Review #122
A Memoir
Michael Gates Gill, the son of New Yorker writer Brendan Gill, was born into privilege and grew up meeting the likes of Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Queen Elizabeth, T. S. Eliot, and Jackie Onassis, just to name a few. A Yale education led to a high-powered advertising career at prestigious J. Walter Thompson Advertising right out of college.
But, at age 53, Gill has become ‘too old’ for JWT’s ‘image’ and is downsized. On top of that, an ill-advised affair has resulted in a son (his 5th child) and a divorce. At age 63, his entire life has gone sour…he has been diagnosed with a slow growing brain tumor and his business is collapsing.
Despairing at the prospect of looming poverty, he stops at a Manhattan Starbucks to comfort himself with what he thinks may be his last latte. By chance he meets Crystal, a young African American woman recruiting new workers for the coffee giant. She jokingly asks him if he is looking for a job. Almost as an act of desperation, he says yes!
Several weeks later, he dons the uniform of a barista-in-training at an Upper West Side Starbucks. Gill, who is white, gets an education in race relations along with the life of a working class Joe. He starts at the bottom...cleaning the bathroom! Over the following months he learns to deeply respect Crystal, to appreciate the mutual support of his coworkers and to genuinely cherish the passing parade of customers, each unique. To his own astonishment, he realizes that he actually looks forward joyfully to every hectic, exhausting workday.
Throughout the book, Gill looks back at the life he lead before Starbucks and projects a number of lessons we could all stand to learn!
I found this book intensely interesting.
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