The Sky's the Limit: Passion and Property in Manhattan [FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING]

Gaines, Steven

Published by Little, Brown and Company, New York, 2005

About this Item

As new condition brown boards, black spine, and gold spine lettering contained in a fine condition non price-clipped color photographic dust jacket. Includes List of Other Books by Steven Gaines; Author Dedication; Preliminary Page Quote by Oscar Wilde; A Note on Sources; Acknowledgments; Index and About the Author. Illustrated with a section of black-and-white photographic plates. "A narrative of surprising unity and velocity. Such a cast of eccentries hasn't been seen since Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." - Jay McInerney, The New Yorker. "Hugely entertaining . With wit and zest .Gaines tells the story of the embattled Hamptons through a series of deft profiles." - Stephen Birmingham, Washington Times. "Breezy, irreverent .amusing. Gaines has found .a place worthy of its own unauthrized biography, replete with scandals, scurrilous characters, assorted bacchanalia, and all manner of wretched excess." - Laura Landro, Wall Street Journal. "Richly entertaining." - People. "A satisfying comedy of manners about snobbishness and land lust among America's overachievers . Gaines knows how to tell a story, and he knows how to dish." - Carl Swanson, Salon. "From the author of the bestselling Philistines at the Hedgerow, a mesmerizing inside account of the high-stakes world of Manhattan residential real estate. Steven Gaines takes us from New York's most expensive condominiums and co-ops to the offices of its most powerful real estate brokers to reveal the outlandish displays of ego, bad behavior, and status hunger that come into play when the best addresses in the city are on the line. With his signature elan, Gaines weaves a gossipy tapestry of brokers, buyers, co-op boards, and eccentric landlords and tells of the apartment hunting and renovating adventures of many celebrities - from Tommy Hilfiger to Donna Karan, from Jerry Seinfeld to Steven Spielberg, from Barbra Streisand to Madonna. Gaines uncovers the secretive, unwritten rules of co-op boards: why diplomats and pretty divorcees are frowned upon, what not to wear to a board interview, and which of the biggest celebrities and CEOs have been turned away from the elite buildings of Fifth and Park Avenues. He introduces the carriage-trade brokers who never have to advertise for clients and gives us finely etched portraits of a few of the discreet, elderly society ladies who decide who gets into the co-called Good Buildings. Here, too, is a fascinating chronicle of the changes in Manhattan's residential skyline, from the slums of the nineteenth century to the advent of the luxury building. Gaines describes how living in boxes stacked on boxes came to be seen as the ultimate in status, and how the co-operative apartment, originally conceived as a form of housing for the poor, came to be used as a legal means of black balling undesirable neighbors. A social history told through brick and mortar, The Sky's the Limit is the ultimate look inside one of the most exclusive and expensive enclaves in the world, and at the lengths to which people will go to get in." - from the inner front and rear jacket flaps. Seller Inventory # 007530

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Sky's the Limit: Passion and Property in...

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, New York

Publication Date: 2005

Binding: Hardcover

Illustrator: Blair, Kelly (jacket design); Shireman, Jon (jacket photograph); Beegan, Carolyn (author photograph)

Condition: As New

Dust Jacket Condition: Fine

Edition: 1st Edition