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A review by sarahdm
All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley
5.0
What do I even say.
Based on the reviews, I think a lot of people are misinterpreting what this book is really about. So lets start there, what is All the Beauty in the World NOT about?
#1) This book isn't about the Met. This is not some behind the scenes look of the history or goings on of the museum. The Met is honestly just set dressing, its a backdrop. The book is barely about art if we wanna get down to it. Art is just the lens Bringley uses to muse on his understandings of human emotion and experiences.
#2) This is a not a grief memoir. This is not Crying in H Mart. All the Beauty in the World is a celebration of life, not just of Bringley's brother's life, but of humanity as a whiole.
Bringley's brother dies and he decided to hitting pause on the world by taking a job as a guard at the Met. Bringley sees the Met as a place that almost exists outside of reality, a tiny pocket dimension away from the real world. In this place, he gives himself space to grieve, to come to greater understandings about the human experience, life, and his place in it through the lens of art. After 10 years, he finds another job, leaving his tiny pocket dimension and re-enters "the real world."
All the Beauty in the World is about Patrick Bringley and his love for art's depiction and understood of life and humanity. And it is truly an aw inspiring read. Bringley is so tapped into emotion, I'm so envious of his ability to put the overwhelming range of human experience into words. I so often found myself crying while reading. Bringley makes me feel so happy, fuck, BLESSED to have the chance to experience life.
Also, I find myself thinking a rare thought with All the Beauty in the World: "I could never write like this." You ever read a shitty YA novel and think I could write better than this? Well this is the opposite feeling. Bringley is a master and I am wildly jealous. Maybe I'm inflating it because I just loved this book so much. But Bringley has an ability to put things into words I don't think I could ever find.
That being said, I have no special connection to the Met like a lot of reviewers do. I like NGA and Hirshhorn here in DC but its not with the intimacy that Bringley describes for the Met. I'm not an artist either, though Bringley seems to imply that that label belongs to everyone. But I still really enjoyed this book. All the Beauty in the World is my current top contender for best book I have read this year.
Based on the reviews, I think a lot of people are misinterpreting what this book is really about. So lets start there, what is All the Beauty in the World NOT about?
#1) This book isn't about the Met. This is not some behind the scenes look of the history or goings on of the museum. The Met is honestly just set dressing, its a backdrop. The book is barely about art if we wanna get down to it. Art is just the lens Bringley uses to muse on his understandings of human emotion and experiences.
#2) This is a not a grief memoir. This is not Crying in H Mart. All the Beauty in the World is a celebration of life, not just of Bringley's brother's life, but of humanity as a whiole.
Bringley's brother dies and he decided to hitting pause on the world by taking a job as a guard at the Met. Bringley sees the Met as a place that almost exists outside of reality, a tiny pocket dimension away from the real world. In this place, he gives himself space to grieve, to come to greater understandings about the human experience, life, and his place in it through the lens of art. After 10 years, he finds another job, leaving his tiny pocket dimension and re-enters "the real world."
All the Beauty in the World is about Patrick Bringley and his love for art's depiction and understood of life and humanity. And it is truly an aw inspiring read. Bringley is so tapped into emotion, I'm so envious of his ability to put the overwhelming range of human experience into words. I so often found myself crying while reading. Bringley makes me feel so happy, fuck, BLESSED to have the chance to experience life.
Also, I find myself thinking a rare thought with All the Beauty in the World: "I could never write like this." You ever read a shitty YA novel and think I could write better than this? Well this is the opposite feeling. Bringley is a master and I am wildly jealous. Maybe I'm inflating it because I just loved this book so much. But Bringley has an ability to put things into words I don't think I could ever find.
That being said, I have no special connection to the Met like a lot of reviewers do. I like NGA and Hirshhorn here in DC but its not with the intimacy that Bringley describes for the Met. I'm not an artist either, though Bringley seems to imply that that label belongs to everyone. But I still really enjoyed this book. All the Beauty in the World is my current top contender for best book I have read this year.