Book Review: All the Beauty in the World

by Bonnie Tollefson

All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me, Patrick Bringley, Simon and Schuster, 2023.

In my last review, I mentioned the number of books that had competed for my attention. This quarter the books were much quieter. I found a book fairly quickly: The Twyford Code, by Janice Hallett. It was on my “To Read” list and I took it home firmly believing that I could check a book off my list and write my review quickly and easily. As Puck in Midsummer Night’s Dream says, “Lord, what fools these mortals be”. I read 70 pages (large print edition) and just couldn’t go on. It may improve with further reading. For someone else. In the meantime…

Back to the RVM library and a quiet time sitting in front of the new large print and new non-fiction sections. A slim volume called All the Beauty in the World caught my attention. Patrick Bringley was a guard in the Metropolitan Museum of Art for ten years. Books giving “behind the scenes” details always intrigue me and this book has all of that, but it also has so much more. It is also about loss and life and love. Patrick finds what he needs in the museum, following the death of his older brother, Tom. Tom was less than two years older than Patrick and died in his mid-twenties from cancer. Patrick leaves his job working for the New Yorker and finds peace and a refuge from the mundane of every day life. He also finds things he didn’t know he needed, such as friends of all ages and backgrounds and lessons taught by the “old masters” and more contemporary artists. When Patrick is ready to rejoin the world, he leaves the museum a changed man, to become a walking tour guide in Manhattan. All the Beauty in the World is a quiet book, a contemplative book, and a book with something for almost everyone. Read and enjoy.

This book is available from the RVM library in regular print and can be placed on hold at the Jackson County Public Library System in multiple formats.