A clinical psychologist, an advocate for the homeless and a professor of Russian studies dial in to a Zoom call.
That's not the setup of a joke - it was the premise of Tuesday evening's panel discussion of this year's One Read book, "A Gentleman in Moscow." Each year, Daniel Boone Regional Library gathers people with diverse backgrounds to share their insights on that year's One Read pick.
"We read this book together, that's why we call it One Read, but we all experience it differently," explained David Lile, panel moderator and KFRU radio host.
This year's panelists included:
Dr. Martha Kelly, associate professor of Russian studies at the University of Missouri.
Dr. Chris Lawrence, a licensed clinical psychologist and director of HeartSpace, a nonprofit organization that treats and educates about trauma.
Mike Trapp, a member of the Columbia City Council who's also involved with the CoMo Crisis Shelter, an initiative to provide shelter and health monitoring to those experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A fourth invited panelist, Mataka Askari, was unable to attend Tuesday.
"A Gentleman in Moscow," by Amor Towles, is an episodic and adventure-filled portrait of Count Alexander Rostov. In 1922, following revolution in Russia, a Bolshevik tribunal sentences the aristocrat to house arrest in the luxurious Hotel Metropol. For the next 30 years, the Count experiences his country's upheaval and transformation from the confines of his attic room, the building's grand public spaces and the behind-the-scenes domains of hotel employees-turned-coworkers-turned-friends. And, eventually, he plots an escape.
Each of the three panelists read the novel from a unique viewpoint, thanks to their own careers and interests. On Tuesday, they shared insights and answered audience questions during the hour-long event.
"You've helped me see some things I'd forgotten and missed," Lile told panelists at the end of the event.
Dr. Martha Kelly
As someone who's built a career reading and studying Russian writing, Kelly approached "A Gentleman in Moscow" with two big questions in mind.
"The biggest question I was asking myself, because I'm a huge nerd, was, 'How is (Towles) engaging with Russian literature?'" Kelly said.
She also asked herself whether Towles was trying to write a Russian novel but in English. Classic Russian novels, she explained, have a major focus on the internal life of their characters.
"The big thing about Russian novels is they incorporated the growing science of psychology into their writing," Kelly said. "As psychology was developing as a field, these Russians were taking those insights and incorporating them into novels."
Ultimately, Kelly decided, "A Gentleman in Moscow" feels more American than it does Russian - despite many solid references to Russian literature and history.
"Towles knows a ton, and I think he's really adept in the ways he brings Russian literature into the work," Kelly said. "The big difference between the Count and heroes in most Russian novels is, he's really stable. I think that's one of the things that draws us to the count at a time like now."
The book's overall escapism put Kelly more in mind of an American adventure novel, with shades of film noir - at one point in the book, Rostov and a friend even watch the film noir classic "Casablanca."
But the novel did remind Kelly of one Russian author in particular: Alexander Pushkin, a celebrated playwright, poet and novelist who died in 1837. His writing often centered politics and friendship.
"There can be a real lightness to his stories in the way we find here," Kelly said.
Dr. Chris Lawrence
"This is the first book I've read for pleasure in a very, very long time," Lawrence confessed. "I mostly read in my field."
Lawrence's background in treating trauma stayed at the back of her mind as she followed Count Rostov's journey through despair and healing. At one point in the book, Rostov is so low he attempts suicide.
"As I read the book, I was certainly interested in how he coped and how he found meaning," Lawrence said. "When his suicide attempt was stopped, he joined the staff of the hotel. You can see how that then made him part of a bigger picture, gave a lot of meaning to his life and created a community with them."
In real life, one of the things that most aids people in coping with traumatic events is finding a supportive community, she explained.
Late in the book, Rostov becomes a surrogate father of sorts to a bright young girl named Sofia, the daughter of a now-grown child he met early in his stay at the hotel.
"I found I loved the book when the children were involved; those were my favorite parts," Lawrence said. "Nina and Sofia brought a lightness and made the Count show up as he was, which was a gentle, gentle soul."
She said she saw Rostov as a foster parent, of sorts.
"I've worked extensively with foster families," Lawrence said. "I'm struck by how those parents step into a role that can be taken away from them at any moment but they put their heart out there."
Mike Trapp
Trapp said Towles showed insight into the human condition and the hotel industry.
In his work advocating for and aiding homeless individuals, Trapp has been involved with two hotel-based shelters.
"I've gotten to look under the hood, so to speak, at how hotels run," Trapp said. "Towles captured how they're really family operations. And there's a process where you can go from guest to employee; I've seen that happen a number of times."
Trapp also spotted parallels between the attitudes of the homeless folks he works with and Count Rostov. Rostov keeps dueling pistols handy and relies on his sense of propriety and honor to keep from falling into "a dangerous sense of ennui," as Trapp put it. In shelters, conflict often arises over personal insults and bruised honor.
"That kind of fighting for your honor, living in the day-to-day, that's something the nobility and homeless folks share more than working-class folks," Trapp said.
Early in the book, Rostov must develop a routine and focus on the practicalities of daily survival.
"There's a universality that Rostov brings that resonated with me, as an advocate for the homeless," Trapp said.
Rostov is well-read and an excellent conversationalist. So, too, are many of the homeless people with whom Trapp interacts, he said.
"There are many homeless people who work, of course, but there are also people of leisure," Trapp said. "They're often amazingly well-read - they keep up with the news. They have time to fill and they fill that with conversation. Homeless people are well worth looking beyond the stereotype and looking at with a sense of humanity."
To view the schedule of other One Read events, visit oneread.dbrl.org/events/. Towles will deliver a lecture via Zoom at 7 p.m Tuesday; register here.