The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell
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Product Description
“Part treatise, part miscellany, unfailingly entertaining.”
–The New York Times
“A small pearl of a book . . . a great tale of the growth of a modern city as seen through the rise and fall of the lowly oyster.”
–Rocky Mountain News
Award-winning author Mark Kurlansky tells the remarkable story of New York by following the trajectory of one of its most fascinating inhabitants–the oyster.
For centuries New York was famous for this particular shellfish, which until the early 1900s played such a dominant a role in the city’s life that the abundant bivalves were Gotham’s most celebrated export, a staple food for all classes, and a natural filtration system for the city’s congested waterways.
Filled with cultural, historical, and culinary insight–along with historic recipes, maps, drawings, and photos–this dynamic narrative sweeps readers from the seventeenth-century founding of New York to the death of its oyster beds and the rise of America’s environmentalist movement, from the oyster cellars of the rough-and-tumble Five Points slums to Manhattan’s Gilded Age dining chambers. With The Big Oyster, Mark Kurlansky serves up history at its most engrossing, entertaining, and delicious.
“Suffused with [Kurlansky’s] pleasure in exploring the city across ground that hasn’t already been covered with other writers’ footprints.”
–Los Angeles Times Book Review
“Fascinating stuff . . . [Kurlansky] has a keen eye for odd facts and natural detail.”
–The Wall Street Journal
“Kurlansky packs his breezy book with terrific anecdotes.”
–Entertainment Weekly
“Magnificent . . . a towering accomplishment.”
–Associated Press
Spotlight Customer Reviews:
Summary:
Do I have to write a book report?
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Comment:
I'll grant that Mark Kurlansky did his homework.He provides an extensive Bibliography and the narrative is filled with many, many, many facts. That's exactly the problem. The book is overflowing with details. For the first time in many years I felt I was reading a history assignment - hence the title of this Review.
I did glean many interesting facts, both big and small. Trouble is, the facts just keep coming. As other reviewers have indicated there are numerous recipes in the book but I would venture to say that most of them are for food historians, not chefs. One brief example is the following recipe: "To Roast a Leg of Lamb with Oysters. Take a Leg about two or three Days kill'd. Stuff it all over with Oysters and roast it. Garnish it with horse-raddish." Yup! That's the whole, succinct recipe.
I'll admit that the number old prints reproduced in this book are interesting. But unless you are of the scholarly type I'd save this book for a night when you have insomnia.
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Summary:
Can't beat it.
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Comment:
History, History, History. And we continue to live it. Know our past control our future.
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Summary:
Too Much for a Magazine Artice; Not Enough for a Book
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Comment:
At first it seems curious that Mark Kurlansky would want to write a history of a city and its residents whom he so thoroughly dislikes. Then it becomes clear that the protagonists are the oysters, not the city or the people, and those oysters would still be doing just fine if it weren't for the depredations of civilization. Eventually you get caught up in the saga, but it's a little thin, so the author adds copious amounts of non-oyster New York City history. This part will seem somewhat duplicative of "The Island at the Center of the World," but it's almost as interesting the second time around. Then, just as you start taking him seriously as a historian, Kurlansky starts making the kind of egregious factual errors that throw his scholarship into question. On page 15, for instance he states that humans evolved 65 million years ago. Wow! The earliest hominid fossils date to about 2 million years ago. His disregard for science continues when he erroneously asserts that recapitulation is a "well established principal (sic) of evolutionary science." Actually it's a captivating, but long-debunked theory. Errors like these make us much less receptive to the hundreds of casual facts strewn throughout the book.
Here's a sincere tip for the prospective reader attracted to the book's subtitle, "History on the Half Shell." The entire story of the history of the oyster in New York City is contained in chapters 6 and 8. Of course if you want to read all about the gangs of New York, or the biography of Diamond Jim Brady, by all means, read the entire book. But the problem with reading the entire book is the turgid march of one colorless sentence after another. Any single page of Henry Thoreau contains more entertaining prose than Kurlansky's entire book.
Kurlansky repeatedly refers to New Yorkers' gluttony: "The two most common gastronomic observations made about nineteenth century New York were that the oysters were cheap and that the people ate enormous quantities not only of oysters, but of everything." That is Kurlansky's typical characterization of a New Yorker. Yet not one of the old photographs or pen and ink drawings illustrating the book depict a single obese person.
Overall, this is one of those badly written books about an interesting topic. If distilled to its essence, it might have made a good article in the Atlantic Monthly or The New Yorker. It will not make you thirst for Kurlansky's other books, "Salt," and "Cod."
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Summary:
Too Many Mistakes To Take Seriously
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Comment:
I love oysters, and New York history, and was looking forward to this, but as other reviewers pointed out simply has too many mistakes to be taken seriously.
I will add to the list:
a. he claims Robert Fulton invented the submarine. False. There have been many variations of submarines hundreds of years before Fulton, and one of the first military uses was during the American revolution.
b. He claims the New York delegation didn't sign the Declaration of Independence.
That's what did me in. Anyone who let an error like that slip through shouldn't be writing history books, even about oysters. I hesitated to finish it because he lost all credibility with me and the last thing I want to do is read mis-information. I can't believe that someone published a book with so many sloppy mistakes.
..............
He also tried to impose modern new york and his cosmopolitian outlook/multiculturalism on the past, which I found inaccurate and annoying. For example he points out Stuyvesant required chapel, banned alcohol and other measures, and goes out of his way to mention that how bad it was...he skips the fact Stuyvesant was effective in turning the colony around, precisely because he took such measures.
It may offend our modern sensibilities, but reality is reality.
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Summary:
Shuck this oyster for a good treat
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Comment:
"O oysters" said the carpenter,"you've had a pleasant run! Shall we be trotting home again?"But answer came there none-And this was scarcely odd,because They'd eaten every one.'Such was Tweedledum and Tweedledees discourse to Alice in Carrolls' well known work.They'd eaten every one, ah yes; a common lament of oyster lovers everywhere because the once abundant stock in New York waters are essentially gone forever.The Big Oyster, a work of enormity with regard to the tiny creatures history, and a good one at that, is fantastic.The greatness and economic well being,the essence of affordable sustenance for both the poor and the rich of early New York and also the world began with the bottom dwelling,succulent mollusc called by science, 'Crassostrea Virginica' the most popular variety it seems.Kurlansky has put together a comprehensive and at times a jumpy but focused history of a sometimes gritty New York as a city and its environs in relation to oysters as a leading core of its burgeoning greatness.From the first encounter by Henry Hudson to the local Delaware indians,the first New Yorkers by rights, thrived on them as evidenced by the enormous piles of shells found called middens, to the developing cultures that dominated for a time only to be replaced by yet another country and culture.These aspects right up to the revolutionary war and beyond is clearly examined and dissected.Millions,probably billions of oysters were there for the taking and we made sure we took and took and took some more, depleting a natural depository which spanned hundreds of thousands of years to develop.It seems that New York harbor and the surrounding waters were paradise for them to live,breed and provide us with an abundant, almost unlimited cheap resource.The downfall was man and his pollution,greed and population growth which unfortunately did away with this perfect food harvested in New York waters we now view as a delicacy.Everything you need to know about the oyster from its anatomy,harvesting preparation with an abundance of recipies I'd never try,shucking, promotion and distribution world wide and locally, as well as an enlightening,colorful and comprehensive history of New York is presented here.You will finish this book far more informed than you began and quite possibly know darn near everything there is to know about early New York and the Oyster that made it famous.You will be drooling for sure.I had recurring dreams of two dozen on the half shell which would not abate until I got them,wolfed them down with the pleasure only a fellow oyster eater would know after a prolonged absence from our little friends.I did have one little exception which was amusingly disturbing. Kurlansky states that George Washington's thirty four year old son Philip was placed in charge by him, to redistribute New Yorks' property following the end of the revolutionary war.George did no such thing and by that time both of Washington's adopted children were dead.He never even had a relative called Philip.What happened to the fact checking prior to publishing? Good lord, for a writer of history this could end a career as a reliable source. It can only lead to suspicion of all your other works and their accuracy. I don't have time to check other items as I hear there are other discrepancies as well.Please be carefull in the future Mark.However,aside from the above, I will still recommend this book for its novelty.It's a joy to read from an oyster lovers perspective. As a New Yorker, our city's history is also refreshingly enlightening.My home town of Staten Island is clearly represented and I can only hope that the abundance that once was will one day return to its sandy ground former glory.As a New Yorker reviewing this sometimes gritty and hardscrabble history, I'm not ashamed to say,pushed my thoughts toward the Oyster Bar and Grill for its variety and notoriety. But, to truly enjoy my treat closer to home I make a beeline to Lobster House Joe's where I can relax with a couple dozen on ice with horseradish and an ice cold beer.Nothing can match it.After reading The Big Oyster the compatriotism is quite evident and allows me to savor them even further.The book is quite thorough and worthy of purchase. If you live in New York, buy it to learn your city's history. If you like oysters, buy it to widen your knowledge. If your both, lucky you.This is just what you need after a long day at work.Keep the history alive and keep eating but not too much!To make extinct our local favorite, Bluepoints, would be too much to bear. Oysters rule!!!
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