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A review by elwoodicious
Rats: Observations on the HistoryHabitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants by Robert Sullivan
4.0
A quick and pleasant read, contrary to how rats make me feel.
This was an unexpectedly delightful read. When I picked up the book I had been expecting a micro-history that was tightly focused on rats with a clinical detachment. What I found instead was a personal narrative that spiraled out from the authors contemplations while observing a colony of rats in a particular alley.
The story folds in personalities related to rats in some manner, exterminators and the homeless, both contemporary and historical (by far I love his friends the poet and artist who accompany him on some of his ratting forays). In and around this, the story builds a painting of New York that is impressionist in nature: broad strokes that accentuate the individual bristle.
A quick and pleasant read, contrary to how rats make me feel.
This was an unexpectedly delightful read. When I picked up the book I had been expecting a micro-history that was tightly focused on rats with a clinical detachment. What I found instead was a personal narrative that spiraled out from the authors contemplations while observing a colony of rats in a particular alley.
The story folds in personalities related to rats in some manner, exterminators and the homeless, both contemporary and historical (by far I love his friends the poet and artist who accompany him on some of his ratting forays). In and around this, the story builds a painting of New York that is impressionist in nature: broad strokes that accentuate the individual bristle.
A quick and pleasant read, contrary to how rats make me feel.