Jacob Tomsky

This professional confessional is less arrogant than Kitchen Confidential and more entertaining, maybe because I've spent more time in hotels than in fine dining establishments. The jobs and work culture described here are pretty foreign to me but somehow relatable, not to mention that Tomsky litters his memoir with tips for the traveller. The language flows and the stories manage to be both lighthearted and heart-wrenching, always engaging. There is just enough celebrity suggestion, without show more flat-out name dropping, to keep a gawker's interest. I hope I'm brave enough to try out some of Tomsky's insider tips next time I find myself checking into a luxury hotel (which I've only ever done in Vegas-- do these rules apply even there?), but sadly, I'm not sure I am. show less

Written by a guy who admits he’s unqualified and unhirable in any other field so it’s no wonder he’s cynical and corrupt. Dealing with the public all day, every day will also do that to a person so there's that, too. Still, the tone was a drag. As a guest I hope that the people on the other side of the counter aren’t always this nasty and mercenary. While I do not tip often (the only thing that redeems a guest in this guy’s eyes, so long as it’s large enough), I’m not an show more obnoxious, demanding or unreasonable guest so hopefully my drawing contempt meter stays on the low side. Unfortunately, this memoir will make me suspicious of every hotel worker I ever meet in the future. Are they all miserable, grasping, alcoholics? I hope not. show less

I read the first few chapters with such fervour : the luxury hotel in New Orleans and all the inside details of its functioning. Then we arrived in New York. Tomsky was less interested in giving details then and more interested in describing those around him. That would have been fine, I like a good character study, but something just fell flat. Where once I was eagerly awaiting my reading time, I was now performing behaviours to avoid it.

At that point, I decided I wasn't going to finish the show more book. I donated it and moved on to another.

I disagree with another review (and commenters) about the language being the issue with his writing; honestly, only in grade school does your English teacher tell you a swear word is something you say when you don't know enough to use other words (you can use swear words by HIGH SCHOOL senior writing classes and they are certainly an important topic in post-secondary fine arts writing and professional writing). I also disagree with the complaint of his adoption of so-called Black speech in New Orleans. First, any even amateur linguist or sociologist will be able to tell you that everyone adopts speech patterns of new environments, though most do it unconsciously whereas he does so more consciously. Second, the narrator never took on that voice: only the characters, some of which were native, one of which was Tom - who not only spoke like that in that context but had a watered down pattern. Third, I disagree with the characterization that the speech pattern is exclusive to blacks: too often, these behaviours are ascribed to a race but they more accurately describe a socioeconomic class - which the characters being represented and the star himself would have belonged to.

Having studied professional writing (yes, this includes memoir and fiction) at a post-secondary level, I find little flaws in his use of language - often this is less a comment on skill and more on style anyway. The true issue with his writing was that his characters became one-dimensional, hence my comment of everything falling flat, without other richness in detail to compensate. To have flat characters that do not garner any sympathy when you have now moved into a character study format, THAT is just bad writing.

And that is what left me cold and bringing the book to a thrift shop. show less

"So, in 1794, someone, some asshole, built the very first hotel in New York City: a 137-room job on Broadway, right there in lower Manhattan...."

This is a tribute to the hotel workers who work long, long soul-crushing hours in an industry dependent on the uncertainty of tips. Who deal with the rudest, most entitled people. Who get stepped on by often crooked managers, who steal from them. Who tell you your job is Very Easy.

But there's also camaraderie, of being a part of a "big ass show more family"-that hidden lifeline so much a part of the spirit that keeps you going, day after day.

How easily it is to become a victim of the working class, and not so easily shaken off. Nobody says they want to be a doorman or a housekeeper when they grow up. It just happens when you fall through the cracks. show less