There is something half-full about books by Amor Towles, and I can’t quite place it. Maybe it is just an undue obsession with trappings of wealth? Or maybe they are just without objectionability - feels like most proper literature is a bit more transgressive, pushes the bounds some how, does something a bit more. Which is not to say its not good! It is quite good (perhaps not quite as good as _A Gentleman in Moscow), engaging, easy to digest. I think there is something to the well-read protagonist’s predilection for Agatha Christie; the reading experience is not so different, and at the end you are left with a pleasant sense of conclusion.