THE EAST VILLAGE, NYC, 1976.
A 26-year-old starving poet needs $60. What else to do but register with
a temp agency as a house cleaner? The excitement never wanes as he is
catapulted into the everyday yet unimaginable worlds behind closed
(apartment) doors.
Bob knows one thing: the dirt will always win. Clients are a bit more
unpredictable, he discovers, as he comes to terms with eccentric
domestic habits and strange discoveries. When Bob becomes a weekly
fixture in his clients' lives, anything can happen, and does, including
a memorable encounter with an obliging Hoover that ultimately proves
unable to get the job done.
Cleaning Up New York has been a cult classic since it was first
published in 1976 in an edition of 750.