THE LANDLORDS

Here a reporter-duet plays real estate roulette, running the gamut from A for Astor to Z for Zeckendorf, in a fast-paced, straight-faced chronicle of America's landlords. The directory includes the bachelor brothers Van Sweringen, creators of early suburbia, shade trees and easy credit, culminating in the Shaker Heights spectacular; Flagler and the Rivieralization of Florida via St. Augustine, Palm Beach and the ""Beaucoup Rotten"" architecture; Harry Black's ""bigger and bigger"" skyscraper surge; Talmudic scholar Kazan's slum clearance cooperative called Amalgamated Housing; the ost-war boom of Levittowns, as neatly packaged as bakery loaves; and of course the great granddaddy of them all, John Jacob Astor, who bought up Manhattan's farms and wamps when only the cows wanted them, and his spiritual scion, Bill Zeckendorf, the Empire City's crackerjack dreamer and schemer. Written with lots of nods to sociological studies, magazine articles and the morgues of NY newspapers, and spouted in a one nearer to that of Business Week than Fortune, the book's hot-shot deals, fancy finance and executive suite legends should make it a caper for all the lots, acres and square blocks enthusiasts.