A Gentleman in Moscow
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The biggest flaw in A Gentleman in Moscow.
Melissa
(last edited
Apr 30, 2023 08:25PM
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Apr 30, 2023 08:23PM
I loved the book from start to end but there was a really big flaw for me, in AGIM. Would like to hear more from the people who have countering views or feel the same:
The only complaint I have was of Sofia. The count had progressed with the times while keeping the best parts of himself. He even gets a little discourteous when required towards the ending chapters which would have been unimaginable to me for the young count trained to be pleasant and charming in all scenarios. Those that did not change or didn't change into the exact way that was needed got consequences - people like Nina and the count's bestfriend whose idealism got the better of them. But despite all these plot lines and the changing times, Sofia seemed to be from the past. Maybe even to some extent modelled like Helena. The one word chosen to describe her was "demure". What was the value of demure? She is talented and charming I'm sure. She loved genuinely and was kind and polite But aside from playing the piano (and even within her piano playing) she didn't have plans of her life much else. she seemed entirely immune or outside of the changes that happened in Russia at any level, or as a matter of fact of the hotel. She wasn't in house arrest, but she pretty much never explored the outside of the hotel for such a curious wonderful child.
Even at the end when she was against the count's initial plot for escape and i wondered what she stood for, and what she wanted, and her motivations. i can't seem to find anything that she stood for on her own besides loving the Count and her family in the Metropol. In that way, she seemed to just have been the best parts of Count's past, and not a representation of the best part of Count's current ways. Not that it mattered but what would Nina have thought if she saw her daughter now? its not relevant perhaps, but i'd like to have seen the fire of Nina to have had in some way manifested in Sophia as well.
Sophia is curious when she was young to question why things the way they were. but she hardly applied it in any way when she grew up.
As a female, who perhaps identify a little more with Nina in character and so am biased, I just feel sophia's development into adulthood was a misfit to the overarching plot. she seemed to represent, a reverse in the count's character development and the story development to me.
anyone has thoughts around this?
The only complaint I have was of Sofia. The count had progressed with the times while keeping the best parts of himself. He even gets a little discourteous when required towards the ending chapters which would have been unimaginable to me for the young count trained to be pleasant and charming in all scenarios. Those that did not change or didn't change into the exact way that was needed got consequences - people like Nina and the count's bestfriend whose idealism got the better of them. But despite all these plot lines and the changing times, Sofia seemed to be from the past. Maybe even to some extent modelled like Helena. The one word chosen to describe her was "demure". What was the value of demure? She is talented and charming I'm sure. She loved genuinely and was kind and polite But aside from playing the piano (and even within her piano playing) she didn't have plans of her life much else. she seemed entirely immune or outside of the changes that happened in Russia at any level, or as a matter of fact of the hotel. She wasn't in house arrest, but she pretty much never explored the outside of the hotel for such a curious wonderful child.
Even at the end when she was against the count's initial plot for escape and i wondered what she stood for, and what she wanted, and her motivations. i can't seem to find anything that she stood for on her own besides loving the Count and her family in the Metropol. In that way, she seemed to just have been the best parts of Count's past, and not a representation of the best part of Count's current ways. Not that it mattered but what would Nina have thought if she saw her daughter now? its not relevant perhaps, but i'd like to have seen the fire of Nina to have had in some way manifested in Sophia as well.
Sophia is curious when she was young to question why things the way they were. but she hardly applied it in any way when she grew up.
As a female, who perhaps identify a little more with Nina in character and so am biased, I just feel sophia's development into adulthood was a misfit to the overarching plot. she seemed to represent, a reverse in the count's character development and the story development to me.
anyone has thoughts around this?
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The character of Sophia felt awkward to me, too. Not because her personality was unrealistic, but because her living situation was unrealistic.
I never understood why the Count confined himself to his two little rooms, when the whole of that floor was abandoned and for the first 10 years or so of his stay at the Metropol, management never came to check on him. But I found it even more incomprehensible when Sophia came along. Fair enough to create a bunk bed for her as a little girl, but seriously -- she was still sleeping in that bunk bed and sharing those two little rooms as an almost-grown woman?
Where did she keep her clothes and schoolbooks, where did she change clothes and wash? Evne if he'd been her real father, I think the Count would've felt it necesssary to make some other arrangements once she got to a certain age, but that was all glossed over. Also didn't she ever have school friends? Even if she loved the Count and the hotel, wouldn't her contact with friends outside the hotel make her question and compare her life?
The Count's friendship with Nina made perfect sense. I was left feeling that the author wasn't sure what to do with the Count's story once Nina left, and Sophia was the best idea he could come up with. For me, she didn't quite gel.
I never understood why the Count confined himself to his two little rooms, when the whole of that floor was abandoned and for the first 10 years or so of his stay at the Metropol, management never came to check on him. But I found it even more incomprehensible when Sophia came along. Fair enough to create a bunk bed for her as a little girl, but seriously -- she was still sleeping in that bunk bed and sharing those two little rooms as an almost-grown woman?
Where did she keep her clothes and schoolbooks, where did she change clothes and wash? Evne if he'd been her real father, I think the Count would've felt it necesssary to make some other arrangements once she got to a certain age, but that was all glossed over. Also didn't she ever have school friends? Even if she loved the Count and the hotel, wouldn't her contact with friends outside the hotel make her question and compare her life?
The Count's friendship with Nina made perfect sense. I was left feeling that the author wasn't sure what to do with the Count's story once Nina left, and Sophia was the best idea he could come up with. For me, she didn't quite gel.
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