I hated Gentleman in Moscow

[Anonymous]

Loved it!

[Anonymous]

I liked it but I’ve lived in Moscow and have studied Russian history some so it touched on some themes I’m interested in.
I agree with PP’s friend that it isn’t really what I’d call an accurate depiction of life in the Soviet Union, but it clearly wasn’t intended to be.
I loved city of thieves — that one felt a little closer to actual history for me but I don’t know how accurate it was. It seemed consistent with what I know from that time period.

[Anonymous]

God I hated this book. I didn’t think it was boring, I thought it was grating as hell.

I think it was because he was just a rich guy eating soft boiled eggs in a luxury hotel while the world burned. Also, I hated the fact that every female character he encountered was relentlessly “beautiful” and effortlessly talented. It had the kind of unearned privilege that suffuses the Harry Potter series but on steroids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:God I hated this book. I didn’t think it was boring, I thought it was grating as hell.

I think it was because he was just a rich guy eating soft boiled eggs in a luxury hotel while the world burned. Also, I hated the fact that every female character he encountered was relentlessly “beautiful” and effortlessly talented. It had the kind of unearned privilege that suffuses the Harry Potter series but on steroids

Too much MCS, amirite?

That part I didn't mind. That's why I read books. I just found the entire idea of the book to be so implausible that I couldn't get into it at all.

[Anonymous]

Did you like the TV version though? I thought Ewan McGregor was quite charming in it.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, it's an inane premise--that the Bolsheviks would have allowed him to live, let alone live in relative splendor wining and dining