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

★《紐約時報》暢銷書
★《紐約公共圖書館》、《金融時報》、《紐約郵報》、《Book Riot》以及倫敦《星期日泰晤士報》評選為年度最佳書籍之一

每年，數百萬人攀登宏偉的大理石樓梯來參觀大都會藝術博物館，但只有少數人能夠無限制、無限次地進到館裡的每個角落。他們就是那些穿著深藍色西裝、悄無聲息地巡邏的守衛，時刻監視著這座擁有兩百萬平方英尺的寶藏屋。當時正處於《紐約客》初出茅廬的光鮮職業生涯中的Patrick Bringley，從未想過自己會成為其中一員。直到他的大哥被診斷出末期癌症，他發現自己需要逃離日常生活中的喧囂與繁瑣。因此，他辭去了《紐約客》的工作，來到他所知世界上最美麗的地方——大都會藝術博物館，成為一名警衛。

出乎他意料，也讓讀者倍感愉悅的是，這個臨時的庇護所竟成為了Bringley十年的家。我們跟隨他守護從埃及到羅馬的精緻珍品，漫遊於畫廊下方的迷宮，穿壞了九雙公司鞋，並驚嘆於自己所看護的美麗藝術品。Bringley初入博物館時猶如幽靈般寂靜，幾乎隱形，但很快他找到了自己的聲音和歸屬感：那些藝術品及其創作者，還有博物館警衛充滿活力的次文化——這是一個由藝術家、音樂家、藍領工人、移民、嬉皮士和夢想者拼組而成的美麗馬賽克。隨著他與同事和藝術品之間的聯繫逐漸加深，他明白了自己能夠被封閉在這個小小世界中的幸運，也發現這個世界與他逐步回歸的大世界之間有著令人驚訝的相似之處。

Bringley回顧十年的警衛生涯，以他平實的文筆描繪了這座偉大博物館獨特的肖像、深度探索藝術作品與觀賞者之間的心靈交會、娓娓述說其隱藏的珍寶以及讓它運轉不息的人們的故事——包括他自己。《All the Beauty in the World》是一本啟發人心、美麗溫暖而且療癒的回憶錄。

New York Times bestseller
Named one of the best books of the year by the New York Public Library, the Financial Times, the New York Post, 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 staffer 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.