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1 Work 85 Members 2 Reviews

About the Author

Mitchell Pacelle is an award-winning journalist who has covered business for The Wall Street Journal over the past eleven years. He has won the New York Press Club's 1999 Business Reporting award, was a finalist for UCLA's Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, and show more was part of the team nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the collapse of the Long-Term Capital Management hedge fund show less

Works by Mitchell Pacelle

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Gender
male
Nationality
USA
Organizations
Wall Street Journal
Agent
Esmond Harmsworth

Members

Reviews

Pacelle knows how to define characters, setup a situation, and tell a story. He has done all of this well in Empire, yet I did not finish the book. About halfway through, I realized that no matter how compelling he tried to make the characters and their plight, in the end, I just didn't care who owned the Empire State Building. In the end, he's telling a story about a bunch of rich people who are trying to outdo each other.
 
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meacoleman | 1 other review | Dec 7, 2010 |
Rosebud. The iconic Empire State Building attracts apes and fools. The building is only a dream, a figment, a red herring and a symbol in this appalling story of a power struggle among the filthy rich, which only benefits the packs of lawyers that feed on the outsized whims and ego of people who are sheltered from being refused when they throw money at a problem. Tiny issues cause giant tantrums (not really appealing to read about). Wealth truly removes most barriers to misbehave.

The funny thing about this story is the effect, globalization has on the local crooks and clans. The free flow of capital across borders injects new players into the local real estate scene who have the money but lack the knowledge to succeed in this new environment. The battle for the Empire State Building pits three New York real estate families (Helmsley, Wien/Malkin and Trump) against a decaying, shifty Japanese real estate mogul and his various offspring. The Japanese protagonists end up in prisons in Japan, France and the United States offering a glimpse into the different choices these countries make in taking care of criminals.

Overall, it's much ado about nothing that only exposes the ugly sides of filthy rich people.
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1 vote
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jcbrunner | 1 other review | Oct 24, 2010 |

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Works
1
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Rating
3.2
Reviews
2
ISBNs
5

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