Scan barcode
pattricejones's review against another edition
I have to agree with other reviewers: This is not a book about rats, a group of whom the author cursorily observed for a few months but made no real effort to understand. His interest is in human-rat relations within cities. His treatment of that topic, while studded with fun facts, also is superficial.
loujoseph's review against another edition
3.0
The parts more about the history of rats in cities, the plague, etc were good, the parts where the author tried to use rats as metaphors for, well, whatever, wasn't as successful, they read as bad attempts at This American Life style "deepness." The parts where he was relating his experiences following rats in alleys was a more successful version of that.
aquint's review against another edition
3.0
Really interesting but got a bit corny at times. He was trying to be a little too poetic about rats for my taste plus there were some editing issues. Loved the history though.
spamrisk's review against another edition
4.0
Rats are all around.
They're filthy 'cause we're filthy.
We're a lot alike.
They're filthy 'cause we're filthy.
We're a lot alike.
joellegalatan's review against another edition
4.0
Hilarious and fascinating but also very weird. A solid light read.
brogan7's review against another edition
challenging
funny
informative
medium-paced
4.5
Full of interesting information and written in an accessible style.
I particularly enjoyed the history of rat migration and displacement of Rattus rattus by Rattus norvegicus, the chapter on the plague and on the plague in the US, and the natural history observations he made of the rats in "his" alley, with an attitude somewhere between attraction and revulsion, and sometimes quite comical.
In the chapter on the plague, Sullivan talks about a friar who made pertinent observations about the robe he was wearing while working at a pesthouse in Genoa: a robe which kept fleas at bay (but he didn't know that that also kept plague at bay, at the time), therefore he noted the absence of fleas due to the robe but thought it was useless. Sullivan then goes on to quote an Italian historian, Carlo Cipolla's commentary on the friar's observation, which hit the nail on the head but didn't know it: "[T]hus the system prevailed and the observation was lost. In the course of human experience thousands of brilliant and accurate observations must have gone astray simply because the related pieces of the mosaic weren't there. Thousands of other observations suffered no less sad a destiny. Accurate observations may be manipulated to fit into a faulty conceptual system with the perverse result of lending support to it." (p.140)
I just love the tragedy of Friar Antero Maria da San Bonaventura having all the pieces in 1657, but not the means to connect them...of him having clear insight into what the robe did...and not recognizing his own survival depended on it.
And how so often, indeed, our daily, ordinary observations are accurate and true, but we can't see the truth of them for the systems we are locked into, and the lack of imagination of how things might be assembled, to set us free from legion of suffering.
I particularly enjoyed the history of rat migration and displacement of Rattus rattus by Rattus norvegicus, the chapter on the plague and on the plague in the US, and the natural history observations he made of the rats in "his" alley, with an attitude somewhere between attraction and revulsion, and sometimes quite comical.
In the chapter on the plague, Sullivan talks about a friar who made pertinent observations about the robe he was wearing while working at a pesthouse in Genoa: a robe which kept fleas at bay (but he didn't know that that also kept plague at bay, at the time), therefore he noted the absence of fleas due to the robe but thought it was useless. Sullivan then goes on to quote an Italian historian, Carlo Cipolla's commentary on the friar's observation, which hit the nail on the head but didn't know it: "[T]hus the system prevailed and the observation was lost. In the course of human experience thousands of brilliant and accurate observations must have gone astray simply because the related pieces of the mosaic weren't there. Thousands of other observations suffered no less sad a destiny. Accurate observations may be manipulated to fit into a faulty conceptual system with the perverse result of lending support to it." (p.140)
I just love the tragedy of Friar Antero Maria da San Bonaventura having all the pieces in 1657, but not the means to connect them...of him having clear insight into what the robe did...and not recognizing his own survival depended on it.
And how so often, indeed, our daily, ordinary observations are accurate and true, but we can't see the truth of them for the systems we are locked into, and the lack of imagination of how things might be assembled, to set us free from legion of suffering.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty
TW: rat fightslaila4343's review against another edition
2.0
I wanted more out of this book. Reminded me of another book group choice a few months back, Twain's Feast. Both good premises, both lacking in execution. Reading this made me want to read more about the history of New York City itself.
mice_are_nice's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic and Animal death