Amor Towles - The Lincoln Highway, A Gentleman in Moscow, Rules of Civility

[GoneOffShore]

I have found that trying to read these is like wading through treacle.

Anyone else? Any thoughts?

[Tomconroy]

1. I really enjoyed Rules of Civility but I can see it could be an

Last edited Mon Mar 14, 2022, 08:28 AM - Edit history (2)

acquired taste. I've been meaning to try the other two.

[GoneOffShore]

3. I got 25 pages into the one about Moscow.

Too many anomalies and anachronisms and a really slow pace.

I lasted 150 pages with The Lincoln Highway, decided that I only cared about one of the characters and hated another one. Plus, the pace was even slower than the Moscow book. Ended up jumping to the last chapter. The book ended pretty much as I figured it would, and it still wasn't something that was satisfying.

Good luck if you try though.

I think I'll give Rules of Civility a miss.

[PittBlue]

2. I have actually loved his books.

A Gentlemen in Moscow was my favorite. I also really enjoyed Rules of Civility and The Lincoln Highway. I guess it is an acquired taste. He was recently speaking at Case Western University but because of the pandemic we did not get to attend .

[Mz Pip]

4. Lincoln Highway

Just finished The Lincoln Highway and really enjoyed it. I liked that it shifted perspective between the characters.
I read Rules of Civility years ago and don’t remember it.

Gentlemen in Moscow is awaiting a long plane ride with no distractions.

[GoneOffShore]

5. If my reading of it is any indication, it will make that long plane ride seem much longer.

[Mz Pip]

6. Hah!

That made me laugh. I have friends who loved this book but it was a slow start for me and I put it down.
I keep hoping to get back to it…one of these years.

[GoneOffShore]

7. It's pretty soporific. Not as much as Tolstoy, but pretty close.

Of course, I have been reading 'The Mirror and The Light' for two years.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

8. I LOVED

A Gentleman in Moscow. What I especially loved was that he didn't cheat on the ending. He made it believable.

I also thought Rules of Civility was good. I have Lincoln Highway on hold with my library, so can't comment on it.

Here's the thing. What works for me may well not work for you. Example, I read a certain amount of science fiction. NOT fantasy which is an entirely different genre. Somewhat more specifically I like alternate history and time travel. I can also go on and on about specific writers I like -- Connie Willis, Robert Charles Wilson, Jack McDevitt, and lots of others -- but (especially if you are not already a science fiction person) none of these might resonate with you. And that's okay. While I sincerely wish you'd love the same books and authors that I do, I understand you might not. Don't fret. Just find the stuff that works for you, and go there.

[GoneOffShore]

9. It's what I do. I asked the question because I wanted to find out if my reaction was outside the box

And unusual.

Speaking of sci-fi/alternate history, have you read Nick Harkaway's 'The Gone Away World' or 'Gnonom'? John Le Carre's son, who seems to inherited his father's talent.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

13. I had not even heard of either of those.

My library has them both, and the first one looks interesting, so I might check it out. The second book, based on the description, doesn't appeal to me, but I like the first one I might try it.

I read a lot, over a hundred books a year, and in lots of different genres. Also a lot of non fiction, so for me the problem is never finding a book I want to read, but figuring out which ones I want to actually read. I've gotten ruthless about putting down a book that doesn't grab me.

[GoneOffShore]

14. My book consumption goes up and down, depending on season, and my state of mind.

I often go back and re-read books, as they are often a comforting (or not so comforting distraction).
I went back to 'Spook Country' by William Gibson, this week. I'm also in the midst of 'Carnival of Snackery', by David Sedaris, and a couple others. Also, 'La Place' by Annie Ernaux, which, though short and well written, is tough going because I'm reading it in the original French.

[ShazamIam]

10. Those books wouldn't have much appeal for a reader who loves plot. They are both introspective

personal journeys in a cultural commentary of changing, adjusting surviving while caught up in cultural changes of the times.
One journey of seeking and one of being forced.

[GoneOffShore]

11. I like introspective, but it has to be interesting introspection.

If it's introspection just for the sake of introspection, then it doesn't work for me. Probably the reason I ditched my philosophy course after one semester.

[ShazamIam]

12. Some of it is definitely superior, and in those two books the social changes are part of the story,

I haven't read either of those books, but now that I have read the summaries, I might try one.
I would be interested because they can also be viewed as a form of historical novels and a reading will tell if the time period is presented with acceptable accuracy.

[Retrograde]

15. Just finished A Gentleman in Moscow

I liked it at the beginning, but I've been on a Russian history and culture kick this year, and as the book went on the implausibility of the plot and the sense of entitlement of the main character became more and more annoying. Stop here if you don't want spoilers.





I can buy the main premise - aristocratic Russian is tried by the new-in-power Communists but instead of being executed - and the Bolsheviks killed just about every member of the old regime they could get their hands on - his sentenced to "house arrest" for life in the most luxurious hotel in Moscow. just because he wrote poem that said nice things about a proletariat revolution, or something. OK, I'll go along with that for the purpose of setting up the story and maybe getting some conflict into it, but as the novel goes on our hero seems unaffected by what's going on in his country beyond his hotel lobby. Lots of philosophizing and descriptions of luxurious dinners cover the time until the mid 1930s - then the book skips to the late 1940s. I guess the privations, sufferings, and sacrifices of the Great Patriotic War were just something our hero didn't want to sully his beautiful aristocratic mind with. The author manages to make the plot even more preposterous, IMHO, after that. The prose itself isn't bad (although every chapter title starts with "A&quot , and if it had been half the length and set anywhere else other than in a dictatorship during a period of unrest and shortages it could have been a decent if not great book.

If you want to try it, I recommend the audio book: at least the narrator has a nice voice.

[GoneOffShore]

16. Thank you for the precis! I had started the book and set it down, hence my question awhile ago.

I don't have a desire to go back to it. Your summation gives me even more reasons not to.

On the other hand, I'm still working through The Mirror and The Light by Hilary Mantel, and City of Light, City of Poison, which is about Paris under Louis 14(but it's not fiction).