All the Beauty in the World

The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me

By: Patrick Bringley

Narrated by: Patrick Bringley

Length: 6 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

A best book of the year from New York Public Library, NPR, the Financial Times, Book Riot, and The Sunday Times (London).

An “exquisite” (The Washington Post) “hauntingly beautiful” (Associated Press) portrait of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and its treasures by a former New Yorker staff who spent a decade as a museum guard.

Millions of people climb the grand marble staircase to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art every year. But only a select few have unrestricted access to every nook and cranny. They’re the guards who roam unobtrusively in dark blue suits, keeping a watchful eye on the two million square foot treasure house. Caught up in his glamourous fledgling career at The New Yorker, Patrick Bringley never thought that he’d be one of them. Then his older brother was diagnosed with fatal cancer and he found himself needing to escape the mundane clamor of daily life. So he quit The New Yorker and sought solace in the most beautiful place he knew.

To his surprise and your delight, this temporary refuge becomes Bringley’s home away from home for a decade. We follow him as he guards delicate treasures from Egypt to Rome, strolls the labyrinths beneath the galleries, wears out nine pairs of company shoes, and marvels at the beautiful works in his care. Bringley enters the museum as a ghost, silent and almost invisible, but soon finds his voice and his tribe: the artworks and their creators and the lively subculture of museum guards—a gorgeous mosaic of artists, musicians, blue-collar stalwarts, immigrants, cutups, and dreamers. As his bonds with his colleagues and the art grow, he comes to understand how fortunate he is to be walled off in this little world, and how much it resembles the best aspects of the larger world to which he gradually, gratefully returns.

In the tradition of classic workplace memoirs like Lab Girl and Working Stiff, All the Beauty in the World is an “empathic” (The New York Times Book Review), “moving” (NPR), “consoling, and beautiful” (The Guardian) portrait of a great museum, its hidden treasures, and the people who make it tick, by one of its most intimate observers.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Patrick Bringley. All rights reserved. Illustrations by Maya McMahon. (P)2023 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Lovely!

Patrick Brinkley wrote a beautiful love letter to the Met Museum of Art!!! Too sweet to end!!!

So lovely

I enjoyed this immensely. What a wonderful view of the Met. His love and grief were beautifully portrayed. Highly recommended.

The contemplation of the divine in every day acts

The title is perfect. A story about beauty in all its facets. Art, loss, discovery, and the trivial but meaningful concerns of the museum tourist. Read by the author, a great example of when the spoken word has more transformative power than written.

What life is really about

Really gave me pause to look around me and to slow down. Truly beautiful story and love to have been a part of this world

I could hear the author's love of his job.

Beautifully written and read by the author. Poignant piece of work that lingers on the heart long after it's finished.

Magnificent

A pure delight and connection to our common humanity. A book well worth its time.

Wonderful. The River Why for city-folks

The River Why is a 1983 novel by David James Duncan. While it starts off as a fishing story, The River Why turns into the story of a young person struggling to come to grips with the modern world.

Similarly, this book is a coming to terms with the chaos of life and learning to find a way forward that makes sense for the author.

I loved the writing style of both. I loved that this Audible version had the slow measured, meditative voice of the author. I loved his ability to connect art to life lessons (without feeling pedantic)and explore the significance of each exquisite piece.I bought it for family members I liked it so much. I don't normally re-read books. I feel I can come back to this again whenever I need to process difficult things, to find a connection to the good in the world.

Thank you Mr. Bringley, for writing this lovely book. I highly recommend it!

Passion about subject

Unique story told with passion and introspection. Took me inside a world I visited as a young person and made me want to go again.

Astounding and Delightful

This is a marvelous book. The writing is superb, and the descriptions of art breathtaking.

But it is also important as a layperson’s response to art and art institutions, and, as such, should be required reading for all museum curators, directors, and their trustees.

Wonderful book. Well worth your credit

Flew through this in a few days. Well crafted genuine appreciation of art, the met, and life Bravo