Boat Shoes: Soliloquy of a Useless Eater Book One - Daire Feeney

                Boat Shoes: Soliloquy of a Useless Eater is the story of the author’s job as a doorman for a swanky apartment building on Fifth Avenue. I love to read the dirt others have about rich people and how they act. I’m not sure if it’s because I want to feel morally righteous or that I feel better knowing how miserable rich people often are. Either way, this seemed like a book that I would really enjoy. I also liked the cover which is a quirky depiction of a typical doorman. Mr. Feeney starts the book by warning the reader that he will more than likely offend them in some way before the end of the story and he’s not going to apologize for it. This is a smart move on his part because there were times that the book dragged a bit and the only thing that kept me reading was the fact that I was waiting for the big event that would cause me to “clutch my pearls”. I’m pretty open-minded but the events in Chapter Fifteen, the final chapter in the book, were completely unbelievable and, if they are true, Ms. K. and the author both need to be locked up in mental wards. There’s also an event involving a young man with Asperger’s syndrome that, unfortunately, is exactly how many people would treat him in similar circumstances, especially in the years before political correctness became such a huge issue. This event probably offended me more than anything else in the book and I didn’t find it remotely funny, even if the author thought it was.

                The main thing I did learn while reading this book is that I would never make it as a door person because I couldn’t stand to be treated like these people are treated. The building is like its own little Downton Abbey where the rich live like royalty and treat the help like dirt. The ironic thing is that the help, in particular the doormen, know everybody’s secrets. There were definitely some interesting tidbits throughout about the job and the tenants of the building but for those readers easily offended, don’t even bother picking this book up.

                I read this book on my ereader and it formatted well. The cover, as I stated above, is amusing and what drew me to the book in the first place.