“One building as [a] microcosm of life on a silver platter… The voyeurism is so giddy that ‘740 Park’ sometimes feels like an extended feat of free-association. The description of an apartment can lead to the owner’s house in Newport – and off we go to European chateaus, Palm Beach, grouse hunting, the Princeton varsity crew team, Qing dynasty watercolors, horse farms, private railway cars and armies of servants… The curb appeal of all this is clear. The reader’s role is that of designated ogler; the writer’s job is to celebrate wealth, trace bloodlines back to the Mayflower and savor schadenfreude… Outside the work of Edith Wharton or Jane Austen, it’s rare to find such brazen speculation about exactly what people are worth… Changing demographic and economic realities… have made 740 Park a mirror of its times.”
– Janet Maslin, The New York Times, October 17, 2005