How Starbucks Saved My Life

Michael Gates Gill's story of being pushed out of an "alpha male" job and forced to work in a service job is both entertaining and compelling. Gill's insecurities, class consciousness, and poor relationship with his self-absorbed father compounded his fall from high-flying marketing executive to retail grunt who found himself serving coffee to the kind of person he used to be. Most poignantly, his Starbucks job led to important life lessons through his experiences with African-Americans and others whom he says he looked down on in his previous career. With his pleasing elocution, sensitivity to nuances in dialogue, and obvious appreciation for the author's experiences, Dylan Baker carries the weight of this story without being heavy-handed with its morality lesson. T.W. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

June 4, 2007
The son of New Yorker
writer Brendan Gill grew up meeting the likes of Ezra Pound and Ernest Hemingway. A Yale education led to a job at prestigious J. Walter Thompson Advertising. But at 63, the younger Gill's sweet life has gone sour. Long fired from JWT, his own business is collapsing and an ill-advised affair has resulted in a new son and a divorce. At this low point, and in need of health insurance for a just diagnosed brain tumor, Gill fills out an application for Starbucks and is assigned to the store on 93rd and Broadway in New York City, staffed primarily by African-Americans. Working as a barista, Gill, who is white, gets an education in race relations and the life of a working class Joe . Gill certainly has a story to tell, but his narrative is flooded with saccharine flashbacks, when it could have detailed how his very different, much younger colleagues, especially his endearing 28-year-old manager, Crystal Thompson, came to accept him. The book reads too much like an employee handbook, as Gill details his duties or explains how the company chooses its coffee. Gill's devotion to the superchain has obviously changed his life for the better, but that same devotion makes for a repetitive, unsatisfying read. Photos not seen by PW
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October 29, 2007
Baker lends his talent to Gill’s memoir, the subject of considerable industry buzz and the basis for a 2008 movie starring Tom Hanks. Baker’s enunciation and cadence perfectly match the essence of Gill, a well-bred and erudite—yet down-on-his luck—advertising executive who discovers the true meaning of life while working as a Starbucks barista. Baker also delivers especially evocative performances of Gill’s hardworking—but fun-loving—young colleagues Kester and Anthony. His portrayal of store manager and mentor Crystal seems slightly underwhelming given her character’s pivotal role in the story. All in all, Baker remains true to the spirit of the material, and his rendition of the workplace banter should ring especially true with service industry veterans. Critics quick to dismiss the project for its high-concept elements will probably remain unmoved, but fans of such popular inspirational/motivational memoirs as Tuesdays with Morrie
should find the experience good to the last drop. Simultaneous release with the Gotham hardcover (Reviews, June 4).