I set out to write about our capitalist economy and then got a bit bogged down with all the numbers that measure it: unemployment rate, inflation, GDP, and so on. It occurred to me that the real economy is actually found in how we live our daily lives. So, I decided to write about a story that illustrates on a much more personal level how all those numbers shape our existence.
In The Doorman (2025) by best-selling novelist Chris Pavone, massive wealth and debilitating poverty clash head-on. Set during a single day in and around the Bohemia, a New York City high-rise apartment building for the super-wealthy, the titular doorman Chicky Diaz, who has been working at this spot for nearly three decades, becomes the conduit for many of the book’s story lines.
While the primary plot involves a disgruntled wife who learns that her husband is a villain and that his billions of dollars were not exactly earned honestly, the true power of the book resides within its social commentary; in this case, an anthropological dissection of modern American weariness.
While the meandering plots are sorting themselves out, and before the thrilling ending, Pavone paints a number of intriguing characters who navigate their lives in a city that is a microcosm for the entire nation and its problems.
Chicky is dealing with a billionaire one moment and a homeless guy the next, giving him a bird’s eye view of the actual ramifications of America’s massive wealth inequality.
The wealthy wife is the gorgeous Emily Longworth who has clearly become accustomed to living in luxury. When she learns the source of that wealth, however, she winces and then begins to look more closely at the type of person her husband is. Whitaker “Whit” Longworth is a racist MAGA nut who despises liberal woke society and whose most offensive outbursts underscore some of the funniest scenes in the book. Whit also illustrates some of the reasons MAGA, over the past decade, has gained some traction within specific demographic groups.
Emily’s father, a minor character, bumps into woke ideology himself. The loyal Democrat, Pavone writes with flair, “told a dirty joke at work, got called out by a young woman of color, canceled, bought out of his partnership, career over, and suddenly he was watching Fox News day and night.”
MAGA gets exposed for what it is, too. “[Chris Pavone] gives it to both sides of the culture wars,” Stephen King wrote of The Doorman, “and with both smoking barrels.”
The Doorman also explores the various manners in which people get rich in this country, and it’s often not pretty. Whit Longworth, for instance, has earned his billions by selling light-weight body armor and other military equipment to the U.S. Department of Defense and eventually to anyone with the means to pay. Wife Emily is a bit bothered by this but still enjoys living a luxurious lifestyle. To give you a sense of how much wealth we are talking about here, during one scene Emily ponders a divorce and wonders, according to a prenuptial agreement, if she would be able to live on only $900,000 per year.
The other obscenely rich folks in this one have a variety of attitudes that suggest that being a regular working stiff might not be all that bad. I’ll clarify only to say that it amazes me how miserable some rich people can be. Chris Pavone was inspired to write The Doorman after living in a building much like the Bohemia. So he speaks with experience when he writes, “All the best things in life come with a lot that isn’t.”
Describing the Bohemia building offers another example of the money these people have. “These apartments,” Pavone writes, “were more like vaults than residences. One sold for two hundred and twenty million dollars, a figure equivalent to spending nearly a thousand dollars per day, every day, for six hundred years. A scale that proved just how much was wrong with the world.”
One of those things that are wrong is that many of the wealthy in this country believe they deserve what they have because they earned it. In this, Pavone shines a light upon the manner in which most of the wealth in this country is actually generated.
“That’s how Whit had gotten rich:” Pavone writes sardonically, “by exploiting somebody else’s invention, using connections from an expensive education financed by inherited wealth, to redirect taxpayer dollars from the working class into his own banking account. Whit had talked himself into being proud of this.”
No hard work, no innovation, just privilege… While there are certainly hard-working innovators out there, it seems to me that the vast majority of wealth in this country and the world is held by those who are nothing of the sort. Pavone’s The Doorman brings this reality home with a bang.
Some wealthy people feel guilty because the injustices faced by so many others are literally at their doorstep. Clearly not as “proud” of her money as her husband is, Emily attempts to assuage her guilt by volunteering at a Harlem soup kitchen, setting up another clash of wealth inequalities. Sometimes you don’t need to hear more than a single sentence to understand a person. After Emily shares a troubling story from her day in Harlem, Whit replies, “Nobody’s forcing you to spoon out slop to illegal immigrants.”
The soup kitchen also brings Emily closer to an incident that has protestors taking to the street… you guessed it… white cop shoots Black kid. Counter protestors show up, too, and this dramatically highlights exactly what troubles us today; right out there on the street where these things are so often settled.
Despite all the obvious negative commentary, Pavone writes, “Evolution isn’t always the same as improvement…” This is a great read. Pavone is a fine writer and I plan on exploring his other five novels. I’ll let you know how they turn out.
