This was the 1st book I read in 2021.
The only reason I bought this book was because Mr. Bill Gates recommended this. I thought given that I was living through the pandemic and thought it would be good to know how the protagonist in this novel spends his time when he is ordered for a house arrest in the Metropol Hotel in Russia during the 1900s.
At first, I was skeptic; Should I buy this book or not and if bought, would I be able to read it or not as it was a novel. With this dilemma, I just went ahead and bought it. When I finished reading “The Ride of a lifetime” by Robert Iger, I started reading this book. As soon as I started the book, I knew it would be a difficult task to finish this book.
I started reading it in October-November of 2020 and there were many other important things going on in my life, so I couldn’t focus while reading and ended up taking almost 3 months to finish this book. Everyday I used to take this book in my hand, I used to ask myself whether the book is really worth my time or not and for the 450 pages, I had the same question for myself. But, when I reached the last couple chapters, all the regret that I had while reading the book faded away.
Throughout the book, I couldn’t connect the dots between many places, things, and people that the author explained throughout the book. It was really hard to keep track of everything but once I was through first 100 pages, everything started to make sense. The book just started becoming more and more interesting, with a few pages that got me bored in between.
I must say the way the author explained everything about the Metropol hotel, Theatre Square, Count Rostov (The Protogonist), Count’s hotel attic room, Neena, Sofia, and everyone else in the story is simply amazing. He paints such a good picture about everything and everyone that you don’t help but imagine that quite vividly. You tend to imagine you are sitting there with these characters and those characters are talking to you. Having said that, I would also point out that elongating these descriptions sometimes hamper an amateur reader in you and your mind tend to wander some other place, which is very dangerous when you are reading a book like this.
The author carefully builds the story throughout the book, but it is those last 15 pages where everything hits you in the face out of nowhere. Even after spending so much time with this book, I didn’t see the ending coming and I was so happy while reading these 15 pages. I remember how I regretted reading this book and telling my friends about it, but those 15 pages made it all worth. I was glad that I stuck with it, so that I got to see the ending of the story. It was very well written by the author.
If you are fan of the novels, then I would recommend reading it, but please be aware that you will have spend considerable time with the book before it gets interesting.
See you at the next book review!
stochasticity 