Real Estate

by Jane DeLynn

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671544241
• ISBN13: 9780671544249
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: Poseidon Press
• Length: 316 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Compares favorably with Bonfire of the Vanities...

This compares favorably with Tom Wolfe's "Bonfire of the Vanities", or at least it's an interesting companion piece. I heartily disagree with Library Journal or the other reviewer here; I think this is a fairly well written and interesting look at the upper classes in NYC circa 1988. One problem it shares with "Bonfire" is that the delights of skewering the rich and pretentious so often require pinpoint accuracy in detailing clothes, apartments, brand names, and the prices of everything. However, time is cruel to such books. After 18 years, "Real Estate" by Jane DeLynn reads like something from the Victorian Age, at least in terms of the details. For example: an apartment on Riverside Drive, with superb views, 2500 square feet....for $200,000???? Try more than ten times that amount today! This affects nearly every aspect of the book. However, I was around and a younger adult at the time, and the book rings very true to the period. Perhaps things like this can only be appreciated from a distance -- the way "The Great Gatsby" seems endlessly nostalgic and fascinating today. In it's day, it was trendy and of the moment, but I recall my high school English teacher telling our class how her students in the 50s and 60s laughed themselves silly over Gatsby's silly clothes and pink shirts! Well, what goes around...comes around. I am sure that someday the 80s will become nostalgic and fascinating. The problem is we are still a bit too close to it, and therefore it seems a bit frumpy. That will change, I assure you. Meanwhile, there is a lot of snarky fun in this book, if you can keep that in mind, and well-drawn characters true to the period. As stated, the chapters (there is more than one actually) narrated by Jack the dog are winsome and charming, almost worth a book in of itself. This must be long out of print -- I had a great deal of trouble finding it at the library and had to order it via interlibrary loan. I originally read it about 15 years ago or so. I did not find it aged or lost it's authenticity in that time, and I plan to find a used copy online somewhere. I will keep it next to my copy of "Bonfire", they do make nice companion pieces of the era. If you find this at a book sale or otherwise, it is will worth a read...and hang on to it, it will be more interesting in the next 50 years.