September 17, 2017 AFTERNOON DELIGHT

There are books--and then there are BOOKS. Some are quick and easy--great for the beach-- I read them on a regular basis. I really enjoy these books--they're fun to read and not too much of a commitment. BUT I have to confess that the books I LOVE--SAVOR--REREAD are very different. I AM A SUCKER FOR BOOKS THAT ARE WELL WRITTEN. In my world this mean anything written by Charles Dickens, W. Somerset Maugham, John Irving, Abraham Verghese, Rohinton Mistry--I'm sure I've missed a few--but you get the idea. These writers set the bar. They have me hooked on page ONE--I fall into them like an old shoe. The writing is magical. These are the writers who  have an uncanny ability to not only  observe life but capture it flawlessly IN THE WRITTEN WORD.  They're masters of descriptive writing too--creating imagery that is almost poetic. It's so beautiful that --IT DEMANDS A REREAD.  They create  characters who are  alive- authentic--old friends. I actually remember their names forever because they have touched my heart and soul. These books don't come along every day--they're far and few between.  I was fortunate enough to find  one though--just last week--WHAT A PLEASANT SURPRISE.  I have never read Amor Towles before, but after reading A Gentleman in Moscow he has proven himself worth his weight in gold.  

I literally read one page of this book and knew it was going to be -- PURE HEAVEN.  Set in Moscow, it is 1922 and  Count Alexander Rostov has just been sentenced by a Bolshevik official to house arrest for  a "Revolutionary" poem he wrote when he was a student at the university. House arrest for the Count happens to be at a famous hotel called the Metropol--right across the street from the Kremlin. The Count is stripped of most of his possessions and is reduced to living on the 6th floor in an attic room. As fate would have it, the Count's station in life becomes so reduced that he is forced to join the wait staff at the restaurant in the hotel.  The Count, however, is a man of conviction who believes "A man must master his circumstances or otherwise be mastered by them". Over the course of the next 30 years, the Count forges relationships with the staff and guests including movie stars, Russian royalty, Bolshevik revolutionaries, famous intellectuals, Americans, spies and a little girl named Nina who teaches him about life and purpose. I have to confess that I still have 100 pages to read so I'm not sure how things will turn out for the Count--but I don't want it to end so I'm trying to read it slowly. SAVOR EVERY WORD.   This fantastic novel is a bit of a commitment  but so worth it that I hesitate to call it such. It's 480 pages--a 7 mile run--THAT'S WORTH EVERY STEP!!