Review by Choice Review
Award-winning author Sullivan has thoroughly researched Rats, but its scope is misrepresented by the subtitle. Though Sullivan observed rats for a year, primarily in one alley in lower Manhattan, he includes few details of these observations. Many chapters are sociohistorical, covering accounts of exterminators and activists such as Jesse Gray, who organized rent strikes in Harlem in the 1960s. Stories such as Gray's are the strength of the book. Sullivan is not a scientist and sometimes writes as if he were uncomfortable with his subject; this is especially evident in the short chapter in which he relates an attempt to trap rats in his alley. Readers with a scientific orientation will find statements in the text that cannot be traced to their source in the chapter's endnotes. The endnotes, however, are quite interesting, with their detailed annotations and other comments by the author. Overall, general readers may enjoy this book because of its stories about people whose activities are entwined with rats, but to refer to this work as a great classic of nature writing (as stated on the book jacket) is not appropriate. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. General readers. D. A. Lovejoy Westfield State College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
In the highly readable bibliographic essay that Sullivan calls the notes to this book, he tips his hand about its slightly facetious tone by reprinting a rat-related entry he made to the New Yorker's mildly supercilious Talk of the Town feature. Like a typical bit of Talk, the book never lets its ostensible subject divert too much attention from its author. Sullivan observing the rats in Edens Alley in old lower Manhattan during 2001 is precisely the focus, and not even the World Trade Center catastrophe mere blocks away distracts much from him in that alley. Actually, he gets away quite often, to glean the facts of rat control, sketch the history of rats worldwide but mainly in New York, discuss rat ecology, and resurrect forgotten rat-relevant New York characters like 1960s Harlem tenants' organizer Jesse Gray, nineteenth-century rat-fighting entrepreneur Kit Burns, and--stretching rat relevancy a bit--American revolutionary rabble-rouser Isaac Sears. So it just seems like it's always about Sullivan. At least it's also always enlighteningly entertaining, like Talk of the Town. --Ray Olson Copyright 2004 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this excellent narrative, Sullivan uses the brown rat as the vehicle for a labyrinthine history of the Big Apple. After pointing out a host of facts about rats that are sure to make you start itching ("if you are in New York... you are within close proximity to one or more rats having sex"), Sullivan quickly focuses in on the rat's seemingly inexhaustible number of connections to mankind. Observing a group of rats in a New York City alley, just blocks from a pre-September 11 World Trade Center, leads Sullivan into a timeless world that has more twists than Manhattan's rat-friendly underbelly. Conversations and field studies with "pest control technicians" spirit him back to 1960s Harlem, when rat infestations played a part in the Civil Rights movement and the creation of tenants' organizations. Researching the names of the streets and landmarks near the rats' homes, Sullivan is led even deeper into the city's history till he is back to the 19th century, when the real gangs of New York were the packs of rats that overran the city's bustling docks. Like any true New Yorker, Sullivan is able to convey simultaneously the feelings of disgust and awe that most city dwellers have for the scurrying masses that live among them. These feelings, coupled with his ability to literally and figuratively insert himself into the company of his hairy neighbors, help to personalize the myriad of topics-urban renewal, labor strikes, congressional bills, disease control, September 11-that rats have nosed their way into over the years. This book is a must pickup for every city dweller, even if you'll feel like you need to wash your hands when you put it down. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Though the title may give readers pause, this unusual book is highly enjoyable. Sullivan, a New Yorker and author of another fascinating urban natural history, The Meadowlands, became interested in rats when he saw an Audubon painting featuring a rodent and learned that the artist was a New Yorker in his final years. After spending a year (spring 2001 to spring 2002) observing some rats in one Manhattan alley, mostly at night, he reports his observations here. These are augmented by conversations with exterminators, health officers, and scientists, as well as material on the origin of rats and how they spread to Europe and the United States. Sullivan also throws in juicy tidbits on garbage, extermination, the plague, and what rats eat. Students of New York social history will also enjoy Sullivan's inclusions of pertinent sections on rent strikes, the founding of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the battle to outlaw rat fights, and more. Well written and fun to read, this book has only one drawback: a lack of more detailed information on rat biology. Recommended for all natural history and large urban collections.-Michael D. Cramer, Schwarz BioSciences, RTP, NC (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Adult/High School-Sullivan's narration reads like a monologue by a charming and witty party guest, albeit his topic is the city rat. No fact is too minute or detail too obscure. In his research, the author consulted many "rat experts," including a New York exterminator who shared the lower Manhattan alley that became the location for his observations. Tales of rats' run-ins with humans include a particularly disturbing one about a woman who was "attacked" by the rodents near his observation place. One chapter is dedicated to the Irish immigrant who hosted rat fights in his bar in the 1840s. Each of these tales is filled with digressions-the history of some of the buildings in the alley, the founding of the SPCA. The greatest digression occurs with regard to the World Trade Center catastrophe. Because Sullivan's alley was so close to the scene, his observations were necessarily interrupted, and when he returned, of course things had changed. But so singular is his vision that even this disaster is put into a rat context-how exterminators were on the job, how the subject of rats was unmentionable in discussions about disaster cleanup, even though his observations showed that rats were plentiful. This creative writer has taken on a seemingly unappealing subject and turned it into a top-notch page-turner.-Jamie Watson, Harford County Public Library, MD (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A skillful nature writer goes on rat patrol and records a year with vermin. In his journal of a rat year, Sullivan (A Whale Hunt, 2000, etc.) deduces that the rat is a permanent companion to humans, living where mankind lives, eating what mankind eats. (He provides a menu of Rodentia's favorite and least liked foods). Alley rats, sewer rats, toilet rats--all those urban Norway rats--live in every big city in America. And, right now, if they're not eating, they're copulating. Often a foot long before the tail, these nasty city slickers dig their nests with separate bolt-holes for quick escapes. Contemplating such rat lore nightly in an alley not far from the World Trade Center, Sullivan finds much to chew on. Inevitably, there's the Black Death and how it ravaged medieval Europe, but there was also plague in California a century ago. That leads to some history of germ warfare, a garbage strike, rat-baiting in Old New York, and a story of the colonial Liberty Boys. Sullivan studies publications like Pest Control Technology as well as historical texts. He salutes famous rat-catchers while he hangs out with the rodent's natural predators: exterminators. He travels out of town to consort with the foremost minds of pest control. He follows the Sisyphean pros with the enthusiasm of a cub police reporter as they wrestle to draw rat blood from their prey. Eventually, he traps a rat himself. He comes to recognize one old rodent, and he surely cut a curious figure running beside a dashing rat to clock its speed. After September 11, Sullivan returned to his alley to find that the vermin fared well. Taken with the wisdom of the exterminators, absorbed in ratological study, our writer seems to believe, finally, we are like rats, rats are like us. Sullivan tells all, writing, in prose worthy of Joseph Mitchell, a sort of "Up in the Old Rat Hole": skittering, scurrying, terrific natural history. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
