Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


here’s a large swing in politics

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

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What a WEIRD book to read after The Sympathizer. X hundred pages of righteous rage against the bourgeoisie and capitalism and the inherent virtue of communism…transitioning into a “The Terminal” x Golden Age NYC x Anastasia dreamland of a novel, in which a well meaning former member of the aristocracy is forced (FORCED) to live the rest of his life within the confines of a hotel (in the attic, mind you) and uses his vast knowledge of social grace, gossip, dance, etc to subtly touch and […]

Adaptation in a time of Revolution

A gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

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This was my IRL book club’s choice for our July meeting.  At some point in June, the book was bought, but it was not on my Kindle.  I had not read it until yesterday when i realised i had a week to do so, and apparently it is long. I finished it in an afternoon. It also fits into the CBR bingo space of adaptation (camel). It is the story of Count Alexsander Rostov, who returned to Russia in 1918 from Paris, ensured his grandmother […]

Going West by Heading East

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

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The Lincoln Highway was the first Trans-continental highway for cars in the United States. Between Laramie, WY and Cheyenne, WY on I-80, there is a bust of Abraham Lincoln that originally marked the highest point of elevation on the Lincoln Highway between New York and San Francisco. None of that is relevant in The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles, I just like the fun factedness of it all. Eighteen-year-old Emmett and eight-year-old Billy Watson have nothing to hold them to the farm in Nebraska. Their father […]

The Road More Traveled By

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

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Earlier this year I finally got around to reading Amor Towles’s second novel, A Gentleman in Moscow. I don’t know why I put it off for so long. It’s an engaging story replete with memorable characters and events, but even more, it’s a profound look at life and what makes it worth living. Despite the constraint of setting nearly the entire novel within a single hotel, Towles managed to portray a life full of love and friendship, heartbreak and redemption. It’s a major work of […]

Hotel Life

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

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Count Alexander Rostov fully expects to be sentenced to be shot by the revolutionary tribunal, but due to their admiration for a poem he had published years before the Count’s life is spared. Their generosity has limits, however. Rostov, a resident of the luxurious Metropol Hotel in Moscow, is ordered to remain within the hotel for life. Arriving back at the hotel, the Count is informed that his former suite has been requisitioned by the State and he will have to make due with the […]

“By the smallest of actions one can restore some order in the world.”

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

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This was an audiobook listen for me, narrated by the wonderful Nicholas Guy Smith. It was also something of a journey. It took me most of 2020 and a month of 2021 to finish this fine novel. It took me so long not because it was a chore to listen, but precisely because it was  a great story. It takes time to make sense of those. It was a great read for last year because of both plot and theme. The plot’s connection to 2020 […]



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