“The rich and pissed off hit the roof.”
— curbed.com, October 6, 2005
“Hot read”
— Harper’s Bazaar, October 2005
“Worthy.”
— Vanity Fair, October 2005
“A riveting book… one of the best social documents of the past seventy-five years in New York. Michael Gross’ text takes you through the decades of social change — from the little old ladies who never left the building without their hats and their gloves to the contemporary men and women who dashed from the basement gym to their waiting SUVs in their athletic outfits. Divorce, murder, infidelity, anti-Semitism, embezzlement, mistresses, homosexual liaisons, bankruptcy and all the rest of the profligacies that visit and menace the human condition, are to be found in exquisite detail between the pages of this book. It’s a big box of chocolates that transmogrifies into excellent nourishment for the historically minded and students of the modern metropolis.”
— David Patrick Columbia, nysocialdiary.com, October 4, 2005
“Exposes the inner-workings of the absurdly wealthy cattery.”
— gawker.com
“This is a terrific book, and if you care a whit about the past and why it is the present, then you should read it from the beginning and place it eventually with your other pertinent pop-culture histories of the United States.”
— Liz Smith, New York Post, September 28, 2005
“Quite wonderful.”
— Crain’s New York Business, September 26, 2005
“With gossip this juicy, it’s no wonder people are dying to get in.”
— Rush & Molloy, Daily News, September 19, 2005
“Lifestyles of the rich and totally freaking insane.”
— curbed.com, September 19, 2005
“Residents of 740 Park Ave., where apartments sell for $30 million and up, are clamoring to get their white-gloved hands on advance copies of Michael Gross’ real-estate society tell-all by the same name.”
— New York Post “Page Six,” July 24, 2005
“The Lolita of shelter porn… 740 Park delves into the rarified world of one of the city’s most exclusive co-ops, where billionaires like Ronald Lauder, Steve Schwarzman and David Koch rest their heads.”
— New York Observer
“In 740 Park Avenue: The World’s Richest Apartment Building, Michael Gross penetrates the bewitching and private worlds of the privileged and very rich denizens of 740 Park Avenue on New York’s Upper East Side. Gross, a born story teller, delights in his tales of upstairs and downstairs over the decades in the grand building. This is social history at its best.”
— Dominick Dunne
“740 Park is a historical building that is worthy of the comprehensive and fascinating coverage that Michael Gross has devoted to it. This book is as entertaining as it is informative — it’s a terrific story.”
— Donald Trump
“740 Park is a concrete capsule of American capitalism as seen through the fates, fortunes, and foibles of its inhabitants. This biography of New York’s most magisterial building is an immensely entertaining, dishy, and ultimately serious book.”
— Jane Stanton Hitchcock
“Finally! A look inside the golden tabernacle of high society. This book gives you the back story — and more — about America’s ruling class. And you always thought Fifth Avenue was the prestigious address. Dream on!”
— Kitty Kelley
“Michael Gross has done a stunning job of reporting. The social history of modern Manhattan as seen through a single residential building, the men who conceived and built it, the wealthy families who lived out storied tours in its rich and lavish apartments, the famed and wealthy 740 Park snobbishly turned away.”
— James Brady