The main character, COUNT ALEXANDER ROSTOV is sentenced to house arrest where he lives (in the Metropol Hotel across from the Kremlin) for the rest of his life, because he was "An Aristocrat". A complete degradation of personal status with minimal space in which to live - but OH, how very rich his life was........ And you're going to really like him!!
Everyone is reading this book it seems and so far, each person I've spoken to has really liked it. It has a 4.37 rating on Goodreads.com and that's a VERY high score for them.
Published late last year, Literary Awards (so far) include:
- Kirkus Prize Nominee for Fiction (2016)
- Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Historical Fiction (2016)
This is the kind of book that I wanted to pick up every day and read a little bit more, but I didn't want to rush it, because I didn't want it to end. It's HISTORICAL FICTION, not a high action, suspense novel. It takes its time to introduce you to each character in a way so that you really get to know them. You begin to feel that they are real and you become intrigued to find out what's going on with them each day. Again, I didn't want it to end.......
I've promised NO SPOILERS, so I'll just share a number of quotes from the book to give you a feel for the writing style. The quotes I've chosen are beautifully composed and/or "spoke to me" in some way or have reminded me of something that I don't want to forget.
Pg 18
"..... adversity presents itself in many forms; and that if a man does not master his circumstances then he is bound to be mastered by them.
Pg 19
"When he began to stir at half past nine, in the shapeless moments before the return to consciousness Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov savored the taste of the day to come."
Pg 80
"As such, the two young men hardly seemed fated for friendship. But Fate would not have the reputation it has if it simply did what it seemed it would do."
Pg 120
"After all, what can a first impression tell us about someone we've just met for a minute in the lobby of a hotel? For that matter, what can a first impression tell us about anyone? Why, no more than a chord can tell us about Beethoven, or a brushstroke about Botticelli. By their very nature, human beings are so capricious, so complex, so delightfully contradictory, that they deserve not only our consideration, but our reconsideration - and our unwavering determination to withhold our opinion until we have engaged with them in every possible setting at every possible hour."
Pg 125
"To what end, he wondered, had the Divine created the stars in heaven to fill a man with feelings of inspiration one day and insignificance the next??
Pg 186
"Nina Kulikova always was and would be a serious soul in search of serious ideas to be serious about."
Pg 309
"For all the varied concerns attendant to the raising of a child - over schoolwork, dress, and manners - in the end, a parent's responsibility could not be more simple: To bring a child safely into adulthood so that she could have a chance to experience a life of purpose and, God willing, contentment."
Pg 322
"And the friends that one happens to make in those impressionable years? One will meet them forever after with a welling of affection."
Pg 327
Referring to his sister who passed away when he was young he says -
"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."
Pg 353
"That is how time passes when one is left waiting unaccountably. The hours become interminable. The minutes relentless. And the seconds? Why not only does every last one of them demand it's moment on the stage, it insists upon making a soliloquy full of weighty pauses and artful hesitations and then leaps into an encore at the slightest hint of applause."
Pg 387
"For what matters in life is not whether we receive a round of applause; what matters is whether we have the courage to venture forth despite the uncertainlty of acclaim."
Pg 391
"For his part, the Count had opted for the life of the purposefully unrushed."
Pg 398
"Now if, as a rule, the Count generally avoided drinking after eleven, he absolutely never drank after midnight. In fact, he had even found himself quoting his father to Sofia on the subject, asserting that the only things that came from the practice were foolhardy acts, ill-advised liaisons, and gambling debts."
Pg 402
"Alexander Rostov was neither scientist nor sage; but at the age of sixty-four he was wise enough to know that life does not proceed by leaps and bounds. It unfolds. At any given moment, it is the manifestation of a thousand transactions."
Pg 461
"If one has been absent for decades from a place that one once held dear, the wise would generally counsel that one should never return there again."
Pg 461
"For as it turns out, one can revisit the past quite pleasantly, as long as one does so expecting nearly every aspect of it to have changed."
JOAN
