How Starbucks Saved My Life

Michael Gates Gill lived most of his life in an affluent Manhattan world full of pedigree and luxury. His father worked for The New Yorker and, as a young Yale graduate, Gill met Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Mohammad Ali, and Queen Elizabeth. He worked as a wealthy advertising executive until, in his 60s, his rarified world began to tumble down around his ears. An affair with a younger woman ruins his marriage and scandalizes his family, his company decides he is over the hill and fires him, and in a final devastating blow he is diagnosed with a brain tumor. Desperate for health insurances and facing poverty for the first time in his life, Gill takes an entry level job at Starbucks on 93rd and Broadway and is shocked to discover that amid the mad flurry of the daily grind, as he cleans bathrooms, struggles with the cash register, and forms unlikely friendships with the young mostly African-American baristas, he has become happier than he has ever been before. His fall from grace gives him a striking new perspective on the shortcomings of his former lifestyle, and this fast-paced and warm-hearted memoir is a welcome story about the unexpected turns of fate and how we are never too old to rediscover the fullness of life. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.