Renelle’s Reviews > A Gentleman in Moscow > Status Update

"Quaint buildings have been restored beyond recognition, while fine old traditions have lapsed to make way for mystifying new entertainments. And having imagined at one time that one resided at the very center of the civil universe, one is barely recognized, if recognized at all. Thus do the wise council that one should steer far and wide of the old homestead."

"Why after so many years of longing for whom did these sojourners abandon it so shortly upon the return? It is hard to say. But perhaps for those for turning after alone absence, the combination of heart-filled sentiments and the ruthless influence of time can only spawn disappointments. The landscape is not this beautiful as one remembered it. The local cider is not as sweet."

"He had said that our lives are steered by uncertainties, many of which are disruptive or even daunting; but that if we persevere and remain generous of heart, we may be granted a moment of supreme lucidity-- A woman in which all that has happened to us suddenly comes into focus as a necessary course of events, even as we find ourselves on the threshold of a bold new life that we had been meant to lead all along."

"It is one of the instrinsic limitations of being young, my dear, that you can never tell when a grand adventure has just begun."