I read a lot of great books last year, as you know. It’s interesting to look at my list from each year; I can see things like what I was working (editing) on and also things that were troubling me, or how stressed I was. Just a little review of my life, you know? And then I pick a favorite and write a blog post about it.
It’s never easy to pick a single title as my year’s favorite, so I always start with a list and that’s usually enough—the favorite will reveal itself then. It’s the story I’d love to read again for the first time.
That criterion made it easy: my favorite book of 2017 was Armor Towles’s A Gentleman in Moscow. Why? I’ll tell you: the closer I got to the end—and observed how neatly and tightly this novel had been constructed—I wanted to start reading it again, just to see how he did it.
Here’s Towles’s first accomplishment: the majority of the novel’s action—which occurs over the course of thirty-two years—is set inside Moscow’s Metropol Hotel. Outside it, the communists solidify their hold on Russia, the Second World War comes and goes, and people and time march on. It’s a richly detailed historical novel, and we see it all through the eyes of the protagonist, Rostov, and the people who visit him over the years.
Let me offer the setup: In 1922, after a bloody revolution that dismantles the peerage and monarchy of Emperor Nicholas II, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, age thirty-three, is sentenced by the Bolsheviks to house arrest for life at the Metropol, a prestigious hotel in the theater district of Moscow. He has been living there for some four years—in a posh suite surrounded by family heirlooms and antiques brought from his grandmother’s dacha—so this doesn’t seem like too much of a hardship until the Communist Party apparatchiks realize he still lives better than they do, and have him moved to what was once a maid’s room on the top floor. The room is tiny, and the Count must choose carefully what to keep …
One thing Rostov “keeps” are lifetime friendships with people inside and outside the hotel. And therein lies the complicated (but not uncomfortably so) plot. Watch—that is, read—carefully. The book is filled with characters and incidents and objects and side stories, and every last one of them is important to the denouement. It has humor and wisdom and tenderness in every moment. Lucky for you, the writing is delightful too. Savor it. Read it slowly so you can delight in the fact that literally every detail, every scene has meaning. It’s simply exquisite. Read it, if you haven’t already.
Honorable Mention
It was hard to keep this list short; I read a lot of great books last year (and a couple not-great ones, but nevermind). Nonetheless, I’ve narrowed my “honorable mention” titles to three:
> A God in Ruins (Kate Atkinson)
A “companion piece” to Atkinson’s Life After Life, which I genuinely loved, A God in Ruins had a lot to live up to—and, boy, did it ever. I will read anything Kate Atkinson cares to publish, because she’s simply a spectacular storyteller and writer.
> We Were Eight Years in Power (Ta-Nehisi Coates)
A collection of eight long-form journalism pieces written 2008–2015 (and eight new essays that introduce them) by a brilliant writer who writes so beautifully and thinks so deeply. I was alternately in tears and angry, but I’m glad I know what was in this book.
> Plainsong (Kent Haruf)
I’ve recently posted my thoughts on Plainsong, but I’ll say it again: exquisite writing, gentle humor, compelling characters and storyline make this book worth it for you to step out of your comfort zone.
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