rats observations on the history and habitat

In Sullivan's mirror Walden it's the rats, not the people, who live lives of quiet desperation, 'hiding beneath the table of man, under stress, skittering in fear.'' Newsday ' Rats is a sort of bizarro-Walden, an exercise in really knowing one small, unremarkable and, in this case, revolting plot of ground. 'Sullivan leavens his systemic study with anecdotal digressions, approaching his fleet-footed, fast-food-loving quarry with a naturalist's curiosity and a storyteller's fluency.' New York magazine

Funny, wise, sometimes disgusting, but always compulsively readable, Rats earns its unlikely place alongside the great classics of nature writing. Sullivan looks deep into the largely unrecorded history of New York City and its massesits herd-of-rats-like mob. Sullivan gets to know not just the beast but its friends and foes: the exterminators, the sanitation workers, the agitators and activists who have played their part in the centuries-old war between human city and wild city rat. In Rats Robert Sullivan spends a year investigating a rat-infested alley just a few blocks away from Wall Street. Love them or loathe them, rats are here to staycity dwellers as much as (or maybe more than) we are, surviving on the effluvia of our society. He lives in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. His work has also appeared in Condé Nast Traveler, The New York Times Magazine, and The Oregonian. A contributing editor to Vogue, he is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker. Robert Sullivan is the author of The Meadowlands and A Whale Hunt, both New York Times Notable Books of the Year, and recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts creative writing fellowship. Funny, wise, sometimes disgusting but always compulsively readable, Rats earns its unlikely place alongside the great classics of nature writing. Sullivan looks deep into the largely unrecorded history of the city and its masses-its herds-of-rats-like mob. Sullivan gets to know not just the beast but its friends and foes: the exterminators, the sanitation workers, the agitators and activists who have played their part in the centuries-old war between human city dweller and wild city rat. In Rats, the critically acclaimed bestseller, Robert Sullivan spends a year investigating a rat-infested alley just a few blocks away from Wall Street. Love them or loathe them, rats are here to stay-they are city dwellers as much as (or more than) we are, surviving on the effluvia of our society. The New York Times bestseller, now available in paperback with an all-new afterword by the author.

Rats observations on the history and habitat