Closing Costs [Hardcover]

Seth Margolis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 8, 2006

Seth Margolis has crafted a page-turner that does for today's real estate market what The Bonfire of the Vanities did for the stock market of the eighties.

 

When Peggy Gimmel decides to sell the apartment she bought decades ago for a few thousand dollars, she's thrilled to discover that it's worth almost $2 million.  But her sudden windfall triggers a cascade of unexpected events and plunges her into the dizzying orbit of Lucinda Wells, one of Manhattan's most successful and ruthless real estate agents. Peggy's not the only one at Lucinda's mercy.  There's the technology entrepreneur struggling to salvage his sinking company while gut-renovating his home.  The socialite exiled from Park Avenue to the pull-out sofa of her parents' West Side apartment.  The illegal immigrant amassing a fortune printing money. The clueless widow trying to unload a world-class collection of fake artwork.  These are just some of the characters whose lives intersect in unlikely ways, all of them nearly overwhelmed by the rocketing real estate market and the hard-charging broker who holds the keys to their futures.  
 
As he interweaves these often suspenseful and frequently comical stories, Margolis captures the zeitgeist of a cultural moment, keeping us turning the pages with the rise and fall of his characters' fortunes. 

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The white-hot Manhattan real estate market forms the backdrop for Margolis's fifth novel, a pithy but slow-moving ensemble character study that weaves together the tales of several Manhattan couples trying to survive on the housing bubble's uncertain edge. The novel opens with Lucinda Wells, a gorgeous, high-power real estate maven, orchestrating the buying and selling of upscale apartments. Her most intriguing clients are the Granthams, who have to sell their digs after the Feds arrest Barnett Grantham for allegedly embezzling millions from his employer. He soon flees the country, leaving his wife, Lily (and the G-men) to track him down. Unfortunately, the other story lines are less lively; in a far more ordinary subplot, the upwardly mobile Guy and Rosemary Pearson see their future (and apartment financing) wither when Pearson's software company stock tanks and he becomes the victim of a corporate ouster. The well-drawn characters complement Margolis's wry observations on Manhattan life and the ups and downs of marriage and career, and though the real estate angle may fail to pique those living west of the Hudson, it will certainly resonate with New Yorkers. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Fans of Tom Wolfe and Jonathan Franzen will revel in this zesty tale of penthouse envy and dot-com detumescence set in Manhattan's lofty world of up-and-coming millionaires and down-and-out billionaires. Riding the wave of heady success of his software firm's initial IPO, Guy and Rosemary Pierce are in the market for a larger home for their equally burgeoning family. They're headed uptown, to a condo belonging to the parents of Lily Gimmel Grantham, wife of Wall Street investor Barnett Grantham. The Granthams, meanwhile, are evicted from their Park Avenue penthouse in the wake of a multimillion-dollar stock scandal that causes Barnett to flee the country and Lily to move into her parents' new, but decidedly smaller, downtown apartment. Orchestrating this co-op cha-cha is uberrealtor, Lucinda Wells, a brittle dynamo whose early childhood bedtime stories must have been written by Donald Trump rather than Mother Goose. From Lucinda's IM-speak dialogue to Lily's couturier wardrobe, Margolis adroitly targets New York society's egregious excesses with laserlike accuracy. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (August 8, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312353685
• ISBN-13: 978-0312353681
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,794,133 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a delightful treat, May 2, 2007

By 

S. Owen (texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Closing Costs (Hardcover)

From the reviews I had read and the blurb on the book jacket, I was expecting a delicious peeping-tom view of the rich and famous--a sort of Tom Wolfian treatment of the housing market and related obsessions of the movers and shakers in Manhatten. I enjoy such books for the same reason I enjoy regency novels. These novels of manners present a snapshot of a culture most of us will never experience (except in these books). From our comfortable world we can sneer at the foolish lives of these wealthy and influential people and get some satisfaction when their self-centered, materialistic pursuits end in financial and social ruin.

Unfortunately, most books of this type are like a scrumptious chocolate eclaire--lots of fluff, little substance. And, too often, after finishing one, the reader--like the diet-breaker--feels guilty, restless and unsatisfied. Because, I think, like ancient romans at the coliseum or modern television viewers of Jerry Springer's shows, we have gleefully watched the destruction of another living creature from a position of lofty and judgmental safety. We know nothing about the individuals--beyond a brief stereotypical description which plugs them into a certain social and economic strata. And we care even less.

So imagine my surprise as I discover, not only the witty dissection of these lives in the Big Apple, but a thoughtful and compassionate exploration of those lives.

Not an eclaire, but a four-course meal. Wow! And what a page turner.

I loved the way you framed the book with Lucinda's brittle narration (I believe these were the only two segments in her point of view). She becomes a modern day chorus/prophet/philosopher explaining, from her perspective,the housing market, other financial trends and the culture of a certain group of New Yorkers.

I loved Peggy and Lily and immediately cast the movie (Bette Midler and Julia Roberts). You didn't romanticize either one or hesitate to show their character flaws. But you made them human, and strong, and resilient. Lily may have fallen from the luxurious nest she'd built so pain-stakingly, but she doesn't collapse. Unlike her husband who runs away from trouble, she faces it head on and, though some of her methods are less than conventional or even legal, she survives and eventually triumphs. You don't give us any unrealistic expectations. Lily may have chosen the candy man over her exonerated Wall Street financier husband, but there's no doubt she will nudge Larry into franchising his Broadway Nut Shoppes--she's already remodeling his apartment. And he'll be a success due to her social skills--she was, after all, the biggest rain-maker for Barnett's firm. But you delve beneath her social-climbing, status-seeking, law-breaking surface and show a real person who has the courage to analyze her life and figure out what she wants. And, upon finishing the book, I am cheering for her and Larry, for Peggy and Monroe, Sophie and William and Paco, Rosemary and Guy, Mohammed and his family. And I am hoping and believing they will be just fine.

I have a collection of books that I re-read often as a special treat, knowing I will gain something new with each reading and also lift my spirits. They are all what John Gardner describes as "moral fiction" which I take to mean life-affirming. This collection includes Faulkner, Morrison, Fitzgerald, Shakespeare, Austin, Grisham, Nora Roberts, Janet Evanovich and a few others. These books make me laugh and cry and sigh with contentment. I've added Closing Costs to this particular bookshelf

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well-drawn characters, wicked humor--and surprising heart, August 22, 2006

By 

Markurz (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Closing Costs (Hardcover)

I thoroughly enjoyed this expose of the screwy world of New York real estate and the poeple who live in it. The comparisons to Tom Wolfe are apt: the author has a laser-sharp eye for the telling details that bring a character to life. But unlike Wolfe, Margolis stops just short of the jugular. He skewers these often misguided people, but has enough affection for them to allow them to live...which makes all the difference. They may be fools, but you care about what happens to them.

Overall, an entertaining and insightful work.

5.0 out of 5 stars A MUST READ!!, August 7, 2007

By 

E. LaChant - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Closing Costs (Paperback)

Author Seth Margolis perfectly captures the life, times, and unique environment of New York City circa the early 2000s. Watch and laugh as he describes the incredible ascent of the New York City real estate market contrasted with the simultaneous decent of the lives of the characters within it.

Fun, funny, insightful, and just plain entertaining.