An aristocrat, Count Alexandre Rostov, is put under house arrest in Moscow, in Hotel Metropol, after the Bolshevik revolution. He learns to live there and makes the hotel his world. It is an interesting premise and the novel begins promisingly. A cheerful middle-aged man easily making peace with his much-diminished status. The first half has mystery, philosophy (after an encounter with an actress, he gets treated with disdain and becomes invisible), and pace. However, the second half is disappointing. Whereas his interactions with Nina, a little girl living in the hotel, were heart-warming, the story of Nina’s daughter being raised by him, the admiration she receives from his colleagues is a bit pollyanish. There is a stray chapter on Andre with no follow-up. The end is not quite clear – his motivation in getting Sofia to France and himself to be out of the hotel is not etched clearly.
Don’t bother.
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