Inside the Metropol, a Life is Lived. Inside your Library, a World Awaits.
This series of blog posts explores the rooms of the Hotel Metropol, setting of this year’s One Read title, and recommends books and films related to each scene. For a true admirer of the written word, one book is never the end of the story.
At the Shalyapin with Audrius
When a German patron at the bar asks the Count to name other Russian contributions to Western culture besides vodka, he has the perfect response … Chekhov and Tolstoy, “the alpha and omega of narrative.”
“The Essential Tales of Chekhov” by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
“The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories” by Leo Tolstoy
“Act one, scene one of the Nutcracker…Russia has the sort of climate in which the spirit of Christmas burns brightest. And that is why Tchaikovsky seems to have captured the sound of it better than anyone else.”
At the Shalyapin with Richard Vanderwhile
As one might imagine, the Shalyapin bar takes on a significance in the novel, a place where the Count gathers his own brand of intelligence. And it makes sense that his first meeting with American aristocrat, Richard Vanderwhile, takes place in this cosmopolitan watering hole of the Moscow elite. Their conversation ranges through the troubling tendency of a nation to destroy monuments and masterpieces in the name of progress, but more importantly, it touches upon the topic of cocktails. Vanderwhile has definite opinions on cocktails and contrasts Audrius’ magenta concoction with classic cocktails which “must be two ingredients that complement each other; that laugh at each other’s jokes and make allowances for each other’s faults; and that never shout over each other in conversation. Like gin and tonic.”
“An Illustrated Guide to Cocktails: 50 Classic Cocktail Recipes, Tips, and Tales” by Orr Shtuhl
“Paris Cocktails: The Art of French Drinking” by Doni Belau
“Book Girl’s Guide to Cocktails for Book Lovers” by Tessa Smith-McGovern
On the Roof with Abram
Where the Count’s attempt at suicide is thwarted by an enthused handyman and the return of his hive of bees. Abram offers him a taste of their honey and “as the elixir dissolved on his tongue, the Count became aware of something else entirely … ” Among the many traces and hints, he finds, “most of all, there was the unmistakable essence of a thousand apple trees in bloom.” To both Abram and the Count, the honey had undoubtedly come from the endless apple orchards of Nizhny Novgorod, Count Rostov’s old stomping grounds and perhaps the very apple orchards of his long abandoned family estate.
“Honey: A Complete Guide to Honey’s Flavors and Culinary Uses With Over 80 Recipes” by Hattie Ellis
“The Rooftop Beekeeper: A Scrappy Guide to Keeping Urban Honeybees” by Megan Paska
“Keeping Bees in Towns & Cities” by Luke Dixon
“A Short History of the Honey Bee: Humans, Flowers, and Bees in the Eternal Chase for Honey” by Ilona
In the Kitchen with the Triumvirate and the Bouillabaisse
“… with the very first spoonful one finds oneself transported to the port of Marseille — where the streets teem with sailors, thieves, and madonnas, with sunlight and summer, with languages and life.”
For the three friends dining on their clandestine gathering of ingredients from faraway places, the bowl of bouillabaisse was a journey to the south of France and to memories of their youth.
“Two Towns in Provence” by M.F.K. Fisher
The Food & Wine of France: Eating and Drinking From Champagne to Provence” by Edward Behr
In the Kitchen with the Triumvirate and Mishka
When Mishka, in his “ragged winter coat” arrives at the kitchen door of the Metropol on the 21st of June in 1946, the members of the triumvirate do not at first recognize him. He has lived through terrible experiences in the labor camps since his outburst over the Chekhov letter with his publisher. Andrey, Emile and Alexander sit Mishka down to a meal of potatoes and veal. Emile places salt and bread on the table, Mishka takes note, and the Count and his old friend enjoy what will be their last meal together. Mishka’s tale is particularly poignant because he begins as an idealist who genuinely believes in the principles extolled by the Bolsheviks at the beginning of the Revolution and he ends his story having been brutalized by those very countrymen.
“The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation” by Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenit͡syn
“The Day Will Pass Away: The Diary of a Gulag Prison Guard, 1935-1936” by Ivan Chistyakov
“Never Remember: Searching for Stalin’s Gulags in Putin’s Russia” by Masha Gessen
In the Yellow Room with Osip
A scene wherein the Count defines what makes a gentleman by observing the nuances of manners while dining with Colonel Osip Ivanovich Glebnikov, officer of the Red Army. The difference being “an assembly of details,” some more obvious than others, such as the colonel talking with his mouth full or gesturing with his fork, but most importantly, failing to introduce himself.
“The Compleat Gentleman: The Modern Man’s Guide to Chivalry” by Brad Miner
Osip and the Count meet regularly to screen the westerns, musicals, film noir and horrors from Hollywood, their window into American life. Osip is especially fascinated by Humphrey Bogart. “…there is no one more willing to do what is necessary … Here truly is a Man of Intent.” Each genre receives full analysis by the Colonel, detailed below.
Film noir, which mystified and greatly entertained Osip, because he considered it “an unflinching portrayal of Capitalism as it actually was.”
Horror, “sleights of hand in which the fears of the workingman have been displaced by those of pretty girls.”
“Dracula”
Musicals, “pastries designed to placate the impoverished daydreams of unattainable bliss.”
“Silver Screen Icons, Astaire & Rogers Vol. 1”
Westerns, “the most devious propaganda of all: fables in which evil is represented by collectives who rustle and rob; while virtue is a lone individual who risks his life to defend the sanctity of someone else’s property.”
