Building material The memoir of a Park Avenue doorman

What three things do New York City doormen talk about when the building residents aren't around? Baseball, women, and Puerto Rico, according to Bruno in this engaging memoir. He takes readers beyond that politely held door to the banter, rivalries, and struggles of the Park Avenue doorman. Whether chasing heroin addicts from the sidewalk, joining an ex-con for pull-ups on some scaffolding, or bringing his German shepherd for an ill-advised visit--and dealing with the resulting mess on his building's marble lobby floor--Bruno reveals the side of the job residents don't get to see. The author grew up in the Bronx and didn't dream of donning a doorman's uniform. But to his Ecuadorian mother's delight, after filling in for a summer position, he was offered a full-time job with benefits, a miracle in the closely guarded community. Eventually, he began to test the strict boundaries of the doorman's world and also went back to school to build his writing skills. With humor and a keen eye, Bruno shows the complexity of keeping the building's staff in harmony.

A Park Avenue doorman reflects on the path that led to his transformation into an observer and writer. Bronx native Bruno grew up in a working-class household dominated by a strict Nuyorican Pentecostal father. High school in Manhattan became an escape from his parents' disapproval and religious extremism with its mix of interesting people and pretty girls--one of whom kept a diary that disgraced him and his family when her mother found its explicit record of their sexual relations. Bruno fought his parents to attend college outside the city, only to get expelled his junior year for sneaking into the cafeteria after hours. He immediately moved in with a group of college misfits, one of whom invited him to Minnesota and introduced him to the cousin who became his girlfriend. Bruno returned to NYC, took a summer job as a Park Avenue doorman, then returned to Minnesota and a crumbling relationship. When a rare job as a full-time doorman unexpectedly dropped into his lap, he was unwilling at first to leave his girlfriend but finally decided he would use the money he earned to resume his education more seriously and "take control of my story" by becoming a writer. (The girlfriend drops out of his story after that.) In between opening doors, running elevators, and catering to the whims of the wealthy tenants he sometimes lampoons in the book, Bruno finished an English degree at John Jay College and began an MFA at Hunter College. Yet the most significant lessons Bruno learned, he writes, came from his job. As a doorman, he was a gatekeeper charged with protecting the rich against everything from dogs that defecated on the lobby floor to the vagrants and panhandlers who served as living reminders of wealth inequality. Candid and always animated, his memoir offers a unique perspective on achieving the American dream that is as timely as it is refreshing. Engaging reading. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.