the Winter Palace; Theosophists, religious charlatans and ballerinas were the darlings of the day. The Grand Duke Paul fretted about the security of his wine cellar more than security of the state.
How the Bolsheviks took the Winter Palace --- Thursday 27 December 1917 - guardian.co.uk
...The troops guarding the arsenal joined hands with the Bolsheviks, who got possession of all the artillery and ammunition and enormous stocks of rifles. Every regiment or company of soldiers in the city had passed a resolution supporting the Bolsheviks,...
...Some of the old servants of the Palace, who had formerly served the Tsar and were well acquainted with the vast building, volunteered to serve as guides.
...The Palace was pillaged and devastated from top to bottom by the Bolshevik armed mob, as though by a horde of barbarians. All the State papers were destroyed. Priceless pictures were ripped from their frames by bayonets. Several hundred carefully packed boxes of rare plate and china, which Kerensky had exerted himself to preserve, were broken open and the contents smashed or carried off. The library of Alexander III, the doors of which we had locked and sealed, and which we never entered, was forced open and ransacked, books and manuscripts burnt and destroyed. ...the Tsaritsa's salon, like all other rooms, was thrown into chaos. The colossal crystal lustre, with its artfully concealed music, was smashed to atoms. Desks, pictures, ornaments - everything was destroyed. I will refrain from describing the hideous scenes which took place in the wine-cellars
More than twenty-five hundred bottles of expensive wine were consumed, pilfered, or destroyed, and the cellar itself was ruined...
In the book "Vodka Politics: Alcohol, Autocracy, and the Secret History of the Russian State" By Mark Lawrence Schrad described is the destruction of the wine in Petrograd..."The men who wanted that wine were so mad for it that even machine guns would not keep them back. So the comrade in charge turned the machine guns on the bottles and destroyed them." described the journalist Anna Louise Strong. "The wine rose to the hips of his hip-boots so so that he was wading in it. He used to be a drinker himself before he became a Communist and it hurt him to see that good wine destroyed. But it was necessary to preserve order in Petrograd."
The order went out, "Any stocks of wine discovered were to be blown up with dynamite 2 hours after the warning. REMEMBER THERE WILL BE NO OTHER WARNING BEFORE THE EXPLOSION"
And so with all of that, it is amazing that the Hotel still had a cellar of wine that the Count had enjoyed during his first year or so of 'house' arrest, regardless the loss now of knowing more than if the wine was red or white.
Interesting - the literary 'shadow' ID is even in the wine - the Revolution was fought between the Reds and the Whites. I'm remembering as children we were taught the good guys were the white Russians - I did not know what that meant and envisioned people painted white or wearing all white clothes with those fur hats we saw also being white - I decided in my head that they were dressed in white so they could blend into the snow. Oh dear the imagination of a 6 year old... ;)
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Barb, that is wonderful info about the wine and the Revolution. I think that Towles wrote in the history of the hotel that the Bolsheviks wanted to keep the Metropol so that the foreigners who were coming would think that Russia was in good hands. Probably that is why the wine cellar survived.
In a little town near where I grew up in Maine, there were quite a few white Russians. They fled the Bolshevivs and Russia. Some were patients of my father. They always bought him farm produce to pay. They and their descendents still farm their lands. I heard last summer thaat the originals were all gone. Some of the kids went to school with me. They were very American by then.
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Thanks for all the 'history' Barb. How interesting.Especially the role that wine played in the revolution. No doubt the leaders and agitators shouted to their followers: 'Help yourselves'. A sure-fire way to 'rally the troops'. Why was the Metropol wine-cellar spared? It was far away in Moscow . The action was in St Petersburg, the seat of government, the Winter Palace, and the Tsar's court.
I grew up hearing stories about Red and White, so the story of the wine was read with the others in mind. There are other things with double meanings. A very clever book. One man's revolution.
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I love it - someone has a sense of humor - the music chosen to show off these two playful Russian Wolf Hounds otherwise known as Borzois :D ;D :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMq8DDACgfw
Actually after seeing what they look like I was a bit disappointed thinking of something along the lines of a greyhound. Which now I have a different impression of Anna - attractive and willowy but not near as sophisticated as the woman a greyhound would accompany. Looks like I did not copy the Count and withhold my first impression.
Interesting question - in favor of a fresh start could you relinquish your memories of home, or family or your school years?
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JOIN US AS WE DISCUSS
A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW
BY AMOR TOWLES. |
During February and March, we will be filling cold, gray days by reading A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles in the Senior Learn Book Club. Our pre-discussion will begin on February 7. Let's introduce ourselves, and then perhaps talk about what we know of the goings-on in Russia in the early 20th century and our impressions of the Russian people. Those of us who grew up in the 50s and 60s could share how we learned of the Russians and the feelings we had about all of this. This will also be a place for questions about the discussion, the assigned reading schedule and about each other. Let's save discussion of the text until February 12 when we begin the actual discussion.
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Discussion Schedule for A Gentleman in Moscow
February 12 Book 1
February 21. Book 2
February 28. Let's start on half of Book 3. In my book that is around 248
March 7. 248 to the end of book 3
March 14. Book 4
March21 Book 5
March 28 End Discussion
The author's website www.amortowles.com is a wonderful place to get to know the Amor Towles. He has a lot of supplementary information about the book. There is even a delightful video, which you will want to watch.
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Discussion Leader: MKaren
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"The Overcoat" (Russian: Шинель, translit. Shinel; sometimes translated as "The Cloak") is a short story by Ukrainian-born Russian author Nikolai Gogol, published in 1842. The story and its author have had great influence on Russian literature, as expressed in a quote attributed to Fyodor Dostoyevsky: "We all come out from Gogol's 'Overcoat'." The story has been adapted into a variety of stage and film interpretations.
https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-overcoat-by-nikolai-gogol-summary-analysis.html
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The Kalinkin Bridge
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Ah so... maybe the explanation for my night owl life style - "If they wander the halls of night, it is not from a grievance with or envy of the living. Rather, it is because they have no desire to see the living at all, Any ore than snakes hope to see gardeners, or foxes the hounds. They wander about at midnight because at that hour they can generally do so without being harried by the sound and fury of earthly emotions...a little peace and quiet." Yep, fits - the phone does not ring late at night and there is no feeling of obligation to do what others expect - tra la... ;) freedom by subterfuge
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Ahhh yep, how often have you had to pickup your 'garments, (indulgences) one by one' - these late nights catch up with me and then there is a rush to resettle my routine and take care of the damage to my lack of sleep - oh dear and how many other indulgences do we have to gather and reclaim, indulgences that are like the clothing with which we cover ourselves as if covering who we are.
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Anonymity 1924 is a very sad chapter. The Count is coming to terms with time, life, changes, reality and how he is being left behind. Sweet little Nina is now fourteen years old and has a new partner to experiment with. The Count is no longer needed to entertain her. The waiter is now the Bishop from below promoted, the wine is no longer known by any name other than simply red or white. All that kept him busy, happy, and feeling self worth, is fading away and the new Russia is now taking form. I wanted to cry a few tears as I read this chapter. Our dashing, fun spirited Count has diminished before our eyes. My heart is saddened for him. This is difficult to read:
pg. 131 Dreams of invisibility are as old as folklore. By means of some talisman or potion, or with the help of the gods themselves, the corporeal presence of the hero is rendered insubstantial, and for the duration of the spell he may wander among his fellow men unseen.
The Count is no longer seen as important, he is bumped into by passerbys, Nina does not have time for him any longer, the waiter is condescending to him with responding "Of course, of course." Mishka has cancelled their dinner and gone off to St. Petersburg to be with Katherine, and then he finds out the wine no longer has labels possibly due to his correcting the Bishop who had worked downstairs and has now been promoted. He can not quite grasp everything.
These paragraphs are heart gripping and so very poetic:
pg 144 Yes, a bottle of wine was the ultimate distillation of time and place; a poetic expression of individuality itself. Yet here it was, cast back into the sea of anonymity, that realm of averages and unknowns.
And suddenly, the Count had his own moment of lucidity. Just as Mishka had come to understand the present as the natural by-product of the past, and could see with perfect clarity how it would shape the future, the Count now understood his place in the passage of time.
As we age, we are bound to find comfort from the notion that it takes generations for a way of life to fade. We are familiar with the songs our grandparents favored, after all, even though we never danced to them ourselves. At festive holidays, the recipes we pull from the drawer are routinely decades old, and in some cases even written in the hand of a relative long since dead. And the objects in our homes? The oriental coffee tables and well-worn desks that have been handed down from generations to generation? Despite being "out of fashion," not only do they add beauty to our daily lives, they lend material credibility to our presumption that the pass of an era will be glacial.
But under certain circumstances, the Count finally acknowledged, this process can occur in the comparative blink of and eye. Popular upheaval, political turmoil, industrial progress__any combination of these can cause the evolution of a society to leapfrog generations, sweeping aside aspects of the past that might otherwise have lingered for decades. And this must be especially so, when those with newfound power are men who distrust any form of hesitation or nuance, and who prize self-assurance above all.
For years now, with a bit of a smile the Count had remarked that this or that was behind him__like his days of poetry or travel or romance. But in so doing, he had never really believed it. In his heart of hearts, he had imagined that, even if unattended to, these aspects of his were lingering somewhere on the periphery, waiting to be recalled. But looking at the bottle in his hand, the Count was struck by the realization that, in fact, it was all behind him. Because the Bolsheviks, who were so intent upon recasting the future from a mold of their own making, would not rest until every last vestige of his Russia had been uprooted, shattered or erased.
He remembers the embossed seal on the bottle of wine in the cellar and picks it up:
pg 145 On the twenty-second of June 1926__ the tenth anniversary of Helena's death__Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov would drink to his sister's memory. Then he would shed this mortal coil, once and for all.
These paragraphs really hit home for me. My hubby and I are constantly saying how things have changed and there is nothing we can do about it. Our grandchildren are growing up, going on with their teenage years, sports, friends and activities not needing or wanting to spend the sleepovers at Nonnie and Papa's house anymore. We still have our Zak and Zoey who can't wait to come, but I measured their growth and it made my heart leap at how my sweet Zak is nearing my shoulders. Like the Count, I reach back into my memories of the kids childhoods and the grandchildren's and I just want time to stand still. We went to an organized meeting last night to oppose having a new jail built, just a mile or so from our neighborhood. The room was standing room only, and as someone pointed out the youngest in the room may have been around forty-five years old. I looked around, and sure enough, I being sixty-five years old was among the rest of the elderly willing to fight to keep this jail out of our area. Where was the younger generation? Why aren't they concerned that a jail in this area will bring down their property values, increase crime, and cause families to move out of our neighborhoods to the outskirts of our town. Like the Count, I realized last night, the County is hell bent on putting this jail in our area so they can revitalize the downtown area with a "green" project, and they do not want the existing jail downtown to remain. Times they are a changing, and there seems so little we can do to prevent it. We will join forces with this organized group called NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) and pray the levy for funding this project is voted down in November. In the meantime, we are looking at houses listed in the county our son just moved to last summer. It's not my first choice, even though it is a beautiful little town, but we will consider it if the levy goes through. I am relating far too closely with the Count, in this chapter.
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Yes, Bellamarie I agree - it seems to me things move faster in the last couple of years compared to the preceding 15 years - the aggressive rudeness not only in social media but the national news has me turning off all but our local news - and now knowing that children cannot go beyond their front yard without an adult in their presence for their own safety in addition to not even being safe using the internet - it is mind boggling -
As to moving, you remind me of my own dilemma - I know everyone in this area and shopping is really convenient but, the town has so changed and the house is too big - I just do not know - moving is like starting in all over which the older we get the more difficult. We do not see things ahead but knowing now what I know, I wish I had made a move back in my early 70s - what is done is done so I've decided to make the best of each day.
Thank goodness I still do work - not as I did at one time but the big benefit is as I've aged all my close friends have died and so there is at least some familiar faces among the other Brokers. Attending a training session a couple of times a month keeps me abreast as compared to the Count who is really like someone 'housebound' without either TV or Social Media. It gives a new appreciation for casual meetings on the roof sharing coffee with a stranger.
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After being bummed out reading the chapter Anonymity I saw this and thought, just what we needed... Although, our Count appears to be on to this bit of wisdom and he lost so much more than the changes in our lives. I almost thought he would jump and wondered as I read what would be the remaining book - thinking maybe a recount of history as a memoir or his affect on others and what they did with their lives - never imagined bees returning from the orchards of Novgorod
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mym9MNo1E6I
in quick succession the remaining growth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfFLjXszBiQ
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Barb, not only were you up all night, but what you shared with us about the book and about your life was do insightful and clear. You are helping me to see why a book about a man under house arrest in Moscow has so become a part of my life. You really managed to pick up on the power of change and the loss it brings with it. This world that he has crafted for himself as his lifw changed from that of a priviledged aristocrat to confinement in an attic space in this hotel. Now that life seems to be filled with changes and more loss. The wine cellar filled with naked bottles is such an image of Anonimity and such a metaphor for what is happening in the Russia that Rostov knew: Helen gone, his estate gone, his titles irrelevant, Nina slipping away, Misha disappearing, the Bishop intruding on the joy he has foung in the restaurants.
I remember standing in my driveway sobbing as my youngest son went off to college. I can say tht I really enjoyed this child as he grew up. Oh he was stubborn, used poor judgement, and never picked up anything he put down. I would even miss those things, but he was a wonderful conversationalist. quick witted, and full of curiosity and ideas. He really never came home again except on vacations. He now lives in Palo Alto, CA with my two incredible granddaughters and we text often and have a great phonecall once a week. He is 45 now and I still cry everytime he leaves.
Any thoughts about when we move on to the first half of book 3. No hurry, whenever you qll feel ready. Happy Saturday.
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Barb, I love the picture..... it sums it all up. I am feeling very melancholy this morning after being up very late last night. For some reason I just could not sleep and was up til the wee hours. I awoke to find a very close and dear friend has deactivated her Facebook account, which means we will not be able to stay in touch as often. She like myself, married right after high school graduation in 1970, we had our 45th class reunion and all reconnected. We began having once a month luncheons and posted on Facebook daily to stay up to date and share family pics, etc. She just revealed she has been living with an alcoholic husband for years and doesn't think she can continue any longer. He has checked himself into a rehab, but she does not have much faith it will work for him. So, this morning, like the Count, I am struggling with life changes.
Barb, as a real estate broker's point of view, are we correct in feeling neighborhood house prices will decrease once a jail is built within a mile or two from our area? Reading, you wish you would have made a change back in your 70's, makes me wonder if my hubby and I are resisting a move that in inevitable, and are only refusing to see it because we love our house, area and it is close to driving to my home town I grew up in. Unlike the Count, I'm not contemplating jumping off a rooftop, but I surely feel like a "jump" of some kind is knocking on my door.
Karen, Oh how I relate to your longing for your son to be nearer with those beautiful grandchildren. My daughter chose to move to Florida and met her hubby, and every time they come to visit in Ohio I cry like a baby, knowing it may be a while before we see each other again. She too was a difficult child/teenager, but she is my only daughter. My two sons are very close in proximity and they have all my grandchildren, so I can be thankful for that much for sure.
Well, I need to go get ready for our family birthday celebration, so hopefully I will get out of this funky mood, and have some much needed joyful time with the family I do have nearby.
Ya'll have a great Saturday!!
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Bellamarie it is going to do nothing to increase values - not only do you have the jail but now a constant flow of folks on visitors day so that quickie grocery and chain restaurants will open near by - and do not think zoning in place will save you - it is too easy to get zoning changed.
It is difficult to leave what is familiar and holds so many great memories - from where the light switch is when you wake in the morning to where the check-out counter is located in your favorite grocery. Oh and the garden you have planted and tended these many years - when you do not 'have to ' move it takes a lot of self-motivation - and where you do not want to be dependent on your children having nearby family is security - if you do move close to family please have an understanding and lay out your wishes because as we age with the best of intentions they try to take over and make decisions for you.
I have learned aging is full of pot holes - the first being get used to loss - friends die or move away - you probably will have cataracts done and your eyes are never the same - various joints especially your knees give out limiting things like gardening and together eyes and knees limit how well you can even see when vacuuming or washing down kitchen backsplashes etc.
You'll find that fewer and fewer group celebrations happen in your home and so the bigger pots and good dinner wear are seldom if ever used. The deal is to stay relevant - that is the challenge - as long as the Count could guide folks sharing his expertise regardless, heeling dogs or recommending wine, even exchanging memories he could stay relevant but when no one either needs you or life has so changed you have nothing to offer then, you become irrelevant which leads to a change in behavior - alone, all you have is yourself for company and so your body becomes a companion and you notice every twinge and creak assuming the worst. I notice this phenomenon with both my sisters - one is two and half years younger and the other 15 years younger - they each are alone and have only their home and hobbies - at least the one, just younger has someone come in once a week who just chats with her but, her church was closed by the dioceses and to go across town is too much and she has no other affiliation. My other sister chose a windswept section of the outer banks that is deserted except during summer with all the summer houses nearby - she too is isolated. Nice at 65 after years of work but not nice at 70 and beyond.
Many of us who live in a single family home would have a time of it moving into a Condo but may do make that move - I have one acquaintance (we were never close and she still believes she is superior...ah so) who moved into an assistant living arrangement where she had her own one bedroom apartment that when she turned 90 she moved to a one room apartment with community dining and nursing staff available and then if she becomes dependent she will move again where she can receive round the clock care - all these moves are within the complex owned and run by the Episcopalian Church.
We hear from Pat here on these pages and it appears she lives in an apartment in Portland - not sure her arrangement on the East Coast.
Ideally a 2 bedroom either house or townhouse but finding them is not easy - I would make sure you go into a one story - and purposefully look into a new lifestyle that becomes an adventure - the worksheets available from AARP are wonderful for sorting out what is important and what you enjoy and still want to accomplish - hmm AARP no longer has theworksheets - here is a substitute http://documents.routledge-interactive.s3.amazonaws.com/9780415624534/Cutting_Down-worksheets-final.pdf
Yep, I can remember when my grands filled a great part of my life but then, they experience their most intense time of establishing their adulthood when your losses start piling in - so yes, you do finally wake up, and realize we experience the steps of grief with all these losses - add to your life to make up for what is lost by being the one to determine your elder adventure just as the Count bounded up the stairs to his.
I have seen the difference among many past clients and please, please think being relevant - I've been in groups where some elders can only talk about their past successes and experiences, where they are wanting to help the host and hostess' grands in friendship, and cannot see the parent of the child has a different idea for their guidance - it is painful to watch someone showing their 'need' to be relevant offering only their past achievements.
We must be involved - truly as passionately involved as we were about bringing joy to our grands - even if the passion is not there at first but it is something that makes a difference - also, as we age folks are more apt to make decisions for us - my suggestion is, find a new stage (home/house) where you can manage and stay as independent for as long as you are able, knowing with health losses and if you can no longer drive, which does happen, you are not isolated and UBER is within your budget - also, remember SS does not keep up nor do fixed pensions - there may be an increase use of meds taking a hunk - PLEASE DO NOT consider a reverse mortgage until you are in your mid 90s - your fine taking out loans using your house as collateral till you are 85 and then they want a co-signer. Most states have a plan that after age 65 you can allow your property tax to ride and they are paid when you either sell or die. But NO reverse mortgage - if interested I will outline why...
Your future passion - If it is bird watching where you look forward to either an annual trip or seasonal outing to spot birds or you establish a new garden where all the ideas you saved can be tried and you can keep up with the latest strain of a plant or you can bake and cook in new ways your garden produce or you start woodworking or playing an instrument or any number of part time jobs or volunteer jobs where you are needed - something where you can contribute and are not spending more and more of your age limiting energy trying to keep a home tidy.
Yes, it means fewer family meals but, a living room can have furniture pushed aside for a large table a couple of times a year till even that is no longer a part of your life. And a one car garage makes sense or panel off half as a workroom using a space heater.
Your neighborhood is about to change - it will take time and large sections could remain for the most part the tree shaded quiet streets you know but, there will be parts that change to accommodate the traffic of folks to and from the prison - plus there will be those who will not want to live near a prison reducing the number of potential buyers therefore sold prices will slide.
However, I'd sell not just to leave this potential change but rather, think, I need to change to accommodate a new lifestyle for the two of us... and get to work this next Spring clearing out while reading ways to live a full life in your 70s, 80s and 90s. You probably have almost as many years as an elder as you had as parents of grown children from the time they graduated high school, their collage years, then as young adults and their children were the center of your life.
Great example in our book as the Count decided what to take with him - great intro for us as we age... :-*
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Wise words, Barb. I especially like your remarks on staying relevant, also the Count's problem. He was something that doesn't exist anymore. Who or what is he now? One thing that stays is his code of conduct, rules of behavior. I'm sure he'll die a gentleman. This makes a neat little cameo in his discussion with Anna Urbanova about the dogs, where his remarks about breeding and behavior refer to both dogs annd people.
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Barb,
Oh and the garden you have planted and tended these many years - when you do not 'have to ' move it takes a lot of self-motivation - and where you do not want to be dependent on your children having nearby family is security - if you do move close to family please have an understanding and lay out your wishes because as we age with the best of intentions they try to take over and make decisions for you.
Thank your Barb, you have given me much to think about. We will fight this jail, and pray the levy will not go through in November, but should it, I know we have a lot of decisions to make in the next year or so. I was talking to my little nine year old grandson today because he saw the NO NEW JAIL signs around our area. I told him we will wait to see if the levy passes to decide if we will move. His first responses were, "But Nonnie, what about your beautiful flowers you have worked on all these years, and the birds you love to watch come in the back yard?" I told him I could plant more flowers, and bring my bird feeders with me. He replied, "Oh Nonnie I don't want you to move from your house, all of our memories are here." Out of the mouths of babes..... I thought, oh dear Zak, you sound like the Count, needing to find his identity in his memories. It's not going to be easy.
Yes, we must stay active and relevant, I'm wondering what the Count will do to find his purpose in life now that he realizes the changes, and the people who have gone on with their lives, leaving him alone.
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What a strange book. I'm struck by the impact the plight of this connoisseur of fine wining and dining has on his readers. By the empathy aroused and the inclination to self-discovery.
'I am relating far too closely with the Count.'
'The book has become a part of my life.'
'Aging (like house arrest ?) is full of potholes.'
Count me among the NIMBYs, Bellamarie.
Sure, Karen, on to Book III. Eight years have passed!
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Let's try this reading plan.
February 28. Let's start on half of Book 3. In my book that is around 248
March 7. 248 to the end of book 3
March 14. Book 4
March21 Book 5
March 28 End Discussion
I find that as I get near the end of a book I read faster. Let me know if we need to speed up. I hope you all are haaving as much fun as I am. Thank you.
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I am the opposite of you Karen, as we read on I am taking it slower, more time to react to what is happening, feeling the emotions, and letting it all sink in. As Jonathan so poignantly pointed out,
I'm struck by the impact the plight of this connoisseur of fine wining and dining has on his readers. By the empathy aroused and the inclination to self-discovery.
I don't need to speed up, not sure of others, but I am savoring this book like a great cup of my favorite hazelnut coffee with creamer, on a lazy Sunday morning......
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Karen the plan sounds good -
Today been thinking on how he got into this predicament and tracking again to see if he is actually reacting to this 'house arrest' as he reacted to his sister's humiliation and death because, if we couple as Jonathan did, House Arrest with Aging and the potholes with both, than we are living vicariously with the Count. We are watching how he handles his 'Aging/House Arrest' - We are vicariously trying out what works and what does not work, feeling how the Count experiences his confinement -
While the Count was on the roof and before the workman pulled him over to see the returned bees it felt like being a kid at the movie when the lead actor was in desperate trouble and we pulled our knees up with feet on the chair as if by protecting ourselves and closing our eyes or peeking out from hooded eyes we could stop what we were seeing or at least be ready for the blow to our gut we were expecting.
I think we are unconsciously asking, What am I going to learn here that will not only help me survive, but prosper?
I think we are affected by the human need to belong, not just a social need but a biological drive as in our need for food, air and water. And for some elders, it is as if they were Steve Jobs, alone in that garage of his, assembling every Apple product he ever made, then getting the word out by himself and when orders came in, hopping on a truck and delivering them himself. So we see as most painful the Count's limited human contacts, for one reason or another, pulling back or acting as his enemy. Ouch...
And so I think we are all on the edge or our seats as we see how he handles his confinement with no family or friends, among people with which he has little in common.
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Bellamarie, I think I read faster to find out what happens and unlike you,. miss things. Thank you for giving me permission to slow down.
In 2011, I sold most of my possessions, put my house on the market, mailed several boxes of things that I thought I wanted to keep by UPS, and moved my life from my hometown in Maine where I had lived and worked all my life to Sarasota, FL. I now think I was running away from being alone thinking that I would be living in a condo, make new friends, and live in paradise for the rest of my days. Reality: It took three years of paying house payments AND rent to sell my house which put a huge dent in my savings. Even with my brother and his family two blocks away, I am more alone than before. My back is causing me to think a second floor condo wasn't a great idea. I would like to live near my son and his family but his wife objects strenuiously. I am in Florida and they are in California. I fill my days with books and study which sometimes does not fill my days. I hate the Florida summer so i stay in air conditioning from April to October. So much for my tale of woe, but sometimes I feel as if I am under house arrest trying to make the best of it.
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Karen I feel for you - part of your story is mine however, the one thing I had to hold me together was the house and since everything in it was my choosing and my earnings payed for it, my home ended up being my one constant - the thing is family does not always come through - that is where we have a common thread - that rejection after the pain of divorce feels like a double whammy as if there is judgement.
Just making myself get out now that my friends have all died is not easy - 3 of them within weeks of each other 2 years ago - if I did not work I too would be such the recluse - this is probably my last year - I have one client I am currently working with and after she finds her home, she too is downsizing as a single aging mom who was divorced a few years ago, I will probably not keep my dues to the MLS although I will keep my license so I can do referrals - stopping membership to the MLS means no notifications on training events which for me were as much social as information gathering.
I have to attend a few Senior group something or other - or just a group that is trying to accomplish something - I have always done better joining a group and then after getting to know a few folks, we end up having a closer relationship - most of my friends that have passed I met 40 and 50 years ago when I was so active in Girl Scouting.
I was involved with a group concerned with the ecology and growth near the river but while an active Broker there is no way to be consistent with other interests and so they have coalesced and would not be easy for me to re-join - it is so hard to get to that first meeting with any new group and from past associations I know I need 3 meetings to finally get past my desire to stay home where it feels comfortable and safe - and so onward.
I too like you Karen have to remake my social contacts - I guess it is part of being a senior - no one does it for us - the natural groupings as Moms is no longer and for as many reasons as there are seniors, our long time friends are not part of our life - where I do have a monthly group studying the Tao they are all much younger - realizing it is a biological need and I have had an easier time by continuing to work, it is time for me too to step off into the world of making new friends - hmm I can see now that the Count's casual friend on the roof shares similar memories since they both grew up in the same place in Russia - wow the connection is the bees who also have a memory to have traveled so far to collect and make honey from the apple orchards.
hmm maybe that is an answer - there is a Gynecology Group that meets monthly at the library and they have other meetings in town - nothing dull is there Karen about aging...
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What I'm reading in all your posts is allowing me to see so much more in the book. We're looking for help or advice, for one reason or other, in almost everything we read, aren't we? To amend our lives. To enhance our lives. Acquiring the hard-won experience of the Gentleman.
More of what I'm hearing from you:
'Nothing dull about aging', or in coping with new circumstances.
'Sometimes I feel as if I am under house arrest trying to make the best of it.'
'I am savoring this book like a great cup of my favorite hazelnut coffee with creamer on a lazy Sunday morning.'
Bellamarie, have you read what just the aroma of that early, first cup of coffee does for the Count: 'In that instant, darkness was separated from light,
the waters from the lands, and the heavens from the earth. The trees bore fruit and the woods rustled with the movement of birds and beasts and all manner of creeping things.' jPage 171. Creation morning!
In other words, the world is created anew. That's the Count's way of mastering his circumstances. The author has many ways in which he lightens the mood of his story.
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Jonathan,
'In that instant, darkness was separated from light,
the waters from the lands, and the heavens from the earth. The trees bore fruit and the woods rustled with the movement of birds and beasts and all manner of creeping things.' jPage 171. Creation morning!
This is a bit eerie, considering I had not yet gotten to that page. I finished the last page of Book Two late last night, got up with the grandkids this morning, and was off for the entire day today, so I was going to wait til Monday morning to begin Book Three.
Barb and Karen you both have given me much insight. Karen, my daughter lives in Port Richey, Fla., my sister lives in Palm Harbor, Fla., we have been down to visit them in the summer and you are right, no one goes outside they all are inside with the air conditioning. I could never adapt to having to stay inside my house for months at the time. Barb, I am so sorry to hear you lost three friends in such a short amount of time. It's good you are finding new groups to join, to meet new people.
Our Opposed Jail FB group has topped over 3,000 members, and growing! We also have 12,000 members signed up in opposing it in our county, which means the word is getting out. I just may not have to worry about moving at this rate.
Okay, it's late and time for bed. I could not fall asleep from so much excitement spending the entire week end with our two youngest grandkids Zak & Zoey. We picked them up after school on Friday and returned them to their parents around 3:00 today. My son and his wife were sick, so we were thrilled to have the kids, to give them a couple days to rest up.
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Its a bright sunny day here in Toledo, Ohio and I can not tell you how much it brightens my entire mood when I see that sun shining in my living room window.
I am beginning Book Three this morning, but before I do, it would be remiss of me to not include the very ending of Book Two, especially for those who have not been able to get their book, but are following along.
I found it interesting how the Count has let two different times of humiliating men have such an adverse effect on him. First, the lieutenant back in 1913 when he got drunk lost his money only for the Count to tear up his IOU, then laugh at him when he falls on the ice, later finding out the lieutenant purposefully began dating Helena only to hurt her, to get revenge on the Count, resulting in him killing the lieutenant. Secondly, the Bishop who he humiliated when he worked below, with the Count correcting him on his lack of knowledge with wine, who later is promoted, then later treats the Count in a condescending way, and is the result of all the wine labels being removed, as a revenge on the Count.
Makes you wonder just how long a person is willing to hold a grudge, and just how much we ourselves may wrongfully hurt a person's feelings causing them to be humiliated, and then we go on without another thought, until it may come back around to bite us square in the face.
So, at the end of Book Two the Count has decided his exile in the Metropol Hotel is his destiny, and now is going to end his life, .
pg 164 As long as there have been men on earth, reflected the Count, there have been men in exile. From primitive tribes to the most advanced societies, someone has occasionally been told by his fellow men to pack his bags, cross the border, and never set foot on his native soil again. But perhaps this was to be expected. After all, exile was the punishment that God meted out to Adam in the very first chapter of the human comedy; and that He meted out to Cain a few pages later. Yes, exile was as old as mankind. But the Russians were the first people to master the notion of sending a man into exile at home.
As early as the eighteenth century, the Tsars stopped kicking their enemies out of the country, opting instead to send them to Siberia. Why? Because they had determined that to exile a man from Russia as God had exiled Adam from Eden was insufficient as a punishment; for in another country, a man might immerse himself in his labors, build a house, raise a family. That is, he might begin his life anew.
But when you exile a man into his own country, there is no beginning anew. For the exile at home__whether he be sent to Siberia or subject to the Minus Six__the love for his country will not become vague or shrouded by the mists of time. In fact, because we have evolved as a species to pay utmost attention to that which is just beyond our reach, these men are likely to dwell on the splendors of Moscow more than any Muscovite who is at liberty to enjoy them.
He is all set to jump from the parapet into the street when he hears:
pg 165 "Your Excellency!" Abram shows the Count the bees have returned, but not just returned, pg 166 Rather than the flowering trees of central Moscow, the honey had a hint of a grassy riverbank...the trace of a summer breeze...a suggestion of a pergola...But most of all, there was the unmistakable essence of a thousand apple trees in bloom.
So what was it about these bees traveling to Nizhny Novgorod, bringing pollen back to make the honey, that gave the Count a new look on life?
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Bellamarie:
So what was it about these bees traveling to Nizhny Novgorod, bringing pollen back to make the honey, that gave the Count a new look on life?
I presume it was the perfume of home. We've already seen at least two scenes in which the Count reminisces fondly about his childhood: with the actress, and a previous conversation with Abram about Nizhny Novgorod, where they both grew up. Now he's overwhelmed by the apple tree scent of the honey, and his memories, and the thought that the bees traveled so far to bring back the honey, and this breaks the spell of his melancholy self pity and reproach.
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Great, Pat. Maybe it also presents that these bees overcame the odds that he as well will return to Nizhny Novgorad.
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Bellamarie asks: 'So what was it about these bees traveling to Nizhny Novgorod, bringing pollen back to make the honey, that gave the Count a new look on life?'
A beautiful reply, Pat.
What a memory of childhood and home. He can taste it in the honey. What a romantic character. What a happy conclusion to a moving scene. Just moments before, with his right foot on the parapet's edge, he speaks his last words: "Good-bye, my country.' Preceded by such charming thoughts as he prepares to take the 'plunge'. Thoughts of kopeks, teacups and pineapples. And then 'lets out a sigh' as he gives his attention to 'Abram, my friend...all these years, the bees must have been listening to us', talking about the apple orchards of Nizhny Novgorod.
Better still, within a page or two the Count finds a new heaven and a new earth in the aroma of a freshly brewed cup of coffee. One can't help liking this gentleman. Such wonderful tastes, both sensual and aesthetic.
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Interesting also that in both times his perpetrator of humiliating pain took the very thing he loved the most - His sister humiliated, his actions to avenge her honor and she dies while he is away. After he lost his freedom to enjoy walking past gardens, enjoying sweet pastries while eavesdropping on conversations and his other moments of freedom, he looses his freedom and then in his confinement his joy is planning his wine to accompany his choice of meal, so much that he can even make suggestions to other diners and that joy is removed -
Little by little he looses what made him who he is, till he was prepared to end it, not seeing any other joys left to him till the bees bring the taste, the nectar, the memory of his childhood home, the apple blossoms from the orchards in Novgorod.
Is that it - when we are confined after having lost our freedom of movement, our ability to share our expertise, lovers and friends, both young and old are no longer in our lives is that it, we are our memories?
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Very moving when told in that way, Barb. Count Rostov exiled in the Metropol, with much of his time spent in the elegant restaurant, the Boyarsky or the grand dining room, the Piazza, or in the bar, the Shalyapin, 'an American-style watering hole. And the years just fly away. We are kept informed of the passing of time in bold, black numbers: 1922, 1923...1924...1926...1930. Can't you hear it being played: "As Time Goes By'?
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PatH.,
Now he's overwhelmed by the apple tree scent of the honey, and his memories, and the thought that the bees traveled so far to bring back the honey, and this breaks the spell of his melancholy self pity and reproach.
Yes, I do believe he was caught up in a self pity spell. He realizes HIS Russia, is no more. He can't return to the apple orchards of Nizhny Novgorod, where he found so much joy, he can't leave the walls of the hotel, he can't choose his choice of wine, and lastly which I suppose really brings him to his knees, or shall I say thoughts of suicide, is he no longer feels he is important. He has only his memories to remind him of who he was/is. Then the bees pollinate the honey and show him his apple orchard is still there, and can be reached even miles away. New found hope!
Jonathan reminds us: all these years, the bees must have been listening to us', talking about the apple orchards of Nizhny Novgorod.
At a time the Count feels no one no longer listens to what he has to say, the bees show they have been listening.
pg 166 The Count and the handyman both looked toward the roof's edge where the bees, having traveled over a hundred miles and applied themselves in willing industry, now wheeled above the hives as pinpoints of blackness, like the inverse stars.
I think about this, and how when I am out in my backyard and see a bee land on my flowers I have taken years to grow, sucking the nectar from the flowers, to take back to pollinate a hive or other food sources, and it reminds me of how important it is for us to continue to provide the flowers for the bees to come to, in order for them to continue to exist. Who would imagine, or even care much about a specie such as a bee? Who would realize how important it is to have the bees exist? The bees not only help provide food for us, but in this case, the bees provided new found hope for the Count, actually saving his life.
Pollinators transfer pollen and seeds from one flower to another, fertilizing the plant so it can grow and produce food. Cross-pollination helps at least 30 percent of the world's crops and 90 percent of our wild plants to thrive. Without bees to spread seeds, many plants—including food crops—would die off.
Every year I plant more perennials to attract the bees. I took this picture last August.
(https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/28471653_10215950062967815_8784634090253647274_n.jpg?oh=de72d39d760b6680f7a1276fa1331095&oe=5B485EE6)
Feel free to resize it.
Barb, in both times his perpetrator of humiliating pain took the very thing he loved the most
So in essence, he, himself was responsible for the loss of the things he loved the most, and can not seem to deal with knowing this. Funny how they say be careful of Karma. I love the Count, but he was arrogant in thinking he could humiliate and mock others and find not consequences for his actions. Can he become a different man, now that he has chosen not to leap off the parapet?
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Time goes by, but there are a lot of hours between breakfast and lunch, lunch and time to sit in the bar, then progress to a leisurely gourmet dinner with mystery wine accompaniment. What does he do for a life of the mind? People watching is interesting, but not enough. He has been a writer, a poet, but he writes no more. He's a man of ideas stuck in a static place. I would go crazy.
And for that matter, how does he manage to metabolize those fancy meals and all that alcohol and not get fat, without much scope for exercise? Prowling the halls and running up and down the stairs?
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Bellamarie, we were posting at the same time. I wonder if the Count's inner life will take a different turn now. (Haven't started section 3 yet.)
Good for you, encouraging the bees. They're in trouble, need all the help they can get.
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Jonathan,
And the years just fly away. We are kept informed of the passing of time in bold, black numbers: 1922, 1923...1924...1926...1930. Can't you hear it being played: "As Time Goes By'?
Enjoy!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2GlVN2Gn3A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxMeu34o_jQ
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Funny till you pointed it out Bellamarie, I guess so - Karma - and I never thought arrogant but that too - I saw his behavior as if sword play with jabs and thought of him acting as we would expect from a noble - in fact, I thought him not as aggressive as some men with the expectation of military service because of their station in life - for instance I could not see him acting as the pretend suitor for his sister or even being as mean spirited as 'the Bishop' rather, it is as if he were collecting coup's - but then I also see not so much Karma in our lives as acting within the boundaries of social expectation and that is at times used against us -
Thinking a bit more, hmmm if it is Karma that brings on painful happenings than we have to blame victims for their experiences - what I see is the Count is caught in a major system change - if the new government had been another monarchy, his approach to life would have been appropriate, he would continue to have the freedom and the obligations of a gentleman land owner - for sure he would not be under house arrest, surrounded by hotel staff - where as, this approach to bring everyone down-to and up-from into a shared sense of life without any discrimination, even between the wines, seems to bring about a rather gray world - knowing as we do, the wonderful Cathedrals were used to store hay, is more color drained, just as writers and poets were drained of their freedom to tap their creative imagination and were obligated to write to please the new system's hierarchy.
Reminds me of the Enneagram system that is currently all the rage among, of all things, church groups, where you test to learn your basic personality trait that has both sides - the positive and the negative side of that trait. It appears, it is the negative trait that we utilize when we must stand up for ourselves or handle a difficult stressful situation - I'm seeing the Count was brought up in a world where the appropriate behavior for his station in life no longer works in the new governing system and so, slowly his 'light' is being extinguished, just by behaving as he was trained and educated to think and act in another system. Seems those who did not enjoy his education react as if signs of education should also disappear, so as not to chaff those who lack a similar education. Oh dear - is the world better off as if we are all unlabeled wine do you think?
Bellamarie what is the name of the flower in your garden - beautiful - during the heat of our summer the bees in my yard go underground - they find a spot where they can buzz and hide under a tree root that protrudes above ground - makes it a challenge for Alejandro, the teen next door who mows my lawn - Have you read The Bees by Laline Paull - i have not read it yet, but I understand it is a novel that the bees natural way of life is made into a story of survival for this female bee. Such a nice idea to plant a garden with bees in mind - I remember you shared last year a nice photo of your entire garden - what a treat to walk out in the morning with coffee in hand and just breath it all in.
Ha I just thought - with swings in the weather living north during the winter months I bet it is easier to imagine yourself as the Count, pretty much shut off from the outside world except for your planned forays bundled up against the weather. You and yes, Karen who is inside most of the summer in order to stay cool.
Karen I think the difference is you are probably more like Houston with so much humidity but yes, August is like a northern winter in that the sun hammers down so the best of us try to get our outdoor activities completed by 9: in the morning and we are indoors till at least 7: in the evening when the breeze picks up and the sun is no longer breathing fire on us. I must say though I prefer the days when the temps are triple digit as compared to the days in the high 90s - that is when there is so much humidity that I feel drained where as triple digit temps burn off the humidity.
This is the first year in forever that we have been so housebound in winter - I can count the days on one hand since January 1 that we have seen the sun. Unusually cold, wet, thick fog, grey overcast - brrr and grrr Usually by early February I am out digging and planting - not this year - the Jasmin is only now starting to bloom, nearly a month late - I really need to take a chapter from your book Bellamarie and find out what plants grow here to attract bees that the deer will not eat - we have been so busy planting for the Monarchs that migrate through our area in the early fall since the unusual cold in Mexico a couple of years ago really knocked out the Monarch population.
Well onward to Book 3 - let's see how the Count, who learned from generations of men before him to surreptitiously hide gold coins in the least suspected place, handles life in this new gray society, as Pat says, "I wonder if the Count's inner life will take a different turn now." .
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Just had to share this email notice I just received after the shared photo of a bee attracting garden flower and talk of bees
Tomorrow, February 2018 Lunchtime Lecture - Pastoral Nature: Agrarianism and Rural America
In 1785, Thomas Jefferson famously asserted that, “Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, & they are tied to their country & wedded to its liberty & interests by the most lasting bands,” and he wanted to see America transformed into a democratic pastoral arcadia of farms and ranches.
This pastoral nature is the competing concept of American nature focused on farmland and ranchland in contrast to wilderness. Moreover, as American cities grew, rural life and nature in the countryside were seen as a cure for over-urbanized Americans who needed a weekend in the country to recover from the stress of city life.
Today, the American small family farm is still an idealized place of encounter and engagement with rural nature, best championed by Wendell Berry, who, like Jefferson, sees small farms as a cure for social problems and modern society’s mismanagement of nature. Thus, there is great cultural tension and a historic divide in the geography of the American mind between wilderness and pastoral nature. Join us as we explore the history of this idea of pastoral nature and its role in shaping contemporary agrarianism in America.
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Funny, I don't see the Count as arrogant which all of you do. I see him as a proud man who is trying to remain a person in spite of all attempts to force him into a "non person". To me he seems very resillant and strong even as he perches on the edge of the roof. He has lost his freedom, his titles, most of his possessions, his mustaches, his family, and childhood home. I don't see him acting superior to others or demeaning those who were lesser born. In fact his friends are employees of the hotel; he will soon be anemployee himself. I am however open to being convinced.
Tomorrow we move on to the first half of book 3 which is about 248 in my book.
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Karen, it's okay that you do not see the Count as everyone else does. That's the interesting part of our discussions, we all bring our own perspectives. What one may feel and see, another may very well see quite the opposite, which is okay, and no one needs to be convinced to see it from another's perspective.
Barb, I'm seeing the Count was brought up in a world where the appropriate behavior for his station in life no longer works in the new governing system and so, slowly his 'light' is being extinguished, just by behaving as he was trained and educated to think and act in another system. Seems those who did not enjoy his education react as if signs of education should also disappear, so as not to chaff those who lack a similar education. Oh dear - is the world better off as if we are all unlabeled wine do you think?
I do believe we are seeing this happening right here in our country today with the millennials. They seem to want to throw out the baby with the bath water so to speak. They don't want to follow what was/is important to the baby-boomer's generation. What we find educated, proper, moral and tradition, they find confining. I do feel like the Count, trying to figure out how to remain true to who I am,
without seeming unimportant in today's society.
PatH., He's a man of ideas stuck in a static place. I would go crazy.
He has always found his purpose in life by doing, thinking, traveling, being involved with people. The hotel walls are closing in on him. Then the bees give him new hope.
Barb, "if it is Karma that brings on painful happenings than we have to blame victims for their experiences"
kar·ma
ˈkärmə
noun
(in Hinduism and Buddhism) the sum of a person's actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences.
informal
destiny or fate, following as effect from cause.
My mention of Kama was implying the effect from the cause. He may very well have not been intending his actions to be as the lieutenant and Bishop perceived them, but it was his actions, that did indeed cause their reacting to him later on the way they did.
The name of my flower in the pic is Lavender, but the bees absolutely love my Rose of Sharon bush, more than anything else I plant. I have not read The Bees by Laline Paull. Interesting how your bees protect themselves from the extreme heat. I recall my friend was mowing his lawn one summer, hit a mound of bees in the ground, they swarmed him so badly he needed to be taken to urgent care. I do feel like a little bit of heaven is here on earth when all my flowers are in bloom, and I go out in the morning, sit on my patio, or walk around my pool taking in their beauty. It really is the little things is life that bring you so much joy! I am patiently awaiting to see how my Mom's rose bush survived the winter. My younger sister lives on our homestead in Michigan, and gave me a shoot from our mother's favorite climbing rose bush last summer. I went out every morning and knelt by the angel statue I placed in front of the rose shoot, and would say a little good morning to my Mom, and then pray for the rose to thrive and grow. It was climbing the trellis wonderfully by the time Fall was over.
I began Book Three yesterday, and Karen I can see how the reading goes a bit more quickly. The author is not taking the time to savor what is going on now. Towles is bringing us forward much faster, and gliding over things, such as Nina is now a teen with so little time to spare to chat with the Count. Anna has risen as a movie actress, fallen, and on the rise again. Phew..... it sure is at a fast pace now.
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I don't see the Count as arrogant either. Some things which might seem so out of context, like his behavior to the Hussar who courted his sister, were just playing by the rules of his class at that time.
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I see glimpses of arrogance when he finds pleasure in another person discomforts and humiliation, such as how he was in the courtroom, when he dismisses the lieutenant's IOU in front of all the others, when he laughed at the lieutenant slipping on ice while with the Princess, and interrupting the Bishop about the proper wine to suggest to another table. The entire chapter on his way he seemed to out maneuver the lieutenant with the Princess seemed a bit out of character, and immature. The Count overall, is a very likable man by most everyone, his manners in public are impeccable. I myself am mesmerized by him. I think it was good for the author to show some of his less admirable qualities. He is after all, a flawed human as the rest of us. If the author would have made him a perfect man in looks, deeds and actions, I personally would have not liked him as much as I do, because he would seem unapproachable. To the contrary, he is very approachable to the lowest, middle and upper class of people. But know I am not trying to dissuade anyone, from how they feel about him. I think we all can agree, we like him very much!
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So in books 1&2 we covered 1922-1929, nine years. The next three books will cover about twenty-five years. The older I get, the faster time seems to pass. This period in Russian history is most violent and oppressive; Joseph Stalin was a monster. In ythe part we have read so far the events outside the Metropol haven't seemed to affect life inside. Even the labels are back on the wine bottles. Let's see how much the outside impacts the daily goings-on as we read on. Stalin remains in power until he dies in 1953.
A very interesting new character will be introduced very soon.
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Jonathan,
1922, 1923...1924...1926...1930
Karen, The next three books will cover about twenty-five years. Stalin remains in power until he dies in 1953
Since I am so awful with history, it's good to have this timeline.
PatH., I wonder if the Count's inner life will take a different turn now.
Book Three 1930
pg 173 - 74 History is the business of identifying momentous events from the comfort of a high-back chair. With the benefit of time, the historian looks back and points to a date in the manner of a gray-haired field marshal pointing to a bend in a river on a map: There is was, he says. The turning point. The decisive factor. The fateful day that fundamentally altered all that was to follow.
There on the third of January 1928, the historians tell us, was the launch of the First Five-Year Plan__that initiative which would begin the transformation of Russia from a nineteenth-century agrarian society into a twentieth-century industrial power. There on the seventeenth of November 1929, Nikolai Bukharin, founding father, editor of Pravada, and last true friend of the peasant, was outmaneuvered by Stalin and ousted from the Poliburo_clearing the way for a return to autocracy in all but name. And there on the twenty-fifth of February 1027, was the drafting of Article 58 of the Criminal Code__the net that would eventually ensnare us all.
And it would be a decade before their effects were fully felt.
The Count is now employed with the Boyarsky. He seems to be a waiter and overseer of what is being cooked, along with how the restaurant is running.
pg 180 When the Count left the Boyarsky with his white jacket draped across his arm, there was a smile on his lips and a jauntiness to his step. In fact, there was a brightness in his whole demeanor.
The cold winter is coming to an end, the temps are on the rise, the Count has a purpose in life working at the Boyarsky, Emile the chef has given him a double bravo something that has not happened once or twice in the last four years, he has bumped into Nina who is now an adventurous self-assured teenager, Marina is teaching him to sew, and he has a midnight rendezvous to look forward to with the willowy Anna, who has returned.
From the top of a parapet about to jump, he is now buzzing like a bee in flight of honey. He seems to have taken to working and being called Comrade, which is a term used for all people of all status. I would like to think the Count's, inner life has taken a turn.
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'From the top of a parapet about to jump, he is now buzzing like a bee in flight of honey. He seems to have taken to working and being called Comrade, which is a term used for all people of all status. I would like to think the Count's, inner life has taken a turn.'
You're so right, Bellamarie. The revolution has put some fun into his life, like learning to sew and midnight rendezvous, and feeling Napoleonic when he's inspecting table settings as head waiter. To say nothing of comradeship and purpose. Let's keep our fingers crossed. His last words as he turned away from the parapet were: 'I'll be back.'
I'm finding more humor all the time. Mostly in the narrative style. Cozy little storyteller, isn't he? Or, I should say, all three of them. I've identified that many. He seems to be writing under some kind of compulsion. Very amusing.
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Ah the fortunes of life - is it an age thing I wonder - there is the upswing or high tide and then the tide is out - Nina on the upswing and Anna, as the Count are heading for or are at low tide - I wonder why the Count becomes a working member of the hotel staff - did he run out of hidden gold coins, did his Greek Money Changer leave Moscow or did the Count just decide to join the going "Comrade" game in town. Appears secret bits of saffron keeps him still in an honorable and noble position white jacket or not.
I wonder if most who approach retirement and who had reached top positions in an organization feel nostalgic for their early years while watching younger personal, who will sit in their seats make a beeline for the door saying they are expected elsewhere. Do they emotionally struggle knowing they too have fallen from grace, knowing their beauty, good looks, influence, fame and privilege was borrowed by a corporation building success so that now, among their peers , they greet adulation with caution, ambition with sympathy, and condescension with an inward smile.
How many of us hang on to our image that was attained and appropriate during our high tide years and gradually, we let go as the tide goes out.
The Count is an example of how we most likely will not find or retain the class or type of work we engaged in during our high tide years therefore, to have the courage to make the most of a job without near the prestige in order to have some relevance, some meaning in our life. He certainly knows how to enjoy the pleasures of the simple, from the self-made breakfast to the choice of thread after eagerly learning the encyclopedia of stitches. All this as compared to his dear friend Mishka, who will cherish the last of his days pining for his lost love.
The second act is being played out for both Anna and the Count, who remain proud and unbent as they become part of the Confederacy of the Humbled.
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Karen, am I right in thinking that we are reading through the chapter Adjustments, and stopping before Ascending, Alighting? An action-packed section.
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Thought long and hard and yes, I am prepared for differing outlooks - to me effect from cause has nothing to do with liking the Count - the story as told has to do with Revenge, 'Getting Even' and had it stopped at only getting even I would have seen it as a tit-for-tat or even karma. However, I saw a passion for revenge so calculating and overwhelming, and planned, so the act of revenge affected other innocent bystanders.
There was a huge disrespect for the wine growers whose work was dismissed as well as, taking joy from any future diners whose meal was made less than. - And greater, to humiliate and mistreat a women as in the earlier scene is unforgivable. Neither the servant nor Helena did anything and yet, they were damaged. I guess it would be called collateral damage but not even that, since the damage itself was using others to get even with the Count.
Just the logic about revenge is twisted, conflicted, and dangerous but these two instances were far more than one-on-one getting even. Yes, revenge is a primitive, destructive, and a violent response to anger, injury, or humiliation. It is a misguided attempt to transform shame into pride. However, defending one's honor with reprisal I can not see as fate or cause and effect - I see it as acting in passion without connecting to the one attribute we have as humans - the ability to think and control our behavior.
Yes, the Count humiliated his beloved sister's friend, a fellow officer, of the noble class who did not show noble character, and yes, the Count suggesting a wine, where innocent enough, made the waiter feel inadequate but the responses by both were over the top beyond tit-for-tat humiliation.
Unfortunately, the magnitude gap—the pain inflicted was far more intense than that of the original offense. We know losses cannot be restored or undone, and we know retaliation does not provide reparations. Both instances saw, not 'getting even' but vengeance, pursuing ‘harm to others’ in retaliation for the wrong ‘they felt’ the Count caused.
"Avenging a wrong is pursing revenge to punish those who you hold responsible for a loss to yourself, or someone else you respect."
Another, softer quote “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and the whole world would soon be blind and toothless.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi - The Count seemed to react closer to this quotes rather than set a course for further destruction.
It pains me that the word Karma is currently used to mean a natural push back that happens as a result of earlier collective behavior, good or bad. I think the concept needs serious revision in light of the 'Me To' movement - little girls are not receiving their just deserts. Therefore, it is a response I think we in the west or maybe even the philosophy of the east needs to re-visit.
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Pat, yes, read through Adjustments.
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For a man under house arrest he is living a full life - Now he plays 'uncle' to Sophie - something tells me he and Sophie will be in each other's company for far more than a couple of months.
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This is an action-packed section, and also has a lot of humor, and scenes with amusing surprise twists.
It starts with a normal morning for the Count, but then, after a passage about the history of these days, the Count walks through the doors of the kitchen, carrying a white jacket over his arm. He has become a hotel employee!
We aren't told how this happened--whether he did it voluntarily or whether the political climate demanded that every comrade do useful work, but it's the perfect place for him. He's a genius at seating plans, food and wine pairings, and how everything about a dinner should function. And he seems to enjoy it.
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I think it's those bees again. They work their whole life producing honey; the Count is producing nothing. So, the day after the roof, he goes to Andrey, first in line when the door opened. The one skill he has talked about is his ability to place people at tables which he learned at his Grandmother's dinner parties. It is implied that he he asked Andrey to put him to work in the Boyarsky. I don't think he has ever worked in his life, but a "life of leisure" is no longer fulfilling to him.
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Yes, this section is going at a fast pace. The Count seems to be contented, working, sewing, and seeing Anna once again. And what do you suppose will come of this new character Colonel Osip Ivanovich and the Count? Interesting conversation they have:
pg. 211-12 "You would like to learn French and English?" Osip raised his glass in confirmation. "Yes, sir. But I don't simply want to learn the languages. i would like to understand those who speak them. And most especially, I would like to understand their privileged classes__for that's who remains at the helm. I would like to understand how they view the world; what they are likely to count as a moral imperative; what they would be prone to value and what to disdain. It's a matter of developing certain diplomatic skills, if you will. But for a man in my position, it is best to foster one's skills discreetly." "How do you propose that I help?" "Simple. Dine with me once a month in this very room. Speak with me in French and English. Share with me your impressions of Western societies. And in exchange. . . " Glebnikov let his sentence trail off, not to imply the paucity of what he could do for the Count, but rather to suggest the abundance. But the Count raised a hand to stay any talk of exchanges. "If you are a customer of the Boyarksy, Osip Ivanovich, then I am already at your service."
Hmmm....sorta reminded me of this:
When policemen arrive, Renault pauses, then orders them to "round up the usual suspects." He suggests to Rick that they join the Free French in Brazzaville. As they walk away into the fog, Rick says, "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship".
Casablanca (film) - Wikipedia
Now I see why Jonathan mentioned the movie Casablanca when we first began reading this book. So many references are in this book from Casablanca. I am going to rent the movie this week end and watch it. It has piqued my interest.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casablanca_(film)
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Karen, that was sort of my thought too--I didn't think of the bees, but in a way his old life ended when he didn't jump, and he's now taking a new direction and purpose.
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Karen: 'I don't think he has ever worked in his life, but a "life of leisure" is no longer fulfilling to him.'
Let's remember his reply at his 'trial', when he was asked, 'And what is your occupation?' 'It is not the business of gentlmen to have occupations.'
Just look at him now. He's a first-rate waiter. A foster parent. A budding seamster. What next? Take in washing? No. He's asked to be a conultant on dealing with foreigners. The Count would probably say, 'It's all a matter of mastering one's circumstances.' And in the process he is becoming a useful citizen. I wonder if there is a future for him in the Party.
I seem to remember a Bolshevik rallying cry: 'To each according to his needs. From each according to his ability.' Pol Sci 101.
Enjoy the movie, Bellamarie. I can't help wondering about it's relevance to the book. It's challenging.
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"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" is a slogan popularised by Karl Marx in his 1875 Critique of the Gotha Program.
Cold War Child that I was, I was supposed to hate Marx and the Commies. But, I thought this sounded like a great idea. I formed liberal roots very young.
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Seems the whole attitude is changing in Russia, or at least at the Shalyapin Bar, three things are credited to the lighter, fun mood, they are 1.) Jazz has returned, 2.) the Foreign Press office opened up in 1928, 3.) And then there was that extraordinary development of 1929. in April of that year, the Shalyapin suddenly had not one, not two, but three hostesses__all young, beautiful, and wearing black dresses hemmed above the knee. With what charm and elegance they moved among the patrons of the bar, gracing the air with their slender silhouettes, delicate laughter, and hint of perfume. pg 213
So, we have hostesses eavesdropping and bringing information back to the little grey guy behind the little grey desk, and you have the Bishop suspicious of the Count, snooping and following him around like his shadow.
Anna has up and left the Metropol with no good-bye to the Count. Nina has returned a married woman, with her little 5 yr old daughter Sophia in tow, asking the Count to take care of her while she gets her self settled, since Leo has been arrested in Lubyanka. Mishka has gone and committed suicide, and the Count is now straddled with this sweet little clone of Nina at her age. Sophia is beyond her years, just like her mother.
pg 239 "Would you like to hear a story about a princess?" he suggested. Sophia sat upright. "The age of nobility has given way to the age of the common man," she said with the pride of one who has recited her times tables correctly. "It was historically inevitable." "Yes," said the Count. "So I've been told."
The Count is a true example of this statement. Still a gentleman yes, nobility hmmmm.....more a common servant at this point.
Sophia notices the clock and tells him it is broken because it struck the hour twelve in the afternoon, but did not strike the prior hours. He explains it is a "twice-tolling clock."
pg 245 Rather, having been suitably industrious before lunch, he should spend his afternoon in wise liberty. That is he should walk among the willows, read a timeless text, converse with a friend beneath the pergola, or reflect before the fire__engaging in those endeavors that have no appointed hour, and that dictate their own beginnings and end. And the second chime? The Count's father was of the imind that one should never hear it. If one had lived one's day well__in the service of industry, liberty and the Lord__one should be soundly asleep long before the twelve. The the second chime of the twice-tolling clock was most definitely a remonstrance.
What are you doing up? it was meant to say. Were you so profligate with your daylight that you must hunt about for things to do in the dark?
After reading this last night in the wee hours of the night, I had to laugh and wonder.....What am I doing up?
Where does the Count go from here? Sophia is surely going to cramp not only his little room in the attic, but his daily life schedule as well. What is he going to do with her while he has to work? She seems a bit self sufficient, yet also very much needing to feel safe. He seems to have taken to her like a fish takes to water. Has his instincts of taking care of Helena kicked in, and he finds it natural to care for Sophia?
When will we move ahead on the next chapters Karen? I am not rushing ahead, I will wait patiently for everyone to catch up and post.
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Hello - I'm just dropping in to say I am really sorry I haven't contributed to this. I had every intention of doing so, but I've had both my husband and my youngest daughter at home, stranded by snow, and somehow the days have just vanished (apart from anything else, there's suddenly all this cooking and laundry again! I've become accustomed to just one person's stuff, ie mine!).. It's lovely to have company, but time-consuming too - also all of our buses stopped, so for a few days it took longer just to get to/from work, etc (though luckliy I do at least live within walking distance).
Anyway, I think I'm too far behind now, but I really did enjoy reading the book, and I've bought Casablanca and Dr Zhivago to enjoy this week, when I think both of them will have been able to get on their ways (though of course I've also got some TV to catch up - it was no good watching things like Shetland with them, as we're half way through the story and I know my husband would've been asking questions approximately every 2 minutes...)
Thank you Karen for bringing this excellent book to our attention - I've recommended it to several people.
Best wishes to all,
Rosemary
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I think, Bella, thay most are ready to move, so let's do it. Let's try to finish Book 3 by Friday. Then we will start Book 4 on Saturday. I am having spinal surgery later this month. I will know more on Tuesday when I meet with the doctor so I will be able to give you all a date.
Rosemary, we missed you, but I am so glad that you enjoyed the book. I don't know what the next selection is sho keep your eyes peeled.
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Rosemary, I am so sorry to hear you are leaving us. Keep poking in and commenting if you can find the time, we are always excited to have your thoughts. Sometimes when you read the entire book too soon, you have a tendency to drop out because you don't want to give away spoilers to those who have not read ahead. Once all gets settled back to normal maybe you can come back in at least at the end to let us know what you thought about the book.
Karen, Oh dear, I hope all goes well with your surgery. Do let us know as far as scheduling etc. My daughter was in a car accident a few months back and needs that type of surgery, but she must quit smoking for six months before the doctor will do it.
I was not able to get Casablanca this week end, so I will try to find it throughout this week and watch it. My On Demand sells it for $15 which I think is a bit much. I am going to try a rental store today.
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It's a new life for the Count, with five-year-old Sofia.
'She is no more than thirty pounds, no more than three feet tall, her entire bag of belongings could fit in a single drawer; she rarely speaks unless spoken to; and her heart beats no louder than a bird's. So how is it possible that she takes up so much space!'
'What is your dolly's name?' 'Dolly doesn't have a name.' 'Your dolly must have a name.' 'Why?' 'Why, so that she can be addressed. So that she can be invited for tea; called to from across the room, discussed in conversation when absent; and included in your prayers.' p240
The experience has the Count rattled at 48. At 22, he remembers, he could not be 'inconvenienced, interrupted, or unsettled'. p241
Thanks again, Karen, for proposing and leading the discussion of this picturesque, provoking and entertaining book. May it serve as a distraction in a difficult time for you.
Bellamarie, you have something to look forward to. The critics raved about it as soon as it came out. 'The most beloved movie of all time.' 'The most romantic on-screen couple ever'. 'A picture which makes the spine tingle and the heart take a leap.' Your posts on our book are such a pleasure to read.
Good to hear from you, Rosemary. We're getting such graphic reports of the winter weather your getting, with pictures of abandoned vehicles in snow drifts. I talked to someone in Switzerland the other day and she told me about the bitter cold. Think spring. Stay optimistic. My birthday next week, and I'll have only one more year to get to the gay nineties. I've heard so much about them.
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I have not finished Book Three just yet, but I am enjoying the relationship the Count and Sofia have formed. She has him scurrying around the room searching for a small silver thimble, which she has secretly placed in his jacket pocket. After he has searched to no avail I love this exchange:
pg 257 "Well done, Sofia" he said. Sofia looked directly at the Count for the first time since he'd come into the room. "Are you giving up?" "I am conceding," said the Count. "Is that the same as giving up?" "Yes, it is the same as giving up." "Then you should say so." Naturally. His humiliation must be brought to its full realization. "I give up," he said. Without a hint of gloating, Sofia accepted his surrender. Then she jumped off her chair and walked toward. He stepped a little out of her way, assuming that she must have hid the thimble somewhere in the bookcase. But she didn't approach the bookcase. Instead, she stopped in front of him, reached into his jacket pocket, and withdrew the thimble. The Count was aghast. "But, but, but, Sofia__that's not fair!" Sofia studied the Count with curiosity. "Why is it not fair?" Always with that damnable Why. "Because it's not." replied the Count. "But you said we could hide it anywhere in the room." "That's just it, Sofia. My pocket wasn't in the room." "Your pocket was in the room when I hid the thimble; and it was in the room when you hunted. . . ." And as the Count gazed into her innocent little face, it all became clear. He, a master of nuance and sleight of hand, had been played at every turn.
Couldn't you just see the look on the Count's face, knowing he had been duped by this little 5 yr old. Sofia is definitely her mother's daughter!
I have to wonder what has become of the Count that we saw in the beginning of this story, the noble, staunch gentleman? He has turned into a commoner, working in a restaurant, running up the hotel stairs at the beck and call of the willowy Anna, sewing his own buttons on his waiter's coat, and now playing hide n seek with a thimble, being outwitted by a 5 yr old Sophia. Oh my!
Yes, Jonathan, it's a new life for the Count.
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Jonathan I finally watched Casablanca! Oh how my hubby and I enjoyed this movie. Is there any other woman actress as beautiful as Ingrid Bergman? Ilsa and Rick's love for each other was so selfless. They sure don't make movies like this any more. I purchased a new DVD/CD HDMI player for only 29.99 and the actual movie was only 7.99. Now I can go back and watch a ton of my favorite DVDs I have collected over the years. I have to say, now I know why you mentioned early on the similarities The Gentleman in Moscow and Casablanca have. After watching the movie and remembering a few comments from a few of you in your posts here, I can't help but wonder if our Count will one day manage to leave Russia.
Okay I am going to finish up reading Book Three today.
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Bellamarie, I'm very pleased to read of the enjoyment you and your husband had watching Casablanca. I've watched it several times now and it gets better with every viewing. Rick and Ilsa are now my most inspiring lovers, having replaced Heloise and Abelard. Have you read the letters exchanged by H and A? Heartbreaking.
On to end of Book Three.
'At two o'clock, when Marina answered her office door to find the Count at the threshold in the company of a little girl with a rag doll gripped tightly by the neck, she was so surprised her eyes almost came into alignment.
'Ah, Marina' said the Count, raising his eyebrows meaningfully. 'You remember Nina Kulikova? May I present her daughter, Sofia. She will be saying with us in the hotel a bit...'
Ah, how nice it would be to have a five-year-old around the house with her raggedy no-name doll. I suppose I too would soon realize a little help would be necessary for survival.
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Jonathan,
Rick and Ilsa are now my most inspiring lovers, having replaced Heloise and Abelard. Have you read the letters exchanged by H and A?
I have never heard of Abelard and Heloise. Of course you have sparked my curiosity, so I have done a Google search. I will have to delve into their letters after we finish this book.
Speaking of finishing, I just finished reading Book Three. Oh my heavens there is so much that is happening in these pages, I don't even know where to begin. I take notes as I read and mark certain pages to remind me of things that I find interesting, and I think I lost track. Mishka and Osip are very enlightening with their ideas, and then comes Captain Vanderwhile, who seems to be able to help the Count bring into focus the opinions of both Mishka and Osip, making him realize we can not hold back progress. Progress will continue, whether we are ready for it or not, whether we protest against it, or whether we see it as a destruction of our past. I think of how here in the United States this past year we have seen the protest of statues that have stood for centuries being destroyed, pulled down and symbols that reminded us of how far we have come as a nation. This millennial generation repudiates so much of what past generations fought and died for. I can see that in this book, even then, the same fights are being fought, just different ideologies or causes, but in essence the same, resisting or introducing progress be it industrial, technology, physics or psychology. I find myself relating so much to the Count, questioning how all this makes any sense. What really made me stop and take note was this:
pg 293 Osip Ivanovich had actually mastered the English language right down to the past perfect progressive as early as 1939. But American movies still deserved their careful consideration, he argues, not simply as windows into Western culture, but as unprecedented mechanisms of class repression. For with cinema, the Yanks had apparently discovered how to placate the entire working class at the cost of a nickel a week. "Just look at the Depression," he said. "From beginning to end it lasted ten years. An entire decade in which the Proletariat was left to fend for itself, scourging in alleys and begging at chapel doors. If ever there had been a time for the American worker to cast off the yoke, surely that was it. But did they join their brothers-in-arms? Did they shoulder their axes and splinter the doors of the mansions? Not even for an afternoon. Instead, they shuffled to the nearest movie house, where the latest fantasy was dangled before them like a pocket watch at the end of a chain. Yes, Alexander, it behooves us to study this phenomenon with the utmost diligence and care."
Like the seasoned scientist, Osip would coolly dissect whatever they had just observed. The musicals were "pastries designed to placate the impoverished with daydreams of unattainable bliss." The horror movies were "sleights of hand in which the fears of the workingman have been displaced by those of pretty girls." The vaudevillian comedies were "preposterous narcotics." And the westerns? They were the most devious propaganda of all: fables in which evil is represented by collectives who rustle and rob; while virtue is a lone individual who risks his life to defend the sanctity of someone else's private property. In sum? "Hollywood is the single most dangerous force in the history of class struggle."
"What is this?" he would ask of no one in particular. "Who is making these movies? Under what auspices?"
From one to the next, they seemed to depict an America in which corruption and cruelty lounged on the couch; in which justice was a beggar and kindness a fool; in which loyalties were fashioned from paper, and self-interest was fashioned from steel. In other words, they provided an unflinching portrayal of Capitalism as it actually was. "How did this happen, Alexander? Why do they allow these movies to be made? Do they not realize they are hammering a wedge beneath their own foundation stones?"
These are pretty insightful words our author Towles has written. He is placing them in a time frame of the 1930's and 40s, but look how they fit right into today's world. Look at the attitudes of Hollywood, look at their lifestyles, look at how they are such hypocrites who stand before their award podiums and preach to those who are willing to even tune into them any more, and tell us how their political views are superior to the rest of us. They have rapists, abusers, adulterers, sexual predictors, criminals among them, yet they continue to cast their stones out at the people who go to the movies to pay their wages. They live in gated, guarded mansions, wear thousand dollar gowns and tuxedos, drink the finest wines, champagnes, and eat at the most expensive restaurants, send their children to the most elite expensive private schools, make their violent, vulgar sexual movies and music and then pass their judgement out to the very people who have made them the successful actors and actresses they are today. They see their lives above reproach, they do not feel they are expected to live within a moral standard, they mock faith and family values, and now they intend to put someone like Oprah Winfrey up to run for the presidency, so they can control every aspect of the lives of the rest of us, when they don't even value or respect human life from conception. Yes, Towles's words, coming from Osip's mouth, has enormous insight where Hollywood is concerned. Dupe them, deceive them, and deflect them from their real life issues. The show must go on..... there is only one difference today, the sleeping American people have awoken. They no longer are willing to pay the price to go be entertained by Hollywood, they no longer find watching their self aggrandizing award shows entertaining, they no longer place value in their self-righteous speeches, and more importantly, the American people see them for who they are, and are rejecting them. The Oscars had the lowest viewer ratings in history, this past Sunday night. It was reported most of the movies nominated were not at all known to the average American. Yes sireee times they are a changin, and Hollywood just may have lost their Midas touch. Social media, internet, cell phones, ipads, etc., is the new induced narcotic, Towles speaks of. People don't want to take two hours out of their day to sit in a movie theater, that charges them too much for a ticket, popcorn and drink, to watch actors and actresses who they have seen spew hatred and hypocrisy at them. Nope like myself, I prefer buying a new DVD/CD player and the actual movie for less than what it would cost me and my hubby to go to a theater, and watch it in the comforts of our own home. Sorry Hollywood..... You've lost that lovin feelin. As Rick said to Ilsa, when saying his good-bye.....Here's lookin at you kid.
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I found out yesterday that my surgery will be the 16th which is next week, so Pat has volunteered to smoothly glide into leading us. I will be a participant until next Friday when I can focus and think clearly. I do need to say how much fun this group has been. I am sad that I may not be around at the end, or maybe I will. I wish those who did not participate for various reasons will read and enjoy the book as much as I think we all have. I would love to have all of you sitting around a samovar or a bottle of Russian vodka in my living room, but isn't Senior Learn a great option. Karen
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Karen, thank you for bringing this book to our book club, and thank you for leading us thus far. I hope your surgery goes well, and wish only the best of results and health for you. Thank you Pat, for agreeing to lead us to the end of this book. Our Count is such an interesting character, and I can’t wait to see how this book ends.
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Sorry not been a part of things - had a buyer that we found a to-be-built on Friday and Saturday we spent all morning and early afternoon picking out brick, flooring, lights etc etc - all but the paint - then on Sunday writing the contract took another 6 hours - then I missed last week's class so Monday I had to get training in order to work the polls today - I am completely bushed and only started the second half of book 3 today during the dead time at the polls -
Wow - interesting seeing this time in history from the perspective of someone whose background is so far removed from our Jeffersonian thinking that heralds individualism versus collective anything - "Jefferson abhorred the idea of America becoming an urban, manufacturing nation, something that could happen rapidly under the Hamiltonian vision. Instead, he believed rural individualism, symbolized by the yeoman farmer, was the best way to sustain a republic. Small yeoman farmers were the exemplars of American virtue, he claimed. Having spent time in Europe, Jefferson witnessed the disease, poverty and filth of many cities and did not want America taking a similar course. Moreover, people who worked for others, rather than being self-sufficient farmers, were susceptible to pressure from bosses to vote a certain way. This lack of political independence threatened American democracy, according to Jefferson."
In the meantime after Lenin had his stroke and Stalin made the huge switch from a Socialistic idealism to Stalinism in the 1920s the outcome of the switch to collective farming sent 8 million Russians to their death from starvation. Interesting the meeting with Osip in the 1940s is after Stalin's purge in the 1930s as a result of the death of Kirov, his best buddy and who historians think was killed by Stalin's orders because he, Kirov, was favored during the vote in 1934 that the unfavorable votes for Stalin magically disappeared.
One movie that was not yet made that was made from the 1919 book by Reed, Ten Days That Shook The World, was the movie Reds with Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton. Now that is a movie to rent - except for Trotsky's History of the Russian Revolution, Ten Days That Shook The World is the best account and written by an American Journalist.
Funny that Osip thought folks went regularly to the movie theater during the depression - not even taking into account that a movie showed in a theater for weeks - often up to 16 weeks and then went to the B theaters and finally the neighborhood theater so one move was available for a year - with kids saying they enjoyed a chicken dinner meaning their family had an egg for dinner most fathers were wanting the yoke of a job and so there were few movies for the average, who saw a movie as an escape, a fantasy, not a lesson but rather an idealistic view of non-reality.
I think back and all those westerns that we kids saw on Saturday afternoon in the late 30s and early 40s always had the white hat good guy as a loner and the bad guy, more often than not was the big rancher with his hired men.
As to the Communist party in the US - it was very active however, Roosevelt out did them and put folks back under the 'welcome' yoke of work - that was all folks wanted - and the CCC - WPA - CWA - HOLC - PWA - TVA etc. was like rain after a severe drought - Then, just as the unions that resulted from the Communist parties, that in the USA were called Socialists, were getting more than a toe hold, we were coming to terms with what to do about helping Europe since Hitler was at it... During the war, those in Hollywood and other intellects who did get their party card in the 30s were silent, followed by being blacklisted big time at war's end.
I think what Osip did not understand that like, Rick in Casablanca, during the 30s most Americans believed in neutrality and were mostly indifferent, with the Monroe Doctrine still a guiding force and the huge Atlantic Ocean our separation from Europe. But then again, like Rick Blaine, once we are caught up and see the job as ours there is a single mindedness similar to those in Leningrad, who, with the help of severe winter weather's affect on themselves as well as the enemy, they held off Hitler's army, as we crushed the Nazi's in Europe and Northern Africa.
My sense is Osip only sees the world, as he saw American movies through the eyes of a totalitarian Governing System with some Socialistic benefits, decided by the ruling Stalin and 'his' party, compared to a Democratic Governing System where Jacksonian Individualism holds equal sway with Hamilton Federalism, that pushes for a strong central government. As a nation we are still balancing those extremes and everyone, regardless of their work has an opinion.
I just had a gut feeling Sophie would be a guest for far more than a couple of months and now she is a teen - seems like being a part of a work or group environment, experiencing several kinds of love and a having purpose beyond keeping memories and manners alive is the key/message for a meaningful life. It also appears having an enemy here and there does not hurt either.
OK need to finish reading book three...
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Yes, I need to finish Book 3 too, now that I'm responsible for it. I've spent the last few days dealing with the aftermath of last week's storm. I had the tops of some large trees blow off, taking branches and smaller trees down with them, and making a super mess. But now the stuff that couldn't wait, mostly a large branch on the roof, has been cleared, and the rest can wait until the tree people aren't so busy. I was really lucky--no damage at all to the house, fence, etc. The trees chose how they landed carefully.
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Barb so glad to see you back. The Count had originally expected to have Sofia a month or so at the most. He went from Uncle Alexander to Papa, now that Sofia is a teenager. The little game of running up the staircases to see who could get there first turned out to be a dangerous game, and now poor Sofia has a concussion, and the Count without giving it a second thought has stepped outside the Metropol for the first time in twenty some years, to get help for Sofia. I found it touching how his instincts were immediately that of a parent, and how all his friends came to his and Sofia's aide. He really did get a good glimpse of how the outside world has changed when he realized the hospital that once was, is now no longer used for much, with a skeleton crew, along with being a shelter for the homeless.
PatH., Again, thank you so much for stepping in for Karen. I'm so glad the trees did not do any damage to your roof or house. I woke up to the biggest snowflakes flying about, only to cease in a matter of minutes. I feel Spring is pushing it's way through the scattered flurries we have been getting this past week. My tulips and Easter lilies are pushing through the ground, and the blackbirds have returned to my feeders. I am so ready for Spring.
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Well, Book 3 is certainly action-packed. It's got everything: drama, love, pathos, humor, even slapstick, philosophy and more, all against the political background of Russia's turbulent history.
One tiny incident struck me as significant. When Sophia comes into the Count's life, just after Marina has pointed out that it is he who must supply the child's emotional needs, he is running up the stairs. "I can do this" he says to himself. This is the moment in which he accepts his strange new fate and truly commits to it.
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Karen, our good wishes go with you through the upcoming medical procedure. Of course you'll be there when we get to the end of this hilarious story. Just look at the great posts it's provoking.
For Marx religion was the opiate of the people. For the Bolsheviks it was Hollywood. It seems to me it was Hollywood that saved the country and enthralled the rest of the world with the American dream.
The book itself is great theater, told with great dramatic eloquence. As in the sceneAscending, Alighting, in which the man 'prone to pacing' comes on stage. Will the pacing end with 'judicious behavior' or 'impulsively'? And we're treated to a 'consideration of causes and consequences, of ramifications and repercussions.'
The scene comes to an end with the Count unable to fall asleep. The best remedy, 'the counting of sheep in a meadow' is not available to him, since he prefers his lamb 'encrusted with herbs and served with wine'. So he counts the many flights of stairs he has climbed and descended that day. 59! So why didn't he label the scene simply Up and Down? Sofia, no doubt, makes it 60 by informing him in the P.S. (Addendum) that she has left her Dolly in Aunt Marina's room downstairs.
The author is most certainly a city boy. Sheep aren't counted in the meadow. Only after they are gathered in the fold.
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Karen
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Osip is amusing. He quickly spots it when the Count hasn't read the assignment and tries to fake it. He decides that American movies are a tool to control the masses, but he can't stop watching them, is so hooked on Humphrey Bogart movies that he snarls with fury when the Count interrupts him while watching one for the third time.
Even party functionaries can have good hearts, though. When Sofia is concussed, he quickly arranges the best care in Moscow for her, and gets the Count smuggled back to the hotel, thus saving his life too.
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Has anyone read de Toqueville? Would this hundred year old (at the time they read it) book give Osip a real idea of what Americans were like?
If I were picking, I would throw in some Mark Twain. He shows a side of Americans that's very different from Europeans--a kind of frontier way of thinking, a feeling that we are the land of second chances, new opportunity, and self-reliance. And his humor is a uniquely American sort.
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PatH.,
Has anyone read de Toqueville? Would this hundred year old (at the time they read it) book give Osip a real idea of what Americans were like?
I have not read it, but based on the summary, it would have given Osip more about how the American government worked, more so than what Americans were like.
The project Tocqueville undertook in writing Democracy in America was a highly ambitious one. Having seen the failed attempts at democratic government in his native France, he wanted to study a stable and prosperous democracy to gain insights into how it worked.
http://www.gradesaver.com/democracy-in-america
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Some years ago we read Toqueville here on Senior Learn or maybe we were still SeniorNet. Robbie as the discussion leader - he jumped around in the book rather than reading it straight through and I was always going to go back and read it from beginning to end but like so many good ideas - "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft agley."
I am imagining that every city has significant changes over 30 years - can you think back 30 years ago and envision the changes where you live - here in the USA I think even farm land has taken a major change in 30 years, between cities growing out and gobbling up what was pastures and small farms no longer the way of things, with large factory farms having taken over since the early 90s (looks like we followed the example of the Soviet Union) - about the only places that have not had a major change in 30 years is some ranch land - and yes, large city hospitals have been replaced, even small town hospitals have shuttered and no longer operating although, there are so many small emergency clinics but not in small towns.
The Count really had to depend on the taxi driver - can you just imagine finding your daughter unconscious and the panic trying to find a hospital with everything having changed - he really sees Sophia as his daughter - no word all this time from or about her parents - I wonder if we will ever learn or are we to realize the saved photo of the parents was the memorial?
Seems to me I am remembering back about 15 or 20 years ago reading how if you need hospital care in Russia you had to bring with you your own sheets and towels as well as the things used for personal care and arrange for meds on the Black Market - I am trying to remember when this was talked about - something to do with a ballet star needing care and Mikhail Baryshnikov explaining - let's see he defected in the 70s but it was later - Reagan did his Tear Down This Wall speech in the mid 80s - seems to me it was around this time - before the wall did come down and the Soviet Union was dissolved which was with Gorbachev in the early 90s.
I'm getting lost in the time frame of the story - I think this is supposed to be in the early 50s that Sophie was rushed off the the hospital - let's see, if The Count was under 'house' arrest since the early 20s - forgot, I think 1922 before Stalin took over and the originals, like Lenin were still organizing and this is supposed to be 30 years later than yes, it would be in the 50s that the Count was rushing Sophia to the hospital.
When was the last time you smelled fresh baked bread? Here in Austin we had a local bread company where the air was full of the smells of fresh baked bread in two locations - come to think of it I do not even know when they stopped baking - it has been years since driving along and smelling fresh baked bread - it is as if today everything is made in some factory in the sky and simply arrives in the stores packaged with no clue to a youngster that the bread was actually baked or that flour was milled. We do not even have on TV a Mr. Rogers any longer showing youngsters how things are made.
No wonder they have their nose in some devise or another - that is as real as anything in their daily existence. We used to have class outings with parents signing up to accompany the class as they visited places like the Bakery or if not the school at least the Boy and Girl Scout groups after school - I do not even see that taking place any longer - wow, I wonder what is left here in my area that even is reminiscent of the outings where my children saw how things were made.
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Well I had to look it up and attempted to use their chat line - seems all the Mrs. Baird bread locations are closed, even the one in Waco and in Dallas - there is one left in Fort Worth - never knew when Mrs. Baird's bread even served beyond Waco - times sure have changed - at least there are still tours made available at their Fort Worth location.
Tra La Mrs Johnson's Bakery that was never into mass production is still over on Airport Blvd since 1948 - need to check it out.
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As nearly as I can figure out from the chapter headings, it's 1946 when Sofia has her accident. I wish dates were scattered more thickly in the book. The Count takes Sofia to what had once been a fine hospital, and finds almost no facilities left.
And he has no money, which reminds me, I wonder who pays for his room and board? When he didn't kill himself, in 1926, he put the gold piece meant to pay for his funeral back in its desk leg, "...where it would remain untouched for another twenty-eight years." So that's not what he's using.
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I think at the beginning the leg was filled with gold coins. I think that the man he called in the beginning sells them.
I had an exchange student who learned about America watching American tv. He was a little disappointed when he came to live with me because he thought that everyone had houses and lived as they did on "Dallas". I told him that most people who live in Dallas don't live like they do on the tv show. Ossip asked to learn not about the country but subtleties about Americans. Movies are good for that as long as you watch them with someone who knows Americans. I think you can know English but find it difficult to speak with an American. Remember "Throw MAMA from the train a kiss", one of my favorites songs from the 50s. my experience with regional colloquialisms was my first days as a freshman: Maine girl goes to Catholic University, in DC. The first week and until the first soccer win, we had to wear a cap that they called a dink. Now in Maine the word "dink"refers to the penis. So every time a sophomore asked someone why her dink is not on her head, I burst out laughing. Those kinds of things Issip would learn from watching movies. Thank you for all your good wishes.
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Karen:
I think at the beginning the leg was filled with gold coins. I think that the man he called in the beginning sells them.
Yes. What wasn't clear to me was whether the man sold it all at once, or only some of it at first. The man is given 3 pieces and told there's more. But probably it was all sold, except the piece reserved for burial, and the count has now spent it all.
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The plan is to start talking about Book 4 tomorrow. Tentatively, a week on 4, then a week on 5, but this can be shifted when we see what's needed. They're shorter books. As always, we can still talk about earlier stuff too.
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PatH.,
Yes. What wasn't clear to me was whether the man sold it all at once, or only some of it at first. The man is given 3 pieces and told there's more. But probably it was all sold, except the piece reserved for burial, and the count has now spent it all.
I don't get the impression the Count has spent all his coins, he told the man there is plenty where that came from. There are four desk legs that were filled with the valuable coins. I think it would be enough to keep him in his lavish dining style, for the rest of his life. I think taking the job at the restaurant was more to have something to do, not about an income. He does not have to pay rent to the hotel because he has been put under house arrest in an attic. I don't think money is an issue, he is a wealthy man. He could sell some of his belongings that are valuable, if there was ever a matter of money issues.
I am going to begin Book Four today. Can't wait to see what is next for Sofia and the Count.
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Yes, I agree with Bellamarie on the coins - my only thought was he may still have some however, is the Greek money changer still alive or in business - I think the idea he had no money for the hospital was more that he rushed out without thinking of money since he had little use for it all those years and so he was not in the habit of carrying around any cash - but then we are all imagining since Towles does not go into the background on why he had no money.
I thought the Count rushing out was such a testament that we all will put our life at stake for our children - with no concern for himself - he could be jailed or shot - he rushes Sophia to the hospital.
I think that is the challenge for most of singles who have aged and no longer have young grandchildren - we are fortunate if we still have a good friend that we would risk life or limb for their welfare but when close friends are gone I think it is a real challenge adding to the isolation similar to the isolation the Count experienced in Book One -
Count Rostov's life is full after he no longer is caught in memory and attempting to re-create the life he had - once he got into the swing of things that the old way of life was no more and that all people mixed with their moral values the only separator - so that a job not only gave him purpose but allowed him to mix and make friends (the Triumvirate) and then the big one - being made responsible for Sophia, all gave him a life changing purpose - it appears having a meaningful purpose is what makes life meaningful and a reason to live - which says to me no matter our age we all need a meaningful purpose to feel happy.
In the story there is so much trust between people - I'm thinking more than usual since their lives were under unusual circumstances - but the trust of a mother giving to a friend her daughter in order to be a support for her husband and then when the Count had to leave the hospital the trust he had to put in Marina to stay close and watch over Sophia and be his heart, arms and care - can you just imagine handing your child to another - oh oh oh.
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JOIN US AS WE DISCUSS
A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW
BY AMOR TOWLES. |
During February and March, we will be filling cold, gray days by reading A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles in the Senior Learn Book Club. Our pre-discussion will begin on February 7. Let's introduce ourselves, and then perhaps talk about what we know of the goings-on in Russia in the early 20th century and our impressions of the Russian people. Those of us who grew up in the 50s and 60s could share how we learned of the Russians and the feelings we had about all of this. This will also be a place for questions about the discussion, the assigned reading schedule and about each other. Let's save discussion of the text until February 12 when we begin the actual discussion.
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Discussion Schedule for A Gentleman in Moscow
February 12 Book 1
February 21. Book 2
February 28. Let's start on half of Book 3. In my book that is around 248
March 7. 248 to the end of book 3
March 10 Book 4
March 14 Book 5
March 23 End Discussion
The author's website www.amortowles.com is a wonderful place to get to know the Amor Towles. He has a lot of supplementary information about the book. There is even a delightful video, which you will want to watch.
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Discussion Leader: MKaren
Yes, I agree, the Count had no money due to the fact he left the hotel in a flurry, only thinking of getting help for Sofia, not even caring about the outcome it could have on his own life. I like how so many people came to not only Sofia's aide, but to the Count's aide through all of this. He lacks no friends, that is for certain. The Count has been living in the Metropol for so many years, that trust amongst certain people, has become second nature. He had to learn to trust them, in order to ask for their help. In the early beginning, he trusted his valuable coins with the man who could have very well swindled him. Nina and her husband were involved in dangerous political activities, she had no choice to leave Sofia with the Count. She knew him from childhood, stayed in touch with him, knew he was a man of character, she also got to know him in a familia sense throughout her years of scampering around the hotel with him. She knew he would guard and protect Sofia with his life.
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Mishka to the Count: 'Who would have imagined, when you were sentenced to life in the Metropol all those years ago, that you had just become the luckiest man in all Russia.' p292
Wasn't it a nightmare for so many Russians. I can't agree that there was tust between people. Denunciation was encouraged. Declare your approval of the revolution by pointing out others who were 'enemies of the people'.
So Count Rostov is doing very well for himself. And I believe there is an endless supply of goid coins in those table legs. Wasn't that coin in his pocket intended as a 'tip' for the undertaker? Certainly his life has been turned around. The years have passed so quickly. And now he has the company of that delightful child. Could he, in fact, be the real father? He enjoys and delights in the status. We're treated to four pages of looking for the button, and then being told that monthly sessions with Ossip have been going on for eight years, much of it watching movies like Casablanca. Not a word of it while it was happening. But the plot is thickening, in an alarming way.
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Jonathan your comment "Denunciation was encouraged." reminds me of watching a documentary about the of Murder of Sergei Kirov and how during this time Stalin had an apartment building on the river built just for Party higher ups. It seems the architectures plans showed a back door to the handsome building that was actually a hidden passage under the river to the Kremlin and built into every room was a listening devise - this is in the 1930s before technology was as it is today - seems that Stalin had killed over 600 people using this come-on of a wonderful apartment that folks soon realized something was wrong but did not know what and they turned on each other and suffered such stress some went crazy.
Amazon prime has the documentary series in the movie section that is free for prime members - Red Chapters: Turning Points in the History of Communism which was produced in 2017
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Jonathan,
Could he, in fact, be the real father?
If you are asking rhetorically, or literally, I have to say NO! Nina and he were like father and daughter, they were like uncle and niece, he met her when she was seven years old. He saw her from time to time as a teen, but that was when she was with her friends. Nina left Sofia with him because she knew from his relationship with her as a child, her child would be guarded, protected and loved. I would be shocked if somewhere in the last pages of the book it would reveal the Count and Nina had any sexual relationship with each other. He was involved with Anna before Nina was even a teenager. His character does not even indicate he would take advantage of a young girl like Nina.
I can't agree that there was trust between people. Denunciation was encouraged. Declare your approval of the revolution by pointing out others who were 'enemies of the people'.
Jonathan, you are seeing it in the time of war where the attitude of strangers are not trustworthy. I am speaking on a personal level of trust, amongst the Count and his few friends at the hotel. If there was no trust he would not have left Sofia in the company of Marina, Andrey, Emille and Anna. When you look at all those willing to come to their aide and help not only him but Sofia, that is trustworthy actions.
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Bellamarie have you had a chance to start the next section that starts being discussed... I am having a terrible time today getting started on anything - talk about Spring fever - all the trees and bushes are in bloom - next thing you know bluebonnets will be spreading over the entire state - the other day, I think it was Wednesday I awoke to 47 degrees and it topped out for the day at 67 - not sure what the temp was last night but awoke to 79 and then around 11: it was 82 which the weather is saying is the average for Austin but the thermometer on my patio says 89. It is almost too hot to open all the windows.
I keep looking out thinking something will happen but the town is dead, dead, still, still, quiet - its been years since it has been this quiet - there is not even a whisper of a breeze - it is Spring Break and after what for us was a cruel winter most folks have left town and SXSW has not started yet - I think tomorrow may be opening day - the Rodeo opened but it is clear over the other side of town - I am not even hearing any birds - nothing - as the saying goes, the silence is deafening. I feel like if I move even to turn a page in a book I will start an avalanche of some sort.
I wonder how long it takes for Spring to spread north - I wonder if the change happens along the rivers first or over the plains - well it has started and soon we will all be enjoying Spring blooms.
Since starting this book the concept of isolation has been on the back of my mind - did y'all read how a member of the Black Panther movement was just released from 41 years of Solitary confinement - and here I am reacting to a half day of quiet. I've also been reading for Lent this year a book of eleventh century letters from Saint Bruno who founded the Carthusian order. These monks choose a life of silence. They live in individual cells reading ancient script to keep it alive and praying. Interesting to me is some of the letters praise and others urge on the monks acceptance of this life that St. Bruno says in difficult the first few years but his reminder is their purpose. Their purpose being to strip away all but their love for God and to be open to receiving God.
Regardless how we think of the Carthusian's purpose, I saw how once the Count had a purpose he was no longer contemplating diving off the roof. I do not think getting through something is enough of a purpose and the care of another is an easy one for single older women who have been moms - I guess that would be like any life's work that provides a sense of personal identity, growth and fulfillment. How do you replace that...? Yes, my personal struggle - I cannot keep going with Real Estate that does provide growth and fulfillment as well as, community and a sense of purpose - my body is not keeping up - what to do so as not to feel redundant or more, that gives me a sense of purpose and therefore, an identity...hmmm
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Well, Barb, when you do get to it, Book 4 will have some things to cheer you up, though a bit of sadness too. It's only 3 years long. We see Sofia turn into a beautiful, poised young woman and find her life skill. The party snitch, the Bishop, becomes more obnoxious and ubiquitous. And there's slapstick too.
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Jonathan:
Could he, in fact, be the real father?
Aside from anything else, I don't think he saw Nina during the relevant time. After a considerable break, he saw her briefly in a public situation with a bunch of fellow enthusiasts, one of whom became her husband. They trooped off, and the next time he saw her was when she left Sofia with him.
Jonathan:I can't agree that there was tust between people. Denunciation was encouraged. Declare your approval of the revolution by pointing out others who were 'enemies of the people'.
Yes, in general you couldn't trust anyone--friends, neighbors, even relatives, might turn you in. But this small group of employees at the Metropol seems to have formed a close-knit group who are guarding each others' back, and combining to help in any crisis.
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Barb, Our winter temps seem to want to linger around, and we keep getting snow flurries. Our temps have been topping in the 30s the past week or so, and the warmest we have seen was a couple of weeks ago when we actually hit the 50s for a day or so. But... I must tell you the birds are all returning that had left for the winter, so that is a true sign Spring is not far off. I am waking up to chirping outside my bedroom window, because they always nest in my very tall bush just beside my window. I would welcome the sound of silence. I live in a development that is close to a main road so cars, sirens, honking buses, etc., are all around me. I even hear the train that comes down the tracks a mile or so away. I love it when I hear the train at night, it reminds me of my childhood home that had railroad tracks across our rural road. My sisters and I would lay across our bed, with the window open, and wave to the conductor every time the train would go by. Funny how you can adjust to sounds, and they become comforting rather than annoying. I can tell Spring fever is beginning to rear it's head in me, because I begin a cleaning spree. Yep, that's what I do to bring in the new season. We begin Daylight Savings Time tonight, so it's spring our clocks ahead one hour. Having it daylight at 8:00 p.m. is going to be fun! We just purchased a new propane gas tabletop fire pit, which we can't wait to sit outside on cool Spring/Summer nights to enjoy, or make smores with the grandkids when they spend the night.
I had a very busy day today with going to my nine year old grandson Zak's Wizard of Oz play, then off to my son's church for 5:00 p.m. Mass, where Zak was being presented his religious award he earned in Cub Scouts, that now makes him a Webelo.
I have actually finished Book Four, it is a very short fifty-three pages. As Pat mentioned, there are some funny parts, and some surprises Sofia has for the Count. I won't give anything away at this point.
Pat do we begin discussing Book Four on Monday?
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Bellamarie, we officially began discussing Book 4 today. I was waiting to say more than a tiny bit because no one seemed to have read it. Dive in any time you want. The schedule calls for a week, but I don't think we'll need that much.
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Wow - oh my - in one chapter he includes just about every emotion in one's lifetime - anticipation, celebration, clandestine fellowship, threat of loss, and then a eulogy that is exquisite in its sweetness and draining finality - never mind all the bits with the orchestra leader/piano teacher, the young architect and the mayor - I had to put the book down I was giggling so hard during the bit where they entered the coat closet not realizing what was on the other side...precious.
And that very last bit - to be so complete within your own skin that anyplace can be home because your real home is within- wow...
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Barb, if you're thinking of making some changes in your lifestyle, as we all are, why not a suite at the Metropol? Always something happening. Very comfortable, like Claridges in London, the Ritz in Paris, and that grand hotel in New York. And the calm in the Metropol all those years of revolution. Like the eye of the storm raging all about it in Russia. The count must deserve some of the credit.
It was such a close, loving relationship between the count and Sofia. Between 'Daddy' and 'Daughter'. I felt uncomfortable suggesting anything closer than a fostering, adoring relationship. Nina seems to have foreseen the possibility of scandal by supplying the photo of herself and husband.
One gets a sense of networking in this new section. The count shares Anna's favors with the Commisar of Culture and the Commisar gets Sofia off the hook about joining an orchestra in Stalingrad, 600 miles from Moscow.
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Barb, you did a fantastic summation of Book Four in just one sentence. But there is just too much happening to not give individual mention to such special parts.
I could imagine watching a play on stage with all six of them crammed into that closet, the cake almost falling to the floor, the juggler catching it just in time and then lo and behold here comes the Bishop and Frinovsky! I loved how the Count grabs his book, rocks back on the hind legs of his chair as if nothing at all is happening, while the rest are hiding in his secret room beyond the closet. Oh that was so hilarious!
It was a very tender moment when Sofia played the piano for the Count, which was suppose to be a surprise for his birthday. He is now sixty-three years old, he sees this beautiful young lady, his daughter, Sofia playing Chopin, Opus 9, number 2, in E-flat major. He is astonished with the beauty of the way she plays the piano.
pg 326 "Only one in a thousand__or even a hundred thousand__can bring the music to life as you just have."
pg 327 "Victor Stepanovich calls that the mood. He says that before you play a note, one must discover an example of the composition's mood hidden away in one's heart. So for this piece, I think about my mother. I think of how my few memories of her seem to be fading, and then I begin to play." The Count was quiet, overwhelmed by another wave of astonishment. "Does that make sense?" Sofia asked. "Abundantly," he said. Then after a moment of reflection, he added; "As a younger man, I used to feel the same way about my sister. Every year that passed, it seemed a little more of her had slipped away; and I began to fear that one day I would come to forget her altogether. But the truth is: No matter how much time passes, those we have loved never slip away from us entirely."
The Count then goes on to share his memories of Nina with Sofia.
pg 328 They were quiet for another moment, then Sofia turned and kissed the Count on the cheek.
The threat of Sofia leaving to join the Red October Youth Orchestra after winning the music contest was truly heart gripping. Luckily Anna comes to the rescue, and this just melted my heart..... pg 367 "And you needn't worry, Papa," Sofia continued. "For no matter who comes knocking at our door, I have no intention of ever leaving the Metropol."
This writing is magnificent! I know little to nothing about Chopin's Opus 9, number 2, in E-flat major, but I can tell you I know Towles writing this particular chapter has matched the beauty of Chopin's concerto, Sofia has played.
Jonathan, what a marvelous suggestion for Barb to get a suite at the Metropol. Could you just imagine all of us members reading this book at the Metropol, scurrying around to all the wonderful places Nina, the Count and Sofia has brought to light?
Well, the sun is shining here in Toledo, Ohio, the birds are chirping and I am getting anxious to go outside to enjoy the promise of a beautiful day, on a lovely lasting memory of Sofia promising the Count she will never leave the Metropol, meaning him.
Ciao for now...
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I prefer the Horowitz version versus Rubinstein
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QS8p5TNzFI
here is Rubinstein
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=192zr438g-k
Both have ads that if you keep clicking on the popup lower right the ads go away as quickly as you click on them
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Thanks for finding those, Barb. It's a lovely thing, isn't it?
It was a Horowitz recording that Sofia learned from. It sounds like a simple thing, but, as pointed out, it takes real skill and emotion to get it to sound good.
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Maybe a change in residence but what I am really confounded over is having something that is meaningful where I feel not only useful but there is a sense of community - reading is great, as is the various needle arts, and cooking - I like to garden but all these are solitary activities - with my long time friends all gone and no family living nearby I can too easily isolate and my memories are not too great as companions - and no, I cannot see myself in a retirement home setup much like a bunch of co-eds but then I never lived in an apartment in my life and I am not about to add that constrain to my already challenged life -
We all get to a stage in life where our earlier lifestyle and activities are limited and we need to turn the page just as the Count turned the page after his roof fall versus the bees epiphany. Creating a new community, which takes time, will never replace the community built and lost of 40 to 60 years - families experience their challenges and adventures which we are glad to hear about however, they visit for bursts of time and until the next generation it is not the same as when I was an important part of the grands growing years.
Plus we want our Children and grands to experience as much of life that they can so they too have a purposeful life which today means, as my family, they are in China or Peru or Seattle or Lubbock or Houston or the Carolinas or Newburgh in NY or Ocala or our newest to-be daughter-in-law is in San Antonio with much of her family in Del Rio - no one in outer space yet... ;) - feels good knowing they are all launched into meaningful and adventurous lives - and the families of my closest friends, who have now all passed, are also scattered far and wide - thank goodness for facebook and email.
Neither here nor there, it is my life I need to make more meaningful - When you know there are not that many years left you'd like, or at least I'd like, to feel I'm about more than simply taking care of myself, surrounded by things I love but with no purpose other than to breath in and out, take care of my home and make gifts - I need more - something along the lines of a new career where I do not have to drive all over the surrounding 3 counties or walk up and down maple, walnut, carpeted or painted stairs or slosh through wet construction sites in Winter or trip over dried cow patties in the Summer or for that matter be on my feet for more than 15 minutes at a time.
Just narrowing down what I miss and need took lots of time and now I am looking how others make their life changes and how the changes affect them - as we read, I see the Metropol as an analogy for the interior life within the Count - elegant, sophisticated, surrounded by beauty from the past, with many rooms devoted to many interests and some hidden aspects of the Count that gradually come to light in the story.
I would have to have a large greenhouse as part of my analogical existence since I cannot stop growing and planting new ideas to pursue - plus being close to the outdoors is a must with lots of hiking adventures in my memory - the latest seed growing among others is how to create a life when so much is no longer as it was - it is like being a refuge at 85 who left her home country and all her friends because even the town I live in has few landmarks as it experiences enormous changes.
I often think of my grandmother - she was born in 1878 and saw huge change from having a hitching post in front of their house, her father a fireman with horse drawn carts filled with hoses and tanks of water, to cars, electric trolleys, eighteen wheeler's, planes, jets, space rockets - from the piano in the parlor and an accordion in the corner to a radio to the TV and she caught the first of the computers before she passed at 100 and her mother before had immigrated in 1859 on a Sailing ship from Bavaria all by herself at age 16 and she built a full life. As the old saying, something about you are never given a challenge unless you can handle it - so handle it I will.
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Barb, you sure have been hit with a lot of stuff quickly. Losing your best friends, finding your work too physically challenging, plus hurricane and flooding for a final touch. Whenever I've felt stymied by life, a way out has opened, and I think it will for you too. Feeling useful is the hard one, but you will find something. Come to think of it, I don't know that I'm particularly useful to the world, but somehow I feel comfortable with myself. Good luck in your quest.
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Book 4 ends with the poignant scene in which the Count learns of Mishka's death. Mishka inspired affection. Even Katerina, who had left him long ago, came back to be with him at the end. And there's an elegant, ironical twist. We learn that the Count didn't even write the poem that made him a hero--Mishka did. The Count pretended to be the author because Mishka, as a political activist, would have been executed for it. Later this saved the Count's life too--as a hero he was kept in house arrest instead of being shot.
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Barb, when I retired unexpectedly two years ago this April, I was worried about what I personally was going to do that would give me purpose in life. I still have small and teenage grandchildren playing sports, so I knew they were going to keep me very busy, but personally I wanted something I could call "my own." I began volunteer work with a non profit Pro Life organization called Heartbeat of Toledo, and met many wonderful co volunteers, not to mention the wonderful pregnant Moms I met and was educating with our classes. Other cities have a Hearbeat organization as well, you mind check into. I also went back to teaching CCD religion classes, nothing brings me more joy than teaching and children. You could look into things nearby that you could become active in as a volunteer. I know when I am helping or teaching others, I leave with the biggest smile on my face, and joy in my heart. I also began visiting my nearby libraries. You love reading so maybe it's possible your library could use a part time worker or volunteer. If you have any hospitals nearby there may be a volunteer program where you can go and hold/rock infant babies. I know there are programs that ask for knitted newborn baby caps to be donated. Have you ever considered moving closer to your family members? Like Pat pointed out, you have had a lot of changes and things happening to you in the past couple of years, and now retirement to add to it. Give yourself a little while to digest this and see what the new path God has for you. I always like to remind myself of the saying by Woodrow Kroll, “When God closes a door, He always opens a window.”
This past Thursday our County Commissioner and Council members held a public meeting for our District 6 to come and voice our concerns about the new proposed jail site they have chosen in our District. We have formed a very large group in opposition of this new jail. After listening to all those who chose to speak, I approached the Commissioner and pressed him for answers as to why this site seems so important to build on, versus keeping the jail downtown. My hubby, neighbor and many others including myself left that night feeling very defeated, discouraged and concerned, because they seem hell bent on this site. We will regroup and fight this til the bitter end, but it is still causing my hubby and I much worry. I had a horrible dream last night about moving to a different place that I was not at all happy with. I woke up with a headache which I never get. I love my home, area and church community. I don't think we could find as nice a home somewhere else, for the price we pay in our house payment now. So, I am sharing some of your "What do I do next?" worries. As a faith filled person, I pray and must have faith God will show me what is next for us. It's the time in between I need to learn to be more patient and calm with. We need to friend each other on Facebook so we can keep in touch. https://www.facebook.com/marie.patterfritzreinhart add me if you like.
Pat, I agree, I don't think it will take the full week to discuss Book Four. I certainly do not want to rush anyone, and I personally am going to be very sad to see this book come to an end, just let us know when you want us to begin reading Book Five. We were posting at the same time, I will add my comments tomorrow when I can take a little more time to ponder on my thoughts as to the ending of Book Four. Towles hit us with a lot to digest in this Book Four, and especially those last pages. I am still savoring the beautiful Chopin, friendships, laughter, and the Count's undying devoted love to his beautiful, doting, talented daughter Sofia.
Jonathan, I so hope our author gives us some closure where Nina and Leo are concerned. It would seem a shame to leave us wondering, not to mention I feel Sofia and the Count deserve to know what became of them. I am assuming they are both dead, because that can be the only explanation a mother would leave her child for this length of time, regardless if she knew she was in good care with the Count. Not to mention no letters of any kind. Loving your husband and having a passion for a political cause is one thing, but putting it above the love of your child seems so out of character for Nina. Or maybe I am just seeing something I want to see.
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Oh my thanks for all your concerns - yes, I do add up all my issues and what I hope to keep - and I do think outloud, writing it out as if a Journal - however, I also think I may not be alone looking for large sturdy flat rocks to hop onto as we cross the streams of change that come swiftly with age.
And yes, agree, please - just a few days on Book Four will be perfect - I can see us starting Book 5 on Wednesday. I must say I just do not remember reading in recent years an author who writes so beautifully - For me the last was Eowyn Ivey the author of The Snow Child and even she could not compare to Amor Towles - the writing in Book Four is especially exquisite
Found this lovely site and what surprised me at the bottom is a list of links for school teachers who teach Russian lit - had no idea it was even possible to read Russian Lit in school - I cannot remember any of my grands or my children being exposed to Russian Literature - I am trying to remember what it was we read in 6th or 7th grade because that was when I learned about White versus Red Russians. I can see in my minds eye a nun, not particularly which nun, by the side blackboard, saying how we supported the White Russians - however, by the time my children were of similar age, we were experiencing the Soviet Scare and so I can see why they did not study Russian Lit in school.
I remember when they were quite young - 3rd and 4th grade - I thought it was important they saw the movie Dr. Zhivago - The book had come out about the time when my youngest was born - I remember a friend reading it who had kept my older two, who were ages 5 and 6 when Paul was born - I remember this was the first book that showed something we hoped and doubted still existed in Russia other than the awful experiences we were hearing in the news about the Soviets, their gulags and bombs. Now we just see it as a romantic movie where as then, it was an important statement. Change...
Well here we are now reading Russian authors in school again... https://americanliterature.com/russian-writers
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Book Four is a marvellous piece of writing. The first half dozen pages are worth the price of the book. The gentleman's reflections on life begin the chapter and his brooding thought end it. And who can believe it? Along the way the gentleman loses his cool.
What a loving relationship between Sofia and the count:
'My guardian angel, my father, my friend.'
'Sofia, that extraordinary blessing.'
Her mother is a revolutionary. Her father is a Gentleman Nina did the best thing for her child, didn't she? The questions you ask, Bellamarie, are so meaningful. The seperation was only meant as a temporary thing. We'll never know what happened to Nina after that. But she was one of many who disappeard in revolutionary Russia. And bringing it up, you remind us of the similiar problem in Casablanca: choosing duty over love.
Remembering mother was so meaningful in Sofia's life.
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Jonathan:
The seperation was only meant as a temporary thing. We'll never know what happened to Nina after that. But she was one of many who disappeard in revolutionary Russia.
Glad you said that, Jonathan; somewhere there is a footnote saying that, but I couldn't find it this morning to quote it.
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hahaha well I am house bound - talk about getting into script - my vehicle needs major motor work that is going to take them till Thursday or Friday - thank goodness no appointments and I may just use, for the first time this Amazon/Whole Foods delivery - my home is not the Metropol but comfortable enough and I can get out of doors and I have a great view of the sunrise and the children are on Spring Break so I have the acres of school grounds to explore - not bad
Ok so the Count has invested his emotions in Sophia, in his Triumvirate buddies, Anna his love, and various friends in the Metropol including some visiting dignitaries - I am ready for the next shoe to drop - whom does he loose to match his original losses that started this story bringing full circle the ending with his first loss, his dearest oldest friend Mishka. Something tells me to parallel Helen, his sister something is foreboding about what happens with Sophia - then who else - does he stand alone again? I am anxious to read the Fifth and final book on the life of the Count in Moscow. There is decent TV on PBS tonight but tomorrow for sure I will be starting the final book - what about it Pat do you think we can talk about the final Book starting on Wednesday?
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Yes, I do, Barb. Everyone is ready. There are more things that could be said, but we can take as long as we like afterward for fill-in and loose ends. These last two sections are really fast reading.
Tomorrow the tree men will come to see whether the remaining standing but damaged trees need to be taken down promptly or aren't a hazard. If the verdict permits my trip, I'll fly to Portland Friday, so will be mostly out of contact, then will be posting from my phone, which is pesky. but things should work OK.
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Jonathan,
We'll never know what happened to Nina after that.
I hope this isn't so, but I guess you bring up an excellent point, there were many who disappeared in the Revolutionary Russia, and no closure for their families as well.
Barb, When it rains it pours on you!!! I am glad to see you laughing in spite of crying in your situation. My daughter in laws use the Kroger delivery and they love it. I told my hubby I wouldn't mind it, but he loves going to the store at least twice a week just to get out. Since his retirement he needs human contact, after being a mailman all those years seeing and talking with patrons on his route every day.
Pat, Yes, I am ready to move on to Book Five tomorrow. I may post a few comments on Book Four in the morning before I begin reading the last and final book. I hope things work out for you with your trees, and please be safe traveling to Portland.
I spent my entire day gone today having our monthly luncheon with my group of high school classmates. We ladies sure do cackle and laugh a lot, the best medicine in life. We graduated in 1970, and are planning our 50th class reunion for 2020. I am amazed how many were at our 45th. I then went to visit my brother in law who is not only recuperating for pancreatic cancer surgery, but also a broken hip that happened once he finally was able to come home. He is pretty amazing, in great spirits and getting stronger every day. I am pooped, and ready to snuggle in with my Shih Tzu Sammy for the night.
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Let's not actually say anything about Book 5 until Wednesday. There are some twists and turns, and this way those who are still reading 5 can come in today to make any further comments on earlier stuff without fear of spoilers.
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Jonathan:
We'll never know what happened to Nina after that.
I found the quote I was looking for, p. 271, lmost at the end of the chapter "Ascending, Alighting".
"The count was presumably right to be concerned for Nina, though we will never know for certain--for she did not return to the Metropol within the month, within the year, or ever again. In October, the Count made some effort to discover her whereabouts, all of them fruitless. One assumes that Nina made her own efforts to communicate with the Count, but no word was forthcoming, and Nina Kulikova simply disappeared into the vastness of the Russian East."
It seems unlikely we'll hear anything more.
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Spoiler: The Count is no longer needed. Everyone knows their place at the table in this brave new world.
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Pat, thank you for finding that. I knew I read this, but I left out hope that before the end of the book, Nina would either return, or we would have a conclusive answer to what happened to her and Leo. On that same page I noticed that Anna intervened and kept the authorities away from Sofia as far back as when she first came to the Count, and here now that she is a teen being requested to leave the Count to play in the orchestra, it is Anna who again prevents them from separating.
pg 271 It just so happened, however, that a cursory examination of this Former Person's recent associates led to a certain willowy actress__who for years had been the reputed paramour of a round-faced Commisar recently appointed to the Politburo. Within the walls of a small, drab office in an especially bureaucratic branch of government, it is generally difficult to accurately imagine the world outside. But it is never hard to imagine what might occur to one's career were one to seize the illegitimate daughter of a Politburo member and place her in a home. Such initiative would be rewarded with a blindfold and a cigarette.
Jonathan, Oh dear! I have not gotten a chance to begin Book Five, and we are not to begin discussing it til Wed., so I am not going to try to imagine what your Spoiler intends for the Count. I pray it is not heartbreak.
On pg 322 I can see the Count talking with Vasily about how he can feel the independence of Sofia, and how his little girl is slipping away from him. This is so tender a conversation:
"When you reach our age, Vasily, it all goes by so quickly. Whole seasons seem to pass withiout leaving the slightest mark on our memory." "How true..," agreed the concierge (as he sorted through an allotment of tickets). "But surely, there is a comfort to be taken from that," continued the Count. "For even as the weeks begin racing by in a blur for us, they are making the greatest of impressions upon our children. When one turns seventeen and begins to experience that first period of real independence, on'e senses are so alert, one's sentiments so finely attuned that every conversation, every look, every laugh may be writ indelibly upon one's memory. And the friends that one happens to make in those impressionable years? One will meet them forever after with a welling of affection."
Having expressed this paradox, the Count happened to look across the lobby, where Grisha was lugging the luggage of one guest toward the front desk as Genya lugged the luggage of another toward the door. "Perhaps it is a matter of celestial balance," he reflected. "A sort of cosmic equilibrium. Perhaps the aggregate experience of Time is a constant and thus for our children to establish such vivid impression of this particular June, we must relinquish our claims upon it."
"So that they might remember, we must forget," Vasily summed up. "Exactly!" said the Count. "So that they remember, we must forget. But should we take umbrage at the fact? Should we feel short-changed by the notion that their experiences for the moment may be richer than ours? I think not. For it is hardly our purpose at this late stage to log a new portfolio of lasting memories. Rather, we should be dedicating ourselves to ensuring that they taste freely of experience. And we must do so without trepidation. Rather than tucking in blankets and buttoning up coats, we must have faith in them to tuck and button on their own. And if they fumble with their newfound liberty, we must remain composed, generous, judicious. We must encourage them to venture out from under our watchful gaze, and then sigh with pride when they pass at last through the revolving doors of life . . . . ."
No truer words were ever spoken. He knows his Sofia will leave him one day, just as Nina had to, that is what life is all about. He would never deny her of the chance to live hers freely. Yes, just like Rick would never deny Ilsa the chance to leave Casablanca, to live her life in America, even though he loved her dearly. Oh gosh, why do I feel like these last pages of the book are going to be heart wrenching?
One of my all time favorite songs in Mama Mia, Slipping Through My Fingers, when Donna (Meryl Streep), realizes her little girl Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), is grown up and is about to become a bride.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi7OXmTmgGg
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Before leaving Book Four I wanted to mention this at the end of the book.
Not really sure exactly what all the "BREAD" entries were to represent, but as a Christian faith filled person, I know that Jesus taught us He was the Bread of Life, and that through him you would have eternal life. Did Mishka believe this?
Mishka's project in a nutshell: a compendium of quotations from seminal texts arranged in chronological order, but in each of which the word bread had been capitalized and printed in bold. Beginning with the Bible, the citations proceeded right through the works of the Greeks and Romans onto the like of Shakespeare, Milton and Goethe. But particular tribute was paid to the golden age of Russian literature.
Papa, when they put dirt on my grave, crumble a crust of BREAD on it so the sparrows will come, and I'll hear that they've come and be glad that I'm not lying alone.
Upon reading this, Alexander Rostov finally broke down and wept. Certainly, he wept for his friend, that generous yet temperamental soul who only briefly found his moment in time__and who, like this forlorn child, was disinclined to condemn the world for all its injustices.
But of course, the Count also wept for himself. For despite his friendships with Marina and Andrey and Emile, despite his love for Anna, despite Sofia__that extraordinary blessing that had struck him from the blue__when Mikhail Fyodotrovich Mindich died, there went the last of those who had known him as a younger man. Though as Katerina had so rightfully observed, at least he remained to remember.
One last thing, we learn the Count tells Katerina that Mishka is the author of the Poem Where Is It Now?, written in 1913.
"What with the revolt of 1905 and the repressions that followed, when we graduated it was still a dangerous time for writing poems of political impatience. Given Mishka's background, the Okhrana would have swept him up with a broom. So one night__after polishing off a particularly good bottle of Margaux__we decided to publish the poem under my name." "But why yours?" "What were they goingt to do to Count Alexndar Rostove__member of the Jockey Club and godson of a counselour to the Tsar?" The Count shook his head. "The irony, of course, is that the life which ended up being saved was mine, not his. But for that poem, they would have shot me back in 1922."
The irony I see.....the poem about a man's lost purpose in life, in fact, gave a man the opportunity of finding his purpose in life.
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Along the thinking of your observation Bellamarie I like this quote...
“I’ll tell you what is convenient,” he said after a moment. “To sleep until noon and have someone bring you your breakfast on a tray. To cancel an appointment at the very last minute. To keep a carriage waiting at the door of one party, so that on a moment’s notice it can whisk you away to another. To sidestep marriage in your youth and put off having children altogether. These are the greatest of conveniences, Anushka—and at one time, I had them all. But in the end, it has been the inconveniences that have mattered to me most.”
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Nice analyses, Barb and Bellamarie.
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Towles says that the tempo of the book is diamond-shaped (playing card diamond, not jewelry diamond). At the beginning, the events happen very close together. The gaps get longer and longer, then, in the middle, we speed up, slowly at first, then faster and faster. Book 5 is definitely in the speeding up phase, getting more and more intense.
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Finished Book Five last night. Once you begin reading it, you can't stop till the end. I can see why it was important to pay attention to each person the Count came in contact with at the Metropol, because each of them played a part in his grand plan to escape. If I had not watched the movie Casablanca, I would never have appreciated this story as much as I did. Thank you Jonathan for suggesting early on to watch it.
Yes, Pat, the diamond in the end does speed up so fast that I could barely keep up with who was doing what to help, and who was who. Like I said earlier, "trust" was there. The Count put the life of Sofia and himself in the hands of so many people, and without the trust, he would never have done this. So, I take away from the escape of Sofia and the Count in a time of war, change and danger, that the human instinct will always and remain to trust in the common good of others.
Unlike Rick in Casablanca, the Count leaves, and ends up with the willowy woman. Are we to assume they joined Sofia at some point in time?
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Sofia is left to find a life of her own. The little girl who drops out of the tree and into the arms of the Gentleman needs a Daddy and the Willow will, no doubt, continue to turn her back on him. What a happy ending.
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With the last sentence all I could do was utter ahhhh and slowly put down my book - I do not even want to talk about it - I need it to wash over me - the story without the anxious feelings as my head raced ahead with all the what if...
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Barb, I had a similar reaction--a little stunned from all the excitement.
Bellamarie:Unlike Rick in Casablanca, the Count leaves, and ends up with the willowy woman. Are we to assume they joined Sofia at some point in time?
Jonathan:Sofia is left to find a life of her own. The little girl who drops out of the tree and into the arms of the Gentleman needs a Daddy and the Willow will, no doubt, continue to turn her back on him.
Amor Towles, in some questions on his website: Why does he choose to remain behind?
What will happen to the Count? Will he follow Sofia? Will he stay in Russia and hope not to be caught? Either way, what are his chances?
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I have to say I am a bit sad to see this book come to an end.
Barb, I felt the same way. I had to let it sink in.
Jonathan, I think the last sentence led me to feel the willowy woman (Anna) and the Count will spend the rest of their days together. She has always returned to the Count, and been there for Sofia in the most crucial times. I can see the three of them reuniting.
"And there in the corner, at a table for two, her hair tinged with gray, the willowy woman waited."
Rick chooses to remain in Russia because you can hide best among the obvious places. He led them to believe he was in Helsinki. He loves his Russia, and although he has traveled the world, Russia is his home.
Keep in mind, now that Mishka is dead, it would harm no one for the true author of the poem to be revealed, freeing the Count of any prior charges.
The little boy and girl the Count sees at the tree, for me was a semblance of his childhood of him and Helena, the burnt home, and the apple orchard in ruins is a semblance that nothing stays the same.
We have our memories, just as the Count held on to his to help him through his years at the Metropol, but can we ever go back home again after becoming an adult, and being away for over a century? My sister lives on my homestead today, in our small town of Monroe, Michigan where I grew up. After my mother passed away in 1990, our family home burnt to the ground. I went there to see the ruins, and in the driveway lay a page from a Bible, it was from the book of Job. It was one lonely page with burnt edges from the fire...... I picked it up, brought it home and still have it in my box of memories.
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Ooops.... I meant to say the Count chooses to remain in Russia. Rick from Casablanca also chose to remain in the place he knew and loved.
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My thinking is that there is no one in the Village who has anything to gain by reporting him or if they even know he is on the lamb and so I see the Count and Anna living their years in quiet seclusion - as to corresponding with Sophia - that could give the authorities a lead - after seeing the games he maneuvered to set Sophia and himself free I am sure he has something cooked so they hear, maybe not regularly but they will all keep in touch.
Also the Warsaw Pact was signed in 1955 which was the softening of the Soviet Union as compared to the days of Stalin. I think they had a new game of cat and mouse to play during the Cold War to be bothered with left over aging Russian nobility. Except that Zhivago has a heart attack and dies, he was wearing a black suit and appeared to be one of the many, no longer under house arrest or even living in the rooms of his old home that was broken into many single room apartments.
I wonder how any of us would feel to have others living in our home while we are relegated to one room - it is easy I think to say it made sense till you think if it were our home today. hmmm
This is the first time I can remember since a few books back when I was in my teens and early twenties that I immediately want to read the book again from cover to cover. This time I will know what to expect and so I can take it all in and see how the pieces fit and relish in the writing - nothing on PBS this week because of pledge time and so this will be perfect. I still feel so full I can hardly focus or even go over in my head the events - the lead up to that last sentence was so perfect. I think once I start reading again I may not read in order and then I may have more to say about Book 5.
One thing i must share, that I smiled reading was how when questioned why the Count did not shoot the Bishop and the answer was because he was not an aristocrat. Don't you love it - the rules of a gentleman of 'old Russia'
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Yes, Barb that little bit of comedy added into the chaos, of the Count’s escape. Shooting Stalin’s portrait was also a bit comical.
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JOIN US AS WE DISCUSS
A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW
BY AMOR TOWLES. |
During February and March, we will be filling cold, gray days by reading A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles in the Senior Learn Book Club. Our pre-discussion will begin on February 7. Let's introduce ourselves, and then perhaps talk about what we know of the goings-on in Russia in the early 20th century and our impressions of the Russian people. Those of us who grew up in the 50s and 60s could share how we learned of the Russians and the feelings we had about all of this. This will also be a place for questions about the discussion, the assigned reading schedule and about each other. Let's save discussion of the text until February 12 when we begin the actual discussion.
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Discussion Schedule for A Gentleman in Moscow
February 12 Book 1
February 21. Book 2
February 28. Let's start on half of Book 3. In my book that is around 248
March 7. 248 to the end of book 3
March 10 Book 4
March 14 Book 5
March 23 End Discussion
The author's website www.amortowles.com is a wonderful place to get to know the Amor Towles. He has a lot of supplementary information about the book. There is even a delightful video, which you will want to watch.
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Discussion Leader: MKaren
Sentimental and romantic, isn't it? Every reader will turn to the last page with mixed emotions. Trying to imagine the lives of these people caught up in a revolution is mind-boggling and heart-breaking.
For some thirty years the Count has been dreaming of returning to Idlehour, the family estate, and the apple orchards of Nizhny Novgorod Province. Fallen into ruin.
Wasn't shooting Stalin an ungentlemanly act? For the Count it must have seemed like the patriotic thing to do. It would make him a hero. Kruschev was also shooting him down in the secret speech to a high level meeting.
'I think the last sentence led me to feel the willowy woman (Anna) and the Count will spend the rest of their days together. She has always returned to the Count, and been there for Sofia in the most crucial times. I can see the three of them reuniting.'
Where, Bellamarie? On the sixth floor of the Metropol? The little room the Count has been sharing with Sofia for so many years? By raising the bed to allow for another mattress? I must reread the book also. I seem to remember a number of hints in the Count's thinking that it was time to make a break with Sofia and get her out on her own. But I don't think it was meant to make space for Anna. Just a reviewing of the freckles on her back occasionally.... One is never finished with this book.
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Jonathan, You made me giggle. Indeed, where? Certainly not back at the Meropol. I don't really have a logical answer to your question. My romantic, maternal heart wants to wrap it up with a happy ending, and so I shall. The author gives us indication the Count and Anna end up together in that last sentence, but then considering your question of where, where indeed would even the Count stay, should he himself, by himself remain free? He is a man of great resources and of great mind for certain...... Nope I have no desire to re read this book. How I felt as I read it, and how I felt once I finished it, could never be duplicated. Like the Count, I'll savor my memories.
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Karen, we're all thinking of you today. We're all praying for a successful surgery and a speedy recovery and return to good health. Thanks again for putting us on to this entertaining book. I find myself so fascinated by this author's writing style I've already acquired his first book, Rules of Civility. New York high society in the Thirties, judging by the cover. I don't imagine the Depression ever happened for those two elegant figures.
History, it turns out, is a very personal thing.
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Bellamarie, aren't we all left with our memories. I won't bite into an apple without wondering about the consequences. Should I make a wish? Or get a loaf of bread without wondering about the mysteries of life. Thanks for bringing that to our attention. I've checked my father's Concordance, Did you know that bread is mentioned countless times in the Bible?
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Karen, my thoughts and prayers are with you today, as you go through your surgery. Thank you so very much for bringing such an excellent book to our discussion group. It will remain with me for a very long time. The Count was a true "gentleman" a rarity in today's world. I am blessed to say my hubby, and our Jonathan, are among those rare finds.
Pat, I hope you have safe travels today to Portland, and enjoy your time with your family.
Barb, I do pray your car gets fixed, and the Spring brings with it new and exciting things to you, as you begin your retirement.
Jonathan, our dear male member, who always gives such incredible insight to every book we discuss. Thank you for sharing this one with us, and thank you for Casablanca......."here's looking at you kid."
Rosemary, I am so sorry you did not stick with us, we always look forward to your take on things, especially from the other side of the world.
All those who popped in to look or lurk, I hope you enjoyed our discussion.
A Gentleman In Moscow was one of the finest books I have had the privilege to read. His game of Zut with Sofia has given me a new way to pass the time between ordering and getting my food with my family and friends. I especially like their last time playing it: "famous threesomes" the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; Purgatory, Heaven and Hell; the three rings of Moscow; the three Magi; the three Fates; the Three Musketeers; the gray ladies from Macbeth; the riddle of the Sphinx; the heads of Cerberus; the Pythagorean therorem; forks, spoons, and knives; reading, writing and arithmetic; faith, hope, and love; (with the greatest of these being love). Past, present and future; Beginning, middle and end; Morning, noon and night; The sun, the moon the stars; Andrey, Emile, and Alexander.
To no surprise, we were posting at the same time Jonathan, and to no surprise you leave us with yet more insightful words to ponder. Indeed, I did know the Bible is peppered with the word "bread" more times than I could count. Out of curiosity I Googled it, and depending on which site you prefer, I chose this particular one it says:
There are at least seven words referencing bread in the Hebrew language version of the Old Testament and three Greek words referring to it in the New Testament. Mentioned at least 492 times in the original languages of the Bible, it is easy to see how important this food was to everyday life.
http://www.biblestudy.org/bible-study-by-topic/bread-in-the-bible.html
Ciao for now....
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Karen this is your big day - surgery is not easy however, we are all rooting for you and in a few days I bet you will be feeling fantastic - Karen you were before our time - I remember you mentioning this book months ago and now that we finally read it - wow what a winner - you were so right -
Seeing history from one man's experience and perspective - yes, Jonathan that is what we experienced didn't we - and a perspective none of us could imagine since we had not experienced such a privileged childhood. I guess in our own way we are all limited by the earthly 'rooms' where we live - and for me I still see the analogy of forced confinement as we are when born placed in the confines of our body and mind.
Bellamarie we can always depend on you to keep us rooted in the story - you always find the best quotes - but more, this author's writing was almost ethereal and made it so easy to float above the story and then he played so many cat and mouse games with events that again it was too easy to mix personal imagination with only the skeleton of the story - so thanks for anchoring us - after Book Five I am still floating - I feel as if floating in a glass bulb of fluid unable to hear or see clearly what is outside my bubble. I'm almost afraid to pop my bubble since most books I read give me a new perspective on my own life where as this story leaves us open with no real answers as the Count with Anna at his side start off alone in a land very changed physically, socially, and politically from the memory of the Count including having left behind the friendships and experiences made during his confinement. He is exactly where I am except he shares his new life with his loving companion and we readers only have our imagination as to how they proceed from here.
Pat thanks so for filling in the breach when Karen had to take care of herself - you move us along so well with just the right questions and bits of observation. Just saw a cute French movie called JetLag and thought of you flying between 4 time zones fairly regularly - I bet Portland, weather wise is just a bit more gentle than the deep winter you have been experiencing in the east - sounds like in the east there will be much cleanup this Spring and the 'green' of Spring will be more than welcome.
Easter is only 2 weeks away - for sure if little girls still look forward to wearing their new Spring clothes this year in large swaths of the nation they will be wearing their winter coat over their new Spring dress.
I've been thinking of the cover illustration - we know the Count was in rooms with a tiny 'Postage Stamp' size window - the silhouette is not a young man in his early 30s so it could not be the Count looking out while he still held the large rooms on the lower level - I'm thinking it is really the mayor or maybe it was Osip, who while having supper with the Count goes to the window and looks out over Moscow - I need to find that bit in the story again -
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Karen, I was thinking of you a lot yesterday, pulling for you. Hope it all went well, and that recuperation goes well too. It was an inspired choice, to pick this book. It resonated with all of us. Thank you.
All of you: you were so enthusiastic, and had so much to say, that the discussion practically ran itself. So many good ideas and insights! It's been a pleasure.
The discussion will stay open for a while, to give time for any afterthoughts. I'm rereading, with a bit of skipping, and already see some things.
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My book is due back at the library, so I will close in thanking everyone for a great book discussion. Pat again, thank you for filling in for Karen.
Karen, please stop in when you feel up to it and let us know how you are doing.
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We're all thinking of you, Karen, and, as Pat says, pulling for you. And thanks again for putting us on to this delightful book.
Of course that's Count Rostov on the cover. With Nina's key he must have returned there often. This may have been the time he was caught and had to explain he was the serviceman checking out the draperies.
Never have I found it so helpful to have such perceptive minds as all of you possess in enjoying a book.
When you're at the library, Bellamarie, look for our next book.
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Still thinking of you, Karen.
Another example of the book's symmetry: it both begins and ends on June 21st.
A wonderful example of Towles' subtlety: we learn towards the end of the book that the Count didn't write "where is it now?", he puthis name on Mishka's poem. Now look at the interrogation at the start of the book.
Vyshinsky: And you write poetry?
Rostov: I have been known to fence with a quill.
V: [Holding up a pamphlet] Are you the author of this long poem of 1913: "Where Is It Now?
R: It has been attributed to me.
V: Why did you write the poem?
R: It demanded to be written. I simply happened to be sitting at the particular desk on the particular morning when it chose to make its demands.
He is actually telling the exact truth, but not in a way that anyone could figure out.
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Pat., yes he was a true "gentleman," who protected his best friend, without having to lie to the court, yet was willing to live the rest of his life under house arrest...... or did he really intend to live the rest of his life in the Metropol hotel?
After having a few days to think about it, I wonder, when did the Count actually begin the plan to escape? Was it after he decided not to jump from the rooftop, was it once Nina gave him the keys, was it when Sofia got injured, or was it when he realized Sofia was such a fine pianist and would one day leave the Metropol, or was it when he knew he could not remain there alone with his memories once Sofia was gone? He plotted for a long while to put it all into motion, to go as smoothly as it did, with only the Bishop giving him one little hitch to his entire plan.
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Lots of folks talk about Binge-watching a series - I never did until today - over 8 hours of 8 episodes of a Russian series with English subtitles called Sophia - Well acted, beautifully photographed - as good as any series on PBS - about 15th Century Russia. Sophia Palaiologina, the last Byzantium Princess, born in Greece, niece of the last emperor of Byzantium, she is raised in Rome, then moves from Rome to Moscow to marry Czar Ivan III (Ivan the Great).
Sophia become the first influential female of the Russian Empire, overcoming all sorts of court intrigue and betrayals and she helps Ivan consolidate the fragmented country, push out the Mongolian Horde, and build the Kremlin. Sophia directly oversees the building of the Cathedral of the Annunciation using artisans and architects from Rome.
But what was amazing to hear mentioned in the series is Novgorod, this huge northern empire, politically free from Moscow till Ivan finally subdues and strips Novgorod of all political freedom, (great place for our independent thinker the Count to have grown up). Ivan secularized large tracts of its church lands, annexed its colonies so that by 1489 Novgorod is no longer a threat - The film also mentions Rostov, where peasants were fleeing to be cared for when clerics had them believe the end of the world was coming in 1492. The people so believed they did not plant crops or fish or see to the repair of their homes. They picked up and walked miles and miles to Rostov.
In 862, Rostov was an outstanding center of early medieval Russia. In 1207 Rostov became the capital of a princedom, which remained under Tatar rule in the 14th and 15th centuries. Rostov was important trade center between Moscow and the White Sea. Modern Rostov maintains a traditional handicraft of enamel on metal with a population just over 33,000.
Do you think the Count became an enamel painter or maybe he and Anna took a bus to the 'Winter Coast of Russia', the shoreline of the White Sea and studied the richest Vendian fossils in the world.
Looking up the history on the Britannica website, the series had all the events but with a more romanticized outlook and various events were attributed to other players in the drama - however, an interesting bit of history that I would never have looked into except for our reading this book.
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Barb, I binged on Downton Abbey a couple seasons before it ended. I spent like an entire week-end, watching rented dvds from season one, til the ready to begin season. I miss this program, it was wonderful to get lost into. Just not a lot of good tv shows to watch anymore.
I can't imagine the Count sitting long enough to paint, he could barely keep still reading for any length of time, waiting for the twice-tolling clock to chime the lunch hour. Fossil hunting sounds like a perfect way to wile away your elderly years on the shoreline of the White Sea.......
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I’m thinking I will begin reading Rules Of Civility, Towels other book. Jonathan have you begun reading it? If so how is it so far? The reviews looks like Katy is a fun character.
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Thanks Pat, for taking us back to the Interrogation at the start of the book. I remember wondering about the ambiguities in the Count's replies. They go so well with the ironies and assorted literary tricks in the rest of the book. Such entertaining alliterations and verbal craftsmanship. The Rule of Three seems almost overdone at times. Lovely prose poetry in all the right places. What an entertaining read.
Thanks to your Binge-watching, Barb, we learn that Rostov is an ancient, distinguished name. I beieve Tolstoy borrowed the Count Rostov for his War and Peace. Why shouldn't our author borrow him for his book, as he borrows Harrison Salisbury's hat and coat for the getaway, from the cloakroom at the Metropol. The American journalist and author.
Don't you think, Bellamarie, that our book is just crying for a sequel? The book has no real ending. The Count is always walking out on Anna. Now she's an ageing actress, playing 'the roles for women who had known the bitterness of joy and the sweetness of despair' (p338) No, I haven't started readingRules of Civility just yet. But just flipping through it I noticed Richard Vanderwhile is part of the story, as he is in our book. I anticipate a good read.
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Jonathan,
The Count is always walking out on Anna.
That's funny, I thought it was the other way around. Anna was always leaving to go do another film, he just never seemed to know when she would pop back into the Metropol. But at least from my assessment, they are together to spend the rest of their years doing what ever. A sequel, hmmm..... could Towles top this one? I stopped in my library to return my book, and they said Rules of Civility will be available in a couple of days, they are having it sent over to my library for me. I am excited to see how it will measure up to the "Gentleman." Richard Vanderwhile is certainly getting around.
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'That's funny, I thought it was the other way around. Anna was always leaving to go do another film.'
I think you're right, Bellamarie. But was it a serious relationship between these two? It's been going on for thirty years. If I have him walking out on her it's because the encounters were always in her place. There were so many. Nothing of consequence ever happened, or we would have been told about it. They must have stopped talking about 'handling' and 'breeding' long ago. Getting them together at the end is puzzling. Did Anna know about Sasha's plans to defect? Stalin was dead by then and the Count was too necessary to the Metropol to be sent to Siberia. Or worse. I will reread ths book sometime, for the fun of it. And to get it right.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch...or rather, back in New York.... After a few pages, I'm hooked. I'm so happy you're going to have a look at Rules of Civility. Here the author must feel at home. I was surprised how well he pulled it off in Moscow. The atmosphere seemed authentic.
Now, if I can get my samovar working, I'll have myself a cup of tea. What a 'sorry' lot for the Count all those years. The finest wines and the finest food. And he a connoseur of both. That alone would have made house arrest at the Metropol a wish come true for most Russians.
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Bellamarie:
I wonder, when did the Count actually begin the plan to escape?
My rereading has answered that. A seed is planted in 1952, p 351, the chapter titled "America", in a conversation the Count has with Anna; she talks about how everyone dreams of living in America.
In 1954, the chapter "Applause and Acclaim", p 382, the Count is making preparations: "For while the Count may have resolved to take action on the night of Katerina's visit six months before, it was only with news of the Conservatoriy's goodwill tour that the clock began to click."
On that night, in 1953, In the chapter "Apostles and Apostates", Sophia narrowly escaped being sent to Stalingrad to be in the Red October Youth Orchestra, and he learned of the death of Mishka, the last person who knew him as a young man.
That did it. Nothing left of his past, and Sophia's life would always be subject to the whims of party politics. Time to escape.
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hmm started to read online the excerpt of The Rules for Civility available on Amazon - I realized it was not really about the 1930s but rather how various people reacted to what happened in the 1930s.
Then it hit me - this book is not really about Russia or the Soviet Union - the policies etc were simply the backdrop - it is really about how one man adapted to a changed society and how he handled new restrictions and new opportunities within this changed system. It is really about change and how we keep some of what we valued before the change and then add what brings meaning as the change occurs.
No matter where Anna and the Count live out their 'golden' years, he will never capture the lifestyle he experienced as a child and young man and Anna, will never be the toast of the town sought after for her youthful looks and acting ability. The home in the apple orchards of Novgorod is gone just as all it represented. The Count does not even have his desk or clock with him. It is as if he and Anna are remade wooden dolls with the sanding and repainting complete - he no longer has reminders of his life pre-revolution and like Russia, his escape is like all of Russia throwing off the mantel of Stalin - which is like anyone ageing who no longer is yoked to earlier systems and responsibilities.
Both books are stories of major systems changed in the twentieth century and how it affected someone caught up in the change - it appears that there are those who were on the high end of society before the crash of '29 that will experience major change to their lifestyle however, bring with them characteristics of who they were before the change, as the Count will always bring with him the manners, specific knowledge and experiences of a nineteenth century gentleman.
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Barb, Yes, I agree the book was about change, and how you deal with it. The back drop was the political happenings. All things are subject to change, but the Count remains a "gentleman." He starts over with nothing but his memories, once he leaves all his possessions behind.
Pat, WOW! Great finds..... I suspected from the minute he was sentenced to house arrest, his ingenious mind began plotting his escape. Situations after the house arrest only solidified the inevitable. When he contemplated jumping from the rooftop, that I felt was his lowest point in his being confined and needing to find a way out, even if it meant escape by death. Losing Mishka and seeing Katerina be like a butterfly with no worry, gave him the last insight to live what ever of his life left in freedom. He had to make sure Sofia was first taken care of. Someone or somewhere I caught a glimpse of the Count tries or does escape, before we actually began reading the book. I was disappointed seeing that spoiler, and all through the book it stayed in the back of my mind. As the book went on and no mention or hint of it, I thought maybe it was a mistaken spoiler. So glad it all happened at the very end, it really did make it so much for exciting.
Jonathan, I have Rules of Civility and will begin reading it later today. Hope you and I can touch base with each other as we read it. Barb let us know if you begin reading it as well. We can have our own mini discussion! It's so much more fun when you read and can share thoughts with others.
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A wonderful read. A wonderful discussion, everybody.
Bellamarie, I'm halfway through Rules of Civility. The more I read the more humor I find in Towles' books. Yes, Katey is a lot of fun, and very smart, and a very competent legal secretary. A great reader in whatever spare time she has. 'Keep your Proust and Tolstoy', she says, 'give me a good Agatha Christie'. I believe the author has started out on a modern Human Comedy. Perhaps a new Dickens or Balzac. I really feel I'm beginning to understand that Manhattan smart set. If I say anymore I may be spoiling it for someone. Happy reading.
The book does have a strange feature. An Appendix, of nine pages, described as 'The Young George Washington's Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation.' A 110 Rules in all. Only in Manhattan would so many occasions arise in which a Washington rule would be useful to know?
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Jonathan, I saw that APPENDIX The Young George Washington's Rule of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation.
Oh how our politicians and presidents need to take a good hard look at these rules. They have lost all civility here in America:
Joe Biden (former Vice President) speaking at the University of Miami on sexual assault: "They asked me would I like to debate this gentleman, and I said no. I said, 'If we were in high school, I'd take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him,'" said Biden. Biden said Tuesday, "I've been in a lot of locker rooms my whole life. I'm a pretty damn good athlete."
He added, "Any guy that talked that way was usually the fattest, ugliest S.O.B. in the room."
President Trump's response: "Crazy Joe Biden is trying to act like a tough guy. Actually, he is weak, both mentally and physically, and yet he threatens me, for the second time, with physical assault. He doesn’t know me, but he would go down fast and hard, crying all the way. Don’t threaten people Joe!"
Hillary Clinton former First Lady: “You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right?” Clinton said. “The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic—you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up.”
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Jonathan, is it just me or did the first 100 -150 pages of Rules of Civility drag on and seem uninteresting to you? After the accident it seems like the book just didn't have life to it. Hoping for more action in the last half of the book.
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Bellamarie, In replying to your question, I would like to lift a few words from your Trollope quote: 'Was ever anything so civil?'
Since we're looking for civility in sophisiticated Manhattan we should expect to find the action very subtle. One becomes more aware of it as one reads along. Of course there's nothing subtle about finding a wheelchair at one's desk after phoning in sick the day before. With a red cross emblazoned on it.
I'm enjoying it immensely. Katey is so worldly wise and comes up with a few rules of civility herself. I like this one: 'As a quick aside, let me observe that in moments of high emotion - whether they're triggered by anger or envy, humiliation or resentment -if the next thing you're going to say makes you feel better, then it's probably the wrong thing to say. This is one of the finer maxims that I've discovered in life. And you can have it, since it's been of no use to me.'
At this point in her life she has shared 260 pages of her life with the reader. I think I may have missed some of those 'moments of high emotion'. All I was picking up was the fast time Katie and her friends were having. A very sophisicated novel. Katie herself prefers an Agatha Chrisiie.
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Jonathan, Aha! I'm thinking it picks up, I'm still waiting, only on page 160.
Is it civil to live with a woman who you are responsible for crippling and scarring for life, knowing you love someone else? Is it civil for a woman to know she is basically keeping a man in an emotional prison, while she seems to be only caring about the materialistic things he can bring to her life, considering she had this same type of thinking before the accident? Is it civil for Katy to be in love with Tinker, yet be contented to live her life on the sidelines of his and Evie's lives, attending their parties and reading their postcards? We shall see....
I may be looking for more depth in these characters.
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'...looking for more depth in these characters.'
Good luck, Bellamarie. They hide it so well in this city of glamour, talent and alcoholic haze. The questions you ask have been running through my mind also and I wonder what the author is trying to say. Katey is such a darling sophisticate with a sublime sense of civility. Read on. You get to spend 'an hour or two' with Katey and Tinker up on the roof, as they watch the iights of the city come on.
'As we sat there, dusk was falling and the lights of the city were coming on across the great patchwork of office buildings and along the cables of the bridges; then it was the street lamps and the theater marquees, the headlights of the cars and the beacons perched atop the radio towers - each individual lumen testifying to some unhesitant intemperate collective aspiration.' p300
And haven't we travelled a journey with these characters?
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Jonathan,
They hide it so well in this city of glamour, talent and alcoholic haze.
So true. It's obvious Evie knew Tinker and Katey were smitten with each other, but she doesn't seem to mind destroying their happiness for her own. My eyes are a bit strained so I had to put the book down to rest my eyes. I hope to get back to it tomorrow.
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Have you finished the book, Bellamarie? Are your eyes feeling better? Perhaps you're feeling broken-hearted. Imagine reliving a year of your life, the way Katie has, after seeing Tinker's portraits at the gallery exhibit. But now, thirty years after the portraits were taken candidly and secretly on the subway, she's happily married to Val.
Reread the Preface. Moving, isn't it? Did you feel like a guest at the wedding? Isn't the rest of the book a splendid commentary on those few verses from the Gospel of Matthew? I counted at least another dozen biblical allusions in the rest of the text. Along with the Washington rules of civility, they certainly give the book a serious moral tone. 'For many are called, but few are chosen.' That's taking a fresh look at Gotham, also known as New York City. And Katie's father came from Russia. Along with other casual references and one can sense his second book gestating. But first came the wedding feast. Tinker, despite being well-dressed, was tossed out. Now, in his subway portrait, 'ill shaven, in a threadbare suit', his eyes are still 'bright and alert...with the slightest hint of a smile on his lips...looking every bit himself.'
There are times when our lives become lively memories. It's easy to find oneself in a book like this.
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Reading y'alls posts about Rules of Civility I finally ordered a copy - looks like you both have finished reading - ah so - my copy will not arrive till next Wednesday - the bit on Amazon is the wonderful verbal banter that this author brings making the books he writes a joy to read. Well better late than never - next week I'm looking forward to the jazz age, maybe even the big band sound?? of Manhattan New York.
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Oh dear Jonathan, I just finished the end and I am speechless..... I thought throughout the book I was bored and ready to stop reading it. I said to my hubby and ten year old grandson,on Saturday night before I turned in for bed, "Why am I reading this book? It is SO boring!" Then of course I saw your post on Sunday morning, and decided to keep on going. I could not be more happy I stuck with it. I should have known after reading Towles, A Gentleman In Moscow, this author hits hard in the last chapters of the book, leaving you speechless.
Indeed there were many moral tones throughout the book. Who would have ever guessed the past lives of these characters, let alone how drastically they change in their present lives. Just like with the Count, Tinker proves to be everything you want him to be. Or at least "I" wanted them to be. It seems so fitting I would end this book on Maundy Thursday, the first day of celebrating the Easter Triduum. Gives even more meaning to rereading the Preface. There are just times in your life, just like these characters in this book, that timing is everything.
Life doesn't have to provide you any options at all. It can easily define your course from the outset and keep you in check though all manner of rough and subtle mechanics. To have even one year when you're presented with choices that can alter your circumstances, your character, your course__that's by the grace of God alone. And it shouldn't come without a price.
Jonathan, It's easy to find oneself in a book like this.
Indeed it is......
Made me think, what if..... I had not ceased God's grace, giving me the courage to move out of my home on my eighteenth birthday to live in an apartment with my girlfriends, which led to a night out at a nightclub across the state line, by chance meeting this guy tripping all over my heels, who had just gotten back into his hometown from driving nonstop twenty hours from Rapid City South Dakota, after his stint of four years in the Air Force. What if..... my best girlfriend had not accepted his offer to date him, after I had ignored his flirtatious stepping on my heels that night. What if.....she had not decided he was not the one she wanted, because she was waiting for my ex boyfriend to come home from the service, she had been secretly writing to, and hoping to marry. What if..... I had not returned to that night club after they decided not to date any longer, and what if.... I had said no, to his persistent attempts to get me to say yes, to going out on a date with him. Some call it fate, destiny, like Towles, I prefer to call it God's grace.
Like Katey, I have no doubt that they were the right choices for me. And at the same time, I know that right choices by definition are the means by which life crystallizes loss.
Barb, you will not be disappointed. Like Jonathan mentions, as you read Rules Of Civility, you will notice how Towles was setting himself up to write A Gentleman In Moscow. I am so glad I read his second book first, he convinced me I loved his writing style, so luckily I stayed with Rules Of Civility.
Jonathan, thank you for hanging around and sharing this book with me. As always, you show me things I know I may have missed without your keen eye, and insightful mind.
I am glad I was a guest at the wedding, although there was never any lack of wine, for Jesus to provide a miracle for more. They seemed to have plenty to drink!
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Jonathan I have a tremendous idea, what if...........Towles did a book about the Gotham article, on the secrets of the Manhattanites! Now that would be a page turner!!
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If you thought we were done with A Gentleman In Moscow, think again.......
Kenneth Branagh is set to star in and produce Entertainment One's TV adaptation of A Gentleman in Moscow, based on the Amor Towles novel of the same name. ... Tom Harper is on board to direct the TV series, and will produce alongside Xavier Marchand of Moonriver Content.
Kenneth Branagh does look a bit dashing and would make a perfect Count Alexander Rostov.
(https://pmcdeadline2.files.wordpress.com/2018/04/rexfeatures_9421059bd.jpg?w=246&h=99&crop=1)
http://deadline.com/2018/04/kenneth-branagh-to-star-produce-eones-tv-adaptation-of-a-gentleman-in-moscow-1202357404/
I can't wait for this to begin!!
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I think Branagh would be perfect for the role.
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Yes, how wonderful - I am so glad we read this book and yes I agree, Kenneth Branagh could pull this off - he can be a bit rough but he has an elegance that he can dig into for the earlier part of the book.
I'm also really glad we read it together - I've talked with a few who had read it on their own and they did not get near the connections or allegories that we saw reading this together.
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I agree, Barb, we dug a lot of less obvious things out of the book. My book is now making the rounds of a couple of friends, and I'll be interested to see what they make of it.
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Has anyone heard how Karen is doing? Well, hopefully. Didn't she put us on to a wonderful book. And to use your expression, Pat, didn't we make something interesting out of it. It will be interesting to see a film version of it. Kenneth Branagh is sure to find the drama. I always think of him playing King Henry V. He should make a splendid Count Rostov.
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Karen, certainly did pick a good book for our group. I too am concerned we have not heard from her since the surgery. I hope all went well, and she is recuperating. Is there any way to get in touch with her?
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Not as far as I know, Bellamarie. I'm hoping it's a communication problem--that whichever family member is watching over her has too much else to do to figure out how to get on this site to give us news. I can believe recuperation is slow, but it is indeed worrysome.
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this gives me pause Pat - I wonder - we want privacy and our security is dependent on that privacy but not having any way to contact Karen is showing us how none of us are easily cared for when we care about each other as much as we do.
I am wondering if we need someone who we share our personal email and phone number so that if we do not hear for a week or more it is OK for that person from Senior Learn to make a call on our behalf.
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Just saw MKaren posted in the Library section and is on the mend!!! Good to hear from her. Barb, it would be something to consider having a way of contacting someone. I know you and PatH., have my email address, and also I am on FaceBook. If for any reason I was unable to check in for a lengthy amount of time, I am not so sure any of my family would know to check any of my accounts. I just may write this site down and let my hubby know how to get here.