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May 03, 2018tjdickey rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Towles guides us on a literary journey through all of the major nodes of Russian culture in the early 20th century - the political mayhem around the founding of the Soviet state, the hopefulness of the Five Year Plans and the growing bureaucracy, the rise of Stalin and the different relations with the United States. We get to experience the best of Russian food, music, jazz, ballet, fashion, and even underground religion. But the best aspect for Russophiles (or anyone who enjoys a good turn of phrase) is that the author shapes his prose to mirror aesthetic shifts through time: echoes of imperial Tolstoy at first, followed by moments of world-weary Soviet realism, and some hints of quiet absurdist protest against the way of life. All of this smorgasboard is laid before us in the limited space of the Hotel Metropol, where the title character is sentenced to house arrest for the rest of his life. The phrase tour de force is appropriate.