The MEADOWLANDS: WILDERNESS ADVENTURES AT THE EDGE OF A CITY

Amazon.com

"I like to think of the Meadowlands as an undesignated national park," writes Robert Sullivan in his end-of-the-millennium take on Thoreau. In The Meadowlands, Sullivan does his Thoreauvian bean-counting in one of America's most infamous dumping grounds, the huge tract of marshy land just outside New York City that has withstood any and all attempts to subdue it with agriculture, industry, development, and an ever-shifting deluge of flotsam and jetsam. He may just be the first person in a century to willingly explore this fascinating but abused piece of real estate, and his investigation gives new meaning to intrepid reporting. By foot he tramps through the muck, and by canoe he navigates polluted rivers and marshes, noting the variegated species of trash and industrial cast-offs with as much zeal as he observes the surprisingly rich diversity of wildlife. Revealed in these stories is a landscape bursting with nature amid the curious man-made detritus of urban consumption. With only a touch of irony, the author refers to his stomping ground as "Big Sky Country, east," imagining he's "in a National Geographic special and visiting little tribes of people unknown to everyone else." He pursues the history of the Meadowlands with equal enthusiasm. Eccentric characters, tall tales, and scuttlebutt haunt the area, from the rumor that the land serves as the final resting place for Jimmy Hoffa (as well as a number of other Mafia hits) to the pitiable stories of the many dreamers who have sunk a fortune in the squelching mud. And throughout this smart, thoroughly researched adventure, Sullivan maintains a witty and lyrical voice that transforms his trip inside a nationally maligned place into a fun, informative romp.

Book Description

Travel just five miles outside of New York City, venture off the crowded New Jersey Turnpike. and you will be surrounded by the Meadowlands, a much vilified but still untamed thirty-two-square-mile swamp that is home to rare birds and missing bodies, shiny corporate headquarters and the remnants of ancient cedar forests, tranquil marshes and burning garbage dumps. Robert Sullivan is this weird and wild place's unofficial naturalist, archeologist, and explorer, and here he reports back from the field. Revealing what he has found while traversing one of America's first -- and most fascinating -- frontiers.

A 1978 Federal Report described the Meadowlands as "a swampy mosquito-infested jungle...where rusting auto bodies, demolition rubble, industrial oil sticks and cattails merge in unholy, stinking union." But one man's trash is another man's treasure, and with incomparable wit and enthusiasm, Robert Sullivan reinterprets the reputation and legacy of an area considered by many to be one of the most disgusting in the country. He travels by canoe, bus, car, and foot to tour cities and swamplands and interview mayors, dump owners, and renegade mosquito-control officers. He describes the hideous pollution and the hidden natural wonders, the seedy motels and labyrinth highways, the local population and the indigenous, ubiquitous mosquitoes. The Meadowlands, he explains, is "a place that the forces of progress have perennially targeted but have never managed to completely control, a place that people rush past on their way to the rest of America." But Sullivan learns that, in fact, many things have been left behind here -- from garbage and treasure to the remains of crazy development schemes of generations past. Armed with pickax, shovel, and metal detector, he bravely sets out to find the two things believed to be dumped in the Meadowlands that particularly obsess him -- the elusive corpse of famed labor leader Jimmy Hoffa and Manhattan's once-glorious original Penn Station.

In the tradition of John McPhee and Ian Frazier, Robert Sullivan transforms the seemingly ordinary into the extraordinary with his sparkling literary style and superb sense of irony. Filled with eccentric characters and unforgettable stories, The Meadowlands is an ode to an overlooked American borderland -- a delightfully incongruous battleground marking the ongoing struggle between the forces of progress and nature.

Customer Reviews:

The Meadowlands: More Than Meets the Eye.......2004-02-12

This is an enjoyable, easy-to-read book. Though many that live outside the New York Metro area would probably enjoy it, the millions that have passed through the Meadowlands on the way to work or to Giants Stadium to catch "The Boss" will most enjoy the nuggets of info in Sullivan's book.

The Meadowlands is a mix ecology, biology, folk tales, local history, and personal observations that seem to reflect the author's love/hate (mostly love) relationship with the meadowlands. Personally, I found the historical tidbits the most fascinating part of Sullivan's book. Like most people, I rub shoulders with a geographic area on an almost daily basis that I know little about. Why a certain place is named what it is? What was this place about one hundred years ago? The author relates the colorful history behind the town of Kearny and its namesake, General Philip Kearny, a one-armed (you will have to read the book to learn why he had one arm) general killed during the Civil War. Sullivan also relates the fascinating tale of Seth Boyden, a notable inventor from Newark, New Jersey. Now I know who Boyden Ave was named for. The Meadowlands has many of these gems imbedded between its covers.

At two hundred pages, Sullivan's book is a fairly quick read. For the millions of folks that rub elbows with The Meadowlands every year, I highly recommend this book. When you are passing Snake Hill while driving down the New Jersey Turnpike, you can turn to your passengers and say, "Let me tell you a little bit about that hill over there...."

Enjoyable, brief book of essays on the Meadowlands.......2002-01-24

Sullivan takes a fun look at one of the most maligned regions of the U.S. - the New Jersey meadowlands. He definitely looks at it as an outsider (he is from the Pacific NW) with a mixture of repulsion and ivory-tower superiority, but with a bit of respect at times for the survival of the area and the people around it.

Unlike John Quinn's _Fields of Sun and Grass : An Artist's Journal of the New Jersey Meadowlands_, which was written by a Meadowlands native and mainly deals with the economic and environmental legacy of the area, Sullivan mostly looks at the region from a sociological standpoint, stressing his encounters with the people in and around the meadowlands (and humanity's legacy there) rather than the actual natural area itself. If asked to choose, I personally preferred Quinn's work myself, but Sullivan's book is a worthy companion to Quinn, and I strongly recommend that you read both books to get a total picture of the meadowlands.

My favorite chapter, in fact, dealt with Sullivan's quest for the remains of New York Penn Station, a neoclassical gem of a train station in Manhattan that was torn down in the name of "progress" in the 1960s and which is reported to be buried in the swamps of NJ (read _The Destruction of Penn Station_ by Peter & Barbara Moore for more on the station's demise). Sullivan tackles the project with one part archaeology and one part good detective work, and it reads like a charm.

Sullivan thankfully has an engaging writing style, making the book read like a series of interconnected essays that briskly flies along like a phragmites reed bending in the wind. Since its written more for the general audience (who may not be as familiar with the meadowlands as us NJ denizens), give it a good read, and you won't be disappointed.

Paddling Through the Muck & Mire.......2001-08-15

Being an avid kayaker, I've often wondered what it would be like to paddle the swampy marshlands of the Meadowlands. Riding on the NJ Turnpike, and amidst the backdrop of the Manahttan Skyline, the Meadowlands looks like an appealing natural area to paddle (..at least from a paddler's perspective). Although the area is historically notorious for being one of the most polluted in the state, I've often seen many wading birds feeding in the area so I figured "how bad could it be?"

Robert Sullivan answers this question in an entertaining account of his canoe expeditions in this area. His trek through the muck and mire lead him on searches for Jimmy Hoffa's body and other 'treasures'while also detailing the local history of the area and the mob related lore of the garbage and solid waste disposal industry. His graphic and detailed accounts of the garbage that have been dumped in the area would make any paddler seriously consider whether they should paddle it. At the same time, Sullivan has also created a curiosity which has motivated more people than ever before to pick up a paddle and check it out.

Beyond the humorous account of his adventure, this book is an easy read that makes us more aware of the vast natural area we have abused and taken for granted. Hopefully it will inspire people to assist restorative and preservation efforts of this area of great potential, preventing it from becoming a continued dumpsite or concrete jungle.

Engaging and informative.......2001-06-24

I enjoyed this light set of anectdotes about urban North Jersey's backyard. As I child I'd often make similar explorations in the 'meadows', so Sullivan's stories remind me of wonderful times. (Of course, his explorations are like that of Sir Hillary's compared to my own forays.) The writing is easily digestible, with each anectdote standing alone - if you prefer to read in smaller sessions. I was quite happy to read all his adventures at once. Anyone with an interest in the outdoors, and even an urban local like myself can learn a lot from this book - including an interesting mystery or two. I may dig out my waders and start my explorations again, just to find some of the treasures he writes about.

A Humorous Little Book about a Huge Dumping Ground.......2000-09-25

Sullivan has written a very strange, tongue in cheek book about an area of the country that is perhaps the most abused and neglected in the entire country. The state of New Jersey led the nation in "superfund" cleanup sites last time I checked, but even by New Jersey standards the Meadowlands stands apart as a symbol of toxic dumping, abuse of nature and poor planning. Sullivan will have us believe that whenever he has some time on his hands while in New York, he packs a lunch, heads over the Hudson river into New Jersey and wanders around the swamp that is the Meadowlands.

The book is amusing and usually informative- part environmental history, part ecology lesson, and part urban legend folklore. He recounts tales of reported Mob hits and labor disputes, tells of alleged buried pirate treasure, and explains how Hollywood "western" movies were filmed in the Meadowlands before there really was a movie industry in Hollywood. He embarks on some amusing canoe explorations of some of the more inaccessible areas of the swamp, with a companion who complains that he is likely "cutting ten years off his life" by paddling through the putrid swamp with Sullivan.

Readers will learn probably more than they ever wanted to know about the composition and ecological breakdown of garbage dumps, including the creation of a slimy liquid called "leachate" which oozes out of the manmade hills and into virtual "moats", before blending into waterways such as the Hackensack River.

All in all, while the book was often engaging and Sullivan's narrative mostly kept your interest, the book could've been better. There is little organization to the chapters, and while many of Sullivan's points are made with subtle irony (like the issue of whether his hotel room had a "view) he doesn't really have an overriding theme or purpose in telling his story. He seems more interested in finding cool stuff, like the remains of old Penn Station, foreign translations of Gone With the Wind or Jimmy Hoffa's body, than he is in efforts to restore or develop the meadowlands. The book jacket makes it seem like the book will explore various doomed efforts to develop areas of the Meadowlands, but all relatively recent efforts to do so were ignored in favor of lengthy accounts of turn of the century plans to alter the landscape and farm the land. There are apparently modern housing complexes and industrial parks there now, but we never hear from those people who live and work in the developed areas, only those who live in modified fishing shacks in the middle of the swamp. The book was an interesting diversion, especially for those like myself who drove by this region for many years, but ultimately the book seemed shallow and insignificant.

Book Description

Received wisdom has it that inner cities and children don't mix. In fact London functions as a wonderful all-weather playground, with a rich array of entertainment - much of it free - if you know where to look. This book is not a comprehensive listing of the classes, facilities, parks and museums the capital has to offer. Rather, the guide features activities that parents/carers and children can enjoy together. Omitting the type of indoor adventure playground your kids may adore, but where you're left sipping a cup of vending-machine coffee in a noisy shed, it favors activities where there's pleasure to be had for both of you. Though there are plenty of child-oriented places in the selection, also included are houses and gardens, museums and galleries that can be appreciated on two levels: adults can enjoy the art, architecture, landscape or history and children the trails, mazes, parkland and pictures. In these cases both sets of needs have been addressed - for instance by telling you where to find the best of the collection so you can zoom in before your children's whining becomes unbearable, while at the same time pointing out the features that they will find fascinating.

A capital guide for kids: A London guide for parents with small children

Average customer rating:

A capital guide for kids: A London guide for parents with small children
Vanessa Miles
Manufacturer: Allison & Busby
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Europe | Travel | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Beautifully illustrated account of Christopher Columbus's youth and his first voyage to the New World. The first meeting between the Native Americans and the Spaniards is told with sensitivity to both cultures. The book was chosen by the U. S. Information Agency to represent the United States on a world book exhibit during the Quincentennial. President George Bush's Quincentennial message introduces this book. Illustrator Marion Eldridge has created colorful historical illustrations. Ages 5 - 12.

Book Description

It has been known for over a century that there is an afferent(body-to-brain), as well as an efferent(brain-to-body), component to the visceral-atonomic nervous system. Despite the fundamental importance of bodily afferent information- sometimes called interoception- to central nervous system control of visceral organ function, emotional-motivational processes, and dysfunction of these processes, including psychosomatic disorders, its role did not receive much attention until quite recently. This is the first comprehensive review of this topic and it covers both neurobiological and psychobiological aspects. The author first defines the issue and gives an historical background starting with the James-Lange theory of emotion, and addresses learning and motivation, roots in Pavlovian conditioning research, and operant conditioning of visceral function. In the second section he reviews recent scientific findings in the neural basis of visceral perception and studies in cardiovascular-respiratory and alimentary interoception. Finally, he discusses several related areas of research and theory including drug state issues, interoception and psychiatric disorders, and bodily consciousness, and suggests directions for future investigation. The book will be of interest to scientists in neurobiology, psychology, and brain imaging, to indivuals in related clinical fields such as psychiatry, neurology, cardiology, gastroenterology, and clinical psychology, and to their students and trainees.

Visceral Sensory Neuroscience: Interoception

Average customer rating:

Visceral Sensory Neuroscience: Interoception
Oliver G. Cameron
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OK8WEC

Average customer rating:
Solvents theory and practice (Advances in chemistry series)

Manufacturer: American Chemical Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General & Reference | Chemistry | Science | Subjects | Books
General & Reference | Chemistry | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0841201862

Average customer rating:
Solvents Theory and Practice. Advances in Chemistry Series, Volume 124

Manufacturer: American Chemical Society Washington, DC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IA85F4

Book Description

This new supplement is a quick, easy-to-use resource that provides "just-in-time" algebra review for applied calculus. It covers just those algebra topics that are most essential to the study of applied calculus, as well as most other college level quantitative courses. The author speaks directly to the student, providing numerous examples to illustrate the concepts and enough exercises to build proficiency. While this supplement can be used with any applied calculus text, there is a special discount when it is bundled with a Brooks/Cole text.

Book Description

Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), written in a more sombre vein than his other Mississippi writings, was Mark Twain's last serious work of fiction. It reveals the sinister forces that, towards the end of his life, Twain thought to be threatening the American dream. The central plot revolves around
the tragedy of "Roxy," a mulatto slave whose attempt to save her son from his fate succeeds only in destroying him. An astringent work which raises the serious issue of racial difference, Pudd'nhead Wilson is considered by the critic F.R. Leavis to be "a classic of the use of popular modes--the
sensational and the melodramatic." The volume also includes two other late works by Twain, Those Extraordinary Twins and The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg.

Customer Reviews:

Absolutely joyful and totally entertaining with mystery........1997-12-25

As entertaining as any of Mark Twain's works. Fun for all ages. Great stroy and lessons in life as well as Twain's great gift for humor, subtle and obvious. Totally entertaining with enough drama to keep your interest. Great for entertainment, education or teaching.

Puddnhead Wilson : And, Those Extraordinary Twins (The Penguin English Library)

Average customer rating:

Perhaps Twain's Best...
Not worth the effort
A Great Read
Memorable
A neglected American masterpiece

Puddnhead Wilson : And, Those Extraordinary Twins (The Penguin English Library)
Mark Twain
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0140430407

Book Description

Featuring the brilliantly drawn Roxanna, a mulatto slave who suffers dire consequences after switching her infant son with her master’s baby, and the clever Pudd’nhead Wilson, an ostracized small-town lawyer, Twain’s darkly comic masterpiece is a provocative exploration of slavery and miscegenation. Leslie A. Fiedler described the novel as “half melodramatic detective story, half bleak tragedy,” noting that “morally, it is one of the most honest books in our literature.” Those Extraordinary Twins, the slapstick story that evolved into Pudd’nhead Wilson, provides a fascinating view of the author’s process.

The text for this Modern Library Paperback Classic was set from the 1894 first American edition.

Customer Reviews:

Perhaps Twain's Best..........2007-05-01

Given the brevity of this book, I feel a little absurd claiming it as my favorite work by Twain, but it is indeed my new favorite, even over Huckleberry Finn (which is really saying something).
The ideas concerning race are deeply involved and the question about how much of our "make up" is inherent and how much is indoctrinated is one that occurs over and over again.
Some claim this to be a racist text, but it seems to me that Twain is simply pointing out the absurdities of racism and slavery. Furthermore, his depiction of Roxy, a black slave mother with very white skin, is a serious one. This novel and its characters, while often times coming off as very humorous, deserve a serious perusal.
I could not put this one down and read it virtually cover to cover. Even the epigraphs that head every chapter are amazing.
Read this one! If you like Twain, you will love this. Guaranteed.
Also, I strongly recommend the Modern Library edition of this book, because, unlike some other editions, it includes "Those Extraordinary Twins." The latter work is the idea from which "Pudd'nhead Wilson" springs.

Not worth the effort.......2005-06-26

Previous reviews referred to this Twain novel as "great," "superb," and a "masterpiece." Even conceeding there is no accounting for tastes, I truly have to wonder if I read the same book. The story development is based on child-like maturity and imagination. The pace is breathtakingly slow, especially for a Twain novel, and finally, both the slave talk jargon and the events left this reader not really wanting to continue reading.

It took me about 9 months to read this book, not because I'm that slow of a reader, but because I had to make myself read it. I'm going through a law and literature reading list and this was near the top of the list. I hope the rest are much better. Anyway, I'll hit on a couple of examples (non-spoiler) that will illustrate my points above.

The title character is given his name due to an idiotic remark made one day in town. He is a lawyer who opens up his practice in the small Missouri town, but finds that due to his remark, he can't find legal clients. So, he finds other work and indulges himself in his hobby, that of taking fingerprints. The remak he made in town is obviously stupid, but from a literary standpoint, the events unfold as if they were written by a 9 year old, with a 9 year old's intelligence and imagination. Its sort of like listening to elementary aged kids joke around and then writing those jokes down as adult authored humor. It doesn't work.

While others might see it as a plus, I find Twain's thick accented slave character dialog increadibly hard to read and very disconcerting. It would be one thing if it were in bits and pieces, but in this case, there is at least one chapter where the majority of the dialog is in this jibberish. It could have been written another way that kept the spirit of the characters alive.

The ending was fairly swift and not terribly dramactic, at least to me. I can forgive Twain for both ignoring legal details and obviously writing a specific legal drama in an age a century or more before certain aspects of the justice system were even really well developed. However, putting all that aside, the final sequence was not well researched or thought out. Logical reasoning steps were skipped that even the novice legal observer could feel unfulfilled.

I don't recommend the book unless you are reading it for a list like I am.

A Great Read.......2003-05-18

I read Puddnhead Wilson in an English Class in college. It was the first book that I had the chance to read by Mark Twain and thought the characters in the story as humorous. I would highly recommend to anyone who hasn't had the chance to read this book to give it a try and enjoy reading about the lives of Twain's characters.

Memorable.......2002-04-25

Puddnhead Wilson is a very short book that can bear repeated reading. Not because it is a great literary work (it is) or because it is so important (which it is), but because in it Mark Twain exposes himself -- his nostalgia, his bitterness, his resignation, and his hope for his own life and for post-Civil War America with brutal frankness, and yet humorous approachability.

The novel may be called "Puddnhead Wilson" but the most memorable character is a highly intelligent slave woman named Roxana. Through Roxana and the rest of the townspeople living in a pre-Civil War Missouri, we find some of Mark Twain's most oft-quoted statements among biting characterizations of the American mentality.

I cannot recommend this little book enough. It has its weaknesses (so many critical essays have been written about them that it's unnecessary to discuss them here) but they are really minor and certainly do not detract from the sheer enjoyment and contemplation that it gives the reader. Not to mention that the apologetic forwards to both Puddnhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins are brilliant short letters from Twain on writing.

I cannot speak about Those Extraordinary Twins because I've never been able to get into it, or read past the first chapter. It's extremely odd, being about a circus freak -- siamese twins joined at the hip -- with each side having the complete opposite philosophy and constitution than the other. That is, one side drinks alcohol and doesn't feel affected while the other side gets drunk; each side has different taste in clothing; etc.

A neglected American masterpiece.......2000-10-11

It seems like hardly anybody reads Mark Twain anymore, which is a shame, because he has so much to say about American society and human nature. "Pudd'nhead Wilson" is unquestionably one of his greatest books, maybe even his best. It's at least the equal of "Huckleberry Finn," which I had the good fortune to read with a superb high school English teacher in 1975, a year before her department banned it from the school's curriculum because of its supposedly racist portrayal of Jim.

"Pudd'nhead Wilson" manages to be a social satire, a murder mystery, a compelling commentary on race and racism, a brief against slavery, a courtroom drama, and a lifelike portrait of a particular time and place in American history, all packed into a short novel of some 170 pages. The story moves along quickly, hilarious in places and appalling in others. It's hard to understand why this easy-to-follow, entertaining and instructive novel isn't more widely read and appreciated, especially given the importance of race as a topic for thought, discussion and historical inquiry in the United States.

"Pudd'nhead Wilson" is set in a small Mississippi River town in the slave state of Missouri in 1830-1853. The critical event of the story occurs early on, when Roxy, a slave woman caring for two infant boys of exactly the same age, one her son and the other the son of one of the leading citizens of the town, secretly switches their identities. This deception is possible because her son is only 1/32 African-American and appears white (his father is in fact another leading citizen), yet by custom if not by law, the boy is a slave. The deception results in Roxy's son growing up in privileged circumstances, treating blacks with contempt, having the other boy as his personal slave, and attending Yale; yet the son, despite having all the advantages, develops no moral grounding whatsoever, and spends much of his adult life stealing, drinking and gambling. At one point, aware of his true identity but desperately needing money, he sells his own mother "down the river," into a more southerly cotton-growing region where the overseers are said to be especially cruel.

Twain gives us fewer details about the fate of the boy who in reality is all white, but we are made to understand that the boy's upbringing is typical of male slaves: he grows up with violence and degradation, illiterate, and with few skills either for making a living or existing in white society. This proves to be a cruel fate when the deception is exposed. Though he eventually comes into a substantial inheritance, he is never comfortable with or accepted by the town's respectable citizens, yet the prevailing racial code prohibits him from associating too closely with the blacks with whom he grew up.

Pudd'nhead Wilson, a lawyer, exposes the deception during a murder trial. Wilson, the town oddball, is an amateur fingerprinter, and it turns out that he kept the fingerprints he took of the boys before their switch, and is able to prove both their true identities and the identity of the killer. Wilson is the only halfway honorable character in the book; most of the rest, black and white, are exposed as dishonest, selfish and corrupt.

Mark Twain published "Pudd'nhead Wilson" in 1894, but its meaning still resonates today. A book that says so much about the ironies of appearance vs. reality, about the injustices of a rigid racial classification system, about the importance of values and upbringing rather than skin color in the formation of character, and about the realities of American slavery, deserves a more important place in our national literature.

Average customer rating:
Puddnhead Wilson (And, Those Extraordinary Twins)
Mark/ Bradbury, Malcolm (Edt)/ Twain, Mark Twain
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJ3TSC

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books