Customer Rating: 
Summary: don't think many of the reviewers got the book
Comment: The book was well written and did a wonderful job looking at "the emperor" from multiple perspectives. It challenged the culture of current-day intellectualism, what it means in today's society and the ways in which it can be misguided. The book also did an interesting job exploring expectations and disappointment on several levels.
Customer Rating:
Summary: New York, New York...Manhattan, Manhattan...
Comment: Messud is a wonderful writer and I give her alot of credit for being able to capture Manhattan (and all of its ridiculousness) in all its details. Most of us, never even for a day, have lives which include galas, lavishly catered dinner parties, and all-you can-eat&drink caviar/top shelf champagne. Shopping on 5th Ave. and nonchalantly mentioning a need to "go buy a dress at Anna Sui or Dolce & Gabbana" is, again, not very accessible to the majority of the world. Not many women I know at 29 years old can afford to spend $5000 "nonchalantly" at a moments notice. This is the reason why I think that maybe some readers may misconstrue this novel and write it off immediately as a "poor piece of writing."
I loved this book. Living in Phila., I am a close neighbor of Manhattan and have many friends living there; Thus, I have to admit I knew exactly where Messud was going with this when finishing early chapters. Self-entitlement, pretentiousness, and absolute shallowness are adjectives for ALL the characters in this finely weaved novel, and rightly so. (Most of us have seen at least one episode of "Sex & the City" right?) Messud particularly captures the "approaching 30" generation in NY so well. Their brattiness, obliviousness to world politics, & their refusal to grow up and be independent are all portrayed very well in Messud's writing style. (Her long sentences are fine. I do not know why people have such a problem with it. What about Henry Miller, Charles Bukowski, & Gabriel Garcia Marquez?)
The ending was a bit abrupt and left the reader feeling like the last couple chapters were ripped away by accident. That was my only complaint with it. On a scale of 1 - 10, I give this book a 9.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Good airport read
Comment: I picked up the book at an airport kiosk based on the cover blurb from the NY Times, so in that sense felt that I, too, was suckered in as many of the previous reviewers have noted, when I discovered that the story was of three self-centered 30-somethings at a crossroads in their lives who make many bad choices and end up no better than the sneered at, repeatedly described as, horrors! fat cousin from (horrors, again) upstate New York. If you find the previous sentence too long, don't pick up this book.
On the plus side, if you can live with reading about mostly unlikeable characters in mostly attractive real estate, and you get caught up in seeing how far they will fall (and your flight is delayed), you might find this is guilty pleasure.
Customer Rating:
Summary: what's the point?
Comment: I'm 200 pages in... and still don't care a bit for either of the characters. The book, so far, is not only boring, but it completely lacks any emotions. I'm forcing myself from page to page and might give up at some point. Life is too short...
Customer Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written, but a little thin
Comment: Messud's prose is a little fantastic. And the "emperor" of the title is well drawn. The focus, however, is on the children -- and they come across too much as children -- bratty and self-indulgent.
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