Customer Reviews

I'll Take Manhattan (Thorndike Press Large Print Basic Series)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
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2 star:		(1)
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This was the fifth Judith Krantz novel I read. I think it is one of her best. It is the story of Maxi, a woman whose parents own a highly lucrative magazine company. Her father had died, leaving her mother the sole owner, until she marries Maxi's uncle, Cutter. He decides to discontinue many of the magazines, including the struggling Buttons and Bows. Maxi makes a deal with her uncle, where she can do with Buttons and Bows all she wants for a year before its future is final. With that time, Maxi slowly turns it into B&B, which becomes the first runaway success for the women's demographic since Cosmopolitan. This is a very well-written novel, and while Maxi is perhaps an extremely hatable person, you end up rooting for her in the end.

I heard so much about Judith Krantz work, that I thought I'd give it a try with this novel. Although I feel her writing is very well, I did not feel a desperation for Maxi's (main character) success in saving her father's magazine business. Maxi is a spoiled girl, that will be worth millions whether or not she saves the magazine or not. The only desire she has to save the business, is to continue her father's legacy - but even that doesn't seem urgent. However, it seems from the story that her father put his business well above his children. To me, I believe the story was shallow and none of the characters were worthy enough for me to feel emotions on their success or failure. Quite a bore for me, but well written.

The story starts with a rather questionable scene where the heroine, Maxi, "bribes" a JFK customs official by offering him herself, so to speak, in return for letting her through fast. But it picks up quite a bit from there. As always, great good-vs. evil story (the "evil" in this one is perhaps the most malevolent of all her books, in the person of Cutter Amberville), very appealing major and side characters, nice setting details (this time of the magazine business), and a satisfying ending. It also is kind of a love poem to New York City in certain aspects (even if Donald Trump makes an appearence...it is after all set in the mid-'80s.) Incidentally, Maxi Amberville makes a short by-mention cameo in the latest Krantz novel, Spring Collection.

*spoilers*

I'll Take Manhattan was a great read, minus a few things - mainly Maxi's first husband, Rocco. I didn't enjoy his character at all and the interactions they had were weird and implausible. I would have preferred if Maxi were to remain "happily unmarried" as her mother put it, or find a man she could STAY with.

Things seemed to unravel in the last 20 pages or so, as if Krantz were tired of the story and stuck on a rushed 'happy' ending. Wasn't India and Toby enough? Maxi grew and matured so much in the year the main story takes place, and then she goes back to that loser? Also, Angelica seemed a little TOO smart for her age. Aside from those minor points, I loved the story - the backstory into Maxi's parents and seeing Cutter get his especially.

Poor little rich girl, Maxime dÁnverville, who had anything she wanted at only her smallest command. After going whim after whim (a daughter was the product of one such whim) finally her father desserts her upon his dying, and she has to face the ugly world alone. No help from the still inmature mother (living a secret passionate romance with her brother in law)but only from her almost blind brother and her mature daughter. This book gets you to some of the secrets of success in publishing combining romance and intrigue. Indulge!!!. As many other books by Judith Kranz you get excited by the way she plots the story.

If you are a woman that likes to do things in your own way, you must read this book. You will learn with Maxie how to create your own reality and how to face the reality that's not the one you planed. In this book, Judith Krantz show all her capacity to create interesting lifes, to submit them to her own will and, otherwise, to give them personality, strenght and power. All the story goes on as a big ocean, with little rivers that runs to it, but never loose their characteristics. I'll take Manhattan is a book for all the people in the world that likes a good, entertaining, exciting reading. I can say that, because I'm a brazilian woman and I loved it

Judith Krantz is the kind of writer you just don't see anymore. When I first read I'll Take Manhattan in the 80's, I read it as a reader. It took me away to places I'd never been before: Monte Carlo, New York, a drafty castle in Scotland. It immersed me in a life I knew nothing about: publishing, extreme wealth, bitter siblings who would stop at nothing to destroy others. Exciting stuff.

This time around, I read ITM as a writer. Judith write with a flair rarely seen in romances anymore. She can, and does, go on for pages and pages about how someone is feeling, in eclectic prose that belie the character's truth. I saw a different Maxi this time around. I saw a different Rocco. Lily was not the woman I remember from 20 years ago. I saw situations that seemed so outrageous that, if written today, would have quite possibly been slashed to bits by any editor with even a fool's concept of what sells.

Yet, somehow, Judith Krantz still remains belle of the ball in this genre. Maybe it's because, when all is said and done, we read romance to escape. It doesn't have to be real, doesn't have to ring entirely true to be entertaining. Sometimes real is...well, TOO real, and sometimes we need a break from it. Sometimes reading about the heroine who has been raped and abused and unable to love again, and the hero who follows her around for 365 pages trying to change her mind, can be trying at best--no matter how good the writing, no matter how wonderful the characters. That's when we return to Judith, who takes us on journeys to foreign lands with spoiled, rich women who trudge through their trials, get burned, get up and dust themselves off, and realize in the end what is truly important--love. The alphas, the brutes, the rakes and the swindlers she tosses in just for fun are the icing on an already very rich cake.

I'll take Judith Krantz. Any day.

Jade Cary
Author, The Point of it All

"I'll Take Manhattan" is Judith Krantz's fourth novel coming out in 1986. The book is very much of its time: a novel about a young, independent woman who goes through lovers, hard times, and heartache to strive to become wealthy no matter at what costs. Most of prime time television and many romance novels during the Reagan era dealt with people dealing with wanting more, and "I'll Take Manhattan" deals with this subject better than most.

The book deals with a 29 year old woman named Maxi Amberville who deals with losing her father who has left behind a huge magazine publishing house. Then she has to deal with her ruthless uncle in her determination in making that business as successful as she can while butting heads with her uncle at every turn. However, Maxi is no door mat as people learn just how ruthless women can be, if not more than their male counterparts.

"I'll Take Manhattan" is great fun and I enjoyed the book immensely.

The novel was turned into a CBS television mini-series and became the highest rated show of its kind in the 1986-87 season garnering a 22.9 rating and a whopping 35 share. It starred Valerie Bertinelli in the lead role.

A storm struck and I was forced to pack up my books and clean the shelves of too many to keep, but Judith Krantz's I'LL TAKE MANHATTAN is a keeper. It has all the elements of a great romance and the power of a finely penned book.
Wealthy, single-mother, Maxi Amberville goes to war to save her father's magazine empire from the ravages of hatred and murder. This story isn't about the perils of love, but the annals of achievement, which has nothing to do with the accumulation of wealth.
Excellent read that doesn't lose its punch for a reread.
Nash Black, author of WRITING AS A SMALL BUSINESS and HAINTS, both of which were finalists in the 2009 Indie Awards.

I have read all of Ms. Krantz' books except for Spring Collection, which for some reason I could not 'get into'. I'll Take Manhattan is one of my faves of hers. I highly recommend it -- I also recommend viewing the miniseries (they show it on the Romance Network quite frequently)...very well done and, for the most part, true to the book.