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.