cover image Clublife: Thugs, Drugs, and Chaos at New York City's Premier Nightclubs

Clublife: Thugs, Drugs, and Chaos at New York City's Premier Nightclubs

Rob the Bouncer. HarperEntertainment, $24.95 (246pp) ISBN 978-0-06-112388-7

In this behind-the-velvet-rope memoir, anonymous blogger Rob the Bouncer (identity to be revealed ""on publication"") details his adventures working security at ""Axis,"" a dizzying composite of real-life New York nightclubs. Spending grungy nights working the ""Nightmare Square"" of club-choked West Chelsea, antagonized by feuding bosses and berated by the downgrading clientele, Rob has plenty of material for his misanthropic observations. He spends most nights playing God to a line-up of bankers, club kids and mobsters, ogling his bartender girlfriend and babysitting the VIP room for pocket cash. Rob is a likable, identifiable narrator, an average working guy dreaming of something better, genuinely aggrieved to be trading barbs with women drunk enough to chuck tampons at him. Though structural tics can grate-like his use of second person and too-frequent shifts into screenplay-style dialogue-a handful of sidebars reveal useful tips for getting in: pack a fistful of twenties and never bark, ""All my friends are inside!"" And, a must-read for anyone with a tendency toward belligerence, instructions on how to leave without getting hurt (""Don't touch the bouncers on the way out""). Though the tough-guy-with-a-heart-of-gold routine feels familiar, club-goers will find Rob's dispatches entertaining and informative.