To keep older men's interest from flagging, he throws in lots of sex with serial partners, all of whom are insanely desirable and never seem to be much troubled by disease or contraception. He realizes his audience consists largely of men with an interest in history, which I assume dovetails with older men. And that's what this book was about.įurst is no dummy. Morath, for his part, hoped to convince Britain to publicly support an alliance against Germany, as this might have given even Hitler pause. Knowing that neither Germany nor Russia would hesitate to roll through their countries once a war started, the diplomats were desperate (and doomed) in their attempts to prevent war from breaking out. Each nation did its best to forge alliances with Britain, France and the US in order to limit the damage, and to varying degrees each was willing to throw their Jewish population under the bus (or much worse) to achieve their aims.
The nations of Eastern Europe were not in an enviable position, having Hitler on one side and Stalin on the other. But unlike Rostov, he has made his life's work to struggle against Hitler and protect Hungarian Jews, rather than trying to outwit a hairdresser and headwaiter.ġ933-1939 was an exciting, if harrowing, time to be a European diplomat. Like Towles' Count Rostov, he is charming, sophisticated and has lots of friends.
Consider as an alternative Furst's hero Count Nicolas Morath, a Hungarian diplomat living in Paris in the 1930's. Amor Towles' hugely popular A Gentleman in Moscow did not impress me much, given its disdain for history.
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