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harvio's review
4.0
- an interesting, behind-the-scenes look at the buying and selling of some of the world's most expensive real estate, and brokers who display bad behaviour and outlandish ego dealing with celebrities such as Hilfiger, Seinfeld, Spielberg, Streisand, and Madonna.
- "...there was this $46 Million Dollar Co-Op Apartment, with an $11 Thousand Dollar monthly maintenance fee..."
- "...there was this $46 Million Dollar Co-Op Apartment, with an $11 Thousand Dollar monthly maintenance fee..."
danad96's review against another edition
2.0
I think I would have liked this more if I were from New York City, so I would know about the buildings the author was writing about. There was a lot about very specific addresses, which didn't terribly interest me.
msjoanna's review against another edition
3.0
Ah, Manhattan. Where real estate porn appears in all levels of newspaper and where it's perfectly fine to visit someone's home and immediately ask how much rent they pay/how much they spent on the apartment. This book provided a nice gossip-filled look into the market for high end apartments, a bit of history of the development of co-ops and their boards, and some descriptions of neat buildings. In particular, the description of the Ansonia Hotel provides an interesting backdrop for the hotel described in Martin Dressler by Steven Millhauser.
grace3183's review against another edition
2.0
The whole thing like a really long Vanity Fair article, full of a interesting facts regarding a few of the so-called ”Good Buildings” occupied by the upper crust of Manhattan, but lacking in character and narrative thread. While a few of the stories are somewhat interesting, for the most part the book is tedious, lacks focus, nor does the writer seem to know exactly what he is saying. Perhaps a better description of this material is that the whole thing feels like an overly-long term paper that is packed with filler and low on substance. Little attention is paid to the real-life characters herein, which are (in some cases) interesting and could have been given more room for their stories to breathe in relation to the real estate focal point. But people are dropped in favor of reciting statistics that do not serve the material. Again: it reads like a term paper that is too short and suffered from last minute bloating to meet a required page count. Don't get me wrong: such numbers and statistics are helpful when they help flesh out the world or create a measure of understanding when they serve the point of the story. But this has no real thread combining all of the anecdotes other than "hey! look! expense real estate in Manhattan! WOW!". This COULD have been interesting material with a unique way into viewing this swath of Manhattan's social elite. But the book doesn't seem to know what the focus is, nor what it is saying in the first place. The historical bits, especially towards the beginning are the most interesting and give you insight into how Manhattan came to be built into the city it is today. But the author drops that quickly and moves on to something else, as if the goal was to talk about EVERYTHING rather than something. Once again: bad term paper with no focus or point of view. As a result, you stop caring about the people and the place and that is death in a book - be it fiction or non-fiction.
harvio's review against another edition
4.0
- an interesting, behind-the-scenes look at the buying and selling of some of the world's most expensive real estate, and brokers who display bad behaviour and outlandish ego dealing with celebrities such as Hilfiger, Seinfeld, Spielberg, Streisand, and Madonna.
- "...there was this $46 Million Dollar Co-Op Apartment, with an $11 Thousand Dollar monthly maintenance fee..."
- "...there was this $46 Million Dollar Co-Op Apartment, with an $11 Thousand Dollar monthly maintenance fee..."
grace3183's review
2.0
The whole thing like a really long Vanity Fair article, full of a interesting facts regarding a few of the so-called ”Good Buildings” occupied by the upper crust of Manhattan, but lacking in character and narrative thread. While a few of the stories are somewhat interesting, for the most part the book is tedious, lacks focus, nor does the writer seem to know exactly what he is saying. Perhaps a better description of this material is that the whole thing feels like an overly-long term paper that is packed with filler and low on substance. Little attention is paid to the real-life characters herein, which are (in some cases) interesting and could have been given more room for their stories to breathe in relation to the real estate focal point. But people are dropped in favor of reciting statistics that do not serve the material. Again: it reads like a term paper that is too short and suffered from last minute bloating to meet a required page count. Don't get me wrong: such numbers and statistics are helpful when they help flesh out the world or create a measure of understanding when they serve the point of the story. But this has no real thread combining all of the anecdotes other than "hey! look! expense real estate in Manhattan! WOW!". This COULD have been interesting material with a unique way into viewing this swath of Manhattan's social elite. But the book doesn't seem to know what the focus is, nor what it is saying in the first place. The historical bits, especially towards the beginning are the most interesting and give you insight into how Manhattan came to be built into the city it is today. But the author drops that quickly and moves on to something else, as if the goal was to talk about EVERYTHING rather than something. Once again: bad term paper with no focus or point of view. As a result, you stop caring about the people and the place and that is death in a book - be it fiction or non-fiction.
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