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Rating: 
Summary: Powerful and Disturbing
Review: As with all of Anne Roiphe's books, 1185 PARK AVENUE is powerfully written. The title refers to the address of the apartment building in which she was raised.Still, as beautiful as her prose is to read, this is a difficult book. Her family was not a happy one, to say the least. And her personal history will not be of universal interest, appealing mostly to people of similar Jewish ancestry. Yet there is no question but, that on a broader basis, 1185 PARK AVENUE offers a singular examination of a particular population. Inescapably, Roiphe had a sad childhood.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful and Disturbing
Review: As with all of Anne Roiphe's books, 1185 PARK AVENUE is powerfully written. The title refers to the address of the apartment building in which she was raised. Still, as beautiful as her prose is to read, this is a difficult book. Her family was not a happy one, to say the least. And her personal history will not be of universal interest, appealing mostly to people of similar Jewish ancestry. Yet there is no question but, that on a broader basis, 1185 PARK AVENUE offers a singular examination of a particular population. Inescapably, Roiphe had a sad childhood.
Rating: 
Summary: Overwritten and Uninspired
Review: I have little patience for the genre and minimal sympathy for the wealthy, but I found this interesting. It does seem evidence to the myopia of the enormously wealthy, though Roiphe doesn't seem to delve much into the issues of class it raises. But she's always entertaining to read, and this is no exception.
Rating:
Summary: Poor poor pitiful me
Review: I noticed this book on a friend's bookshelf in his 1185 Park Avenue apartment. Interested in the the building, its neighborhood, and its original milieu, I began to read. To my dismay, I found that Roiphe's book is primarily a recounting of a series of embarrassing and painful episodes from the author's privileged past: foolish and unlikable people hurting themselves and each other, again and again. Except perhaps as catharsis for the author, the point of the exercise is unclear: there are no insights to be found here.
Rating:
Summary: An interesting read
Review: The name Anne Roiphe certainly evokes thoughts of feminism and this book gives a good indication of why the daughter, sister, and wife became the woman she has become. An interesting behind the scenes look at a dysfunctional & wealthy family in 1950's NYC...well-written and interesting not only for the historical perspective it gives us of 1950's wealthy Jewish NYC, but also for the heartbreaking story of a family that simply couldn't find one another.
Rating:
Summary: "Long Day's Journey into Night "in rich New York Jews
Review: This is Anne Roiphe's memoir of growing up in the 40's and 50's in a wealthy, squalid family.Roiphe has mined this territory in earlier books. Again she offers personal and political gossip (social history, if you will) against a background of local and world history. But here there is more: a cry from the heart. Father is savage and physically absent. Mother is self centered and incompetent. Treachery and betrayal abound. Attended by an army of maids, governesses, nurses, doctors, and psychoanalysts, she, her younger Brother and the others survive for a while but at a price. In the end, only she remains. This is a ruthless, forgiving, brilliant book.
Rating:
Summary: Under My Skin
Review: This memoir got under my skin. I finished it a few days ago and I'm still thinking about it. Anne Roiphe's family seem monstrous and she doesn't always spare herself. I felt tremendous pity for her and her brother -- what could have become of such an intelligent, sensitive man if he hadn't been treated so badly as a child? I recently read Mary Karr's memoir of growing up in East Texas with poor and dysfunctional, but loving parents. It makes an interesting counterpoint to Anne Roiphe's rich, but cold family.
Rating: 
Summary: A most brilliant memoir.
Review: When I began the first few pages of this book, on a sleepless night, I prepared to be bored by what, at first glance, seemed to be flowery language with no sweat shed. How wrong I was. Roiphe has written the best memoir I have ever encountered. Each character is so well described that I swear I could pick any one of them out in a crowd, regardless of whether they are now dead or alive. I normally have some distaste for changes in tense, but Roiphe achieves this so artfully, I rarely noticed. Roiphe, though her descriptions are vivid and not in any sense concise, does not waste a word. I sometimes found myself unexpectedly laughing, and at one point, incredibly, weeping. Her analogies, her descriptions, her words....all are just remarkably brilliant. I will never be able to forget her family anymore than Roiphe herself will. Her talent is nearly incredible. Even when Roiphe is at her most descriptive, the reader is so present in this memoir, as if we are standing slightly to the side of Roiphe,, at her elbow, throughout the entire book. We understand everything. I couldn't recommend a memoir more highly than I do this one, and at that, I couldn't recommend any book more highly than I do this one. I've found a new favorite.
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