Book Review: All the Beauty in the World by Patrick Bringley

All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley

Patrick Bringley was an up-and-coming worker in NewYork City publishing when his older brother died of cancer. Patrick reevaluated his life and wound up taking a job as a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This book tells the story of his life as a security guard, admiring and engaging with the art, the visitors, and his own sense of mortality. 

After the initial set-up, Bringley mostly focuses on the art and his job as a guard. He has a lot of time to appreciate the art. He also becomes familiar with the sorts of people who come and how best to help them. The descriptions of the background work (organizing the various shifts and locations for the guards and other workers setting up the new or rearranged exhibits) is a fun "inside baseball" look at the machinations of a museum and art gallery. It's interesting and entertaining but his personal life is mostly set aside until the end of the book.

Toward the end of his ten-year tenure at the museum, he and his wife have two children. He talks a little bit about them and they seem to be the unacknowledged catalyst for Bringley moving on from the guard job. He applies for a position as a walking tour guide in Lower Manhattan, which he is excited about for the educational and research opportunities, especially for interaction with the public in a more direct way. He's come to some closure or acceptance with his brother Tom's death, though he does not get into the details of that either.

The text is enjoyable and Bringley is an entertaining narrator. I wanted a bit more out of the book, some more depth. I don't mind having read it but probably won't read it again.

This book is reviewed on A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast #382. Check it out!