After reading "Moscow Gentlemen"

Introduction to the background of the era:

The October Revolution of 1917 established the world's first socialist state power.

The 1918 Civil War, the Red Terror, massacred civilians, took hostages, and mass deportations.

From 1918 to 1921, the wartime food crisis turned into a famine in the coming spring. Peasants revolted.

In 1924, the era of Lenin ended and the era of Stalin began.

In 1927, agriculture was collectivized and criminal law was used for grain procurement.

In 1939, World War II broke out.

In 1953, the Khrushchev era began.

"A Gentleman in Moscow" by Emer Toles tells the story of a gentleman who was under house arrest in the Metropolitan Hotel for 32 years. In the process, the gentleman met all kinds of people and experienced many bizarre experiences. Twists and turns, some of which merged into his life and became his life, more than his life. From these stories, we can see not only the charisma of the gentleman, but also Russia in those years.

Nina, a 9-year-old girl, is the Count's first friend. Nina is smart and has a personality. Like other little girls, she dreams of becoming a princess, but she also thinks differently and loves to explore. Her appearance undoubtedly helped the count break the confinement and loneliness he felt under house arrest in one place. Nina used her master key to take the count to peek into many secrets and gain a lot of hard-to-find fun. Nina believes that when others provide you with something, it is necessary to say "thank you" only when you really need it. On the contrary, there is no need to say thank you. It was such a girl who seemed to us ordinary people to be lacking in manners, but had her own set of rules. When she left the Metropolis Hotel and received the gift from the Earl, she sincerely thanked her. In the same way, she also gave the Earl the most precious master key. It is enough to see that this age-old friendship carries a heavy weight in the hearts of the old and the young. It also paved the way for Nina to entrust her daughter to the earl's trust due to a difficult situation in the future.

Mishka is not one of the count's friends in the metropolis. They know each other's past childhood. The changes of the times have allowed Mishka, who was originally silent in books and unnoticed, to find his own stage. He and the earl are completely left-centered in character, but they complement each other no matter what the moment. There is always one person talking loudly and one person listening carefully. No matter what is happening in the outside world, these old friends always know each other deeply in their hearts. . When good news comes from mountains and rivers, it's nothing more than that. They are the people who understand each other best and trust each other, so they must meet each other even at the moment of life and death. Even death is only separated by the temperature of the body, and the spiritual reunion will never be absent.

The appearance of actress Anna gave the Earl a show of strength. But the Earl was, after all, an experienced, old-fashioned gentleman. Taking off her clothes and putting on her clothes, telling stories and lies, and going back and forth, in this emotional game, Anna no longer has low self-esteem and has undergone a huge transformation, and the Earl has also gained a good comrade-in-arms and a good partner. Everyone will slowly leave, except Anna who is a regular guest in the count's aging years.

Andre and Emil are the most reliable friends the Count has made in Metropolis. A general manager and a chef are all powerful figures in this hotel with their own special powers. These "three giants" are together, helping each other and achieving each other's achievements. They plot big things together and play childish games together. If the reason for growing up is that friendships are always easy to establish when you are young, then for the middle man, if you can still get two gold-like friendships, then you are really lucky.

There are far more people who brought warmth and love to the Earl at the Metropolitan Hotel, including the tailor who always looked like his mother, the considerate bartender, and even foreign friends and leaders with completely different "classes" . They painted various colors into the count's life under house arrest, and always helped the count at critical moments.

And here, the most important gift to the Earl, and the most important person, is Sophia, the daughter entrusted to the Earl by Nina. If those people are very important people in the count's life, then Sophia is the count's life.

He is her uncle, her friend, her teacher, her guardian, her supporter, and her father. During the growth of Sophia, the Earl experienced the anxiety, anxiety, irritation, helplessness, reluctance, and sadness of being a father... In the past thirty years, the Earl only shed tears twice, once when an old friend passed away, and the other time. One time was when Sophia was injured and hospitalized. He was full of self-blame. For her, he could break out of house arrest without any scruples. He could forget the gentleman at heart. He could sacrifice anyone and himself to protect her.

At the beginning of the story, what attracted me were the advantages of the earl who were clearly stated in the author's writing. He seemed to know everything, his rich experience, the world he had seen, and the skills he was familiar with. I really thought The mentality of reading novels is curious about these incredible things about the count. However, slowly, I found that the author rarely used words to "praise" the earl anymore, and what attracted me more at this time was the inextricable and warm relationship between the characters. As a reader, I am a bystander, appreciating other people's lives through words; but in the process of reading, because their joys, sorrows, and joys are so real and relevant, sometimes I feel like a participant.

The author of this book is an American, but he cleverly and accurately integrates the rapidly changing history of Moscow into the work. The whole story becomes vivid and colorful because of the Russian atmosphere he picked up at his fingertips.

For me, just like "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "The Naples Quadrilogy", I thought it would be difficult to read because of the extremely thick pages, long names, and numerous characters. But after I get started, I can be thankful. This year I encountered another story that I will never forget.