The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell
by Mark Kurlansky
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Book Reviews of The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell
Book Review: Too Much for a Magazine Artice; Not Enough for a Book
Summary: 2 Stars
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."
Book Review: How can anyone not love this book?
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm not sure what kind of person would buy this book. It's not 100% history, not 100% science, not 100% recipe, it's a little of everything. After reading this book, I'd say this book is for someone who's not afraid to try something different, some who likes oysters and a little history to go with their oysters. So what is this book about?
1) It's a little bit oysters. The science: such as scientific names, reproduction, anatomy, etc. Just a little, not too much to bore the casual reader, but not enough to interest the casual scientist. I tried to find more about oysters online but there's not a lot of info, I suppose I should go read a book on it.
2) It's a lot about the early to mid-1800's history of New York City. As I like history, I really liked this part.
3) It's a little about oyster recipes. Sprinkled throughout this book are recipes, many from old books and from famous cooks and restaurants. That's a gem. It must have take some effort to collect the recipes and whether you like them or not they are interesting, at least for their historical aspect.
4) It's a little about the history of the oyster trade. This is a very good part of the book as I don't think you could find much written on it anywhere else.
5) New York society in the old days. Talked about the who's who and where they would eat. Interesting reading.
6) New York slums and the inhabitants, also interesting reading.
So to summarize, this book is about oysters, the eating of oysters, the oyster trade and New York city. You can't pidgeonhole this book because it's not history, not gastronomy, but a little of everything. It's quite well written and very easy to read. I enjoyed reading it, a break from my regular diet of thrillers. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I'm going to get Cod and Salt, two other books by this author that got mixed reviews. But I think the author deserves my custom after this book.
Book Review: Who knew?
Summary: 5 Stars
First off, I am a chef...so my five-star rating might be taken with a grain of sea salt. Also, I am a chef from New York City...who still opens a couple of hundred oysters a week.
I learned bunches from Mark's book. I was able to justify a long held stance about storing oysters in the face of superstition from my twenty-something rock-star staff.
I owned a restaurant in Telluride, Colorado back in the 70's. We dug around in the basement and found menus from the 1890's that featured fresh New York City oysters.....long before refrigeration. The book reveals how this worked, and consequently saved me a few hundred dollars every week. Five stars indeed1
Meanwhile, Mark gives an in-depth sociological, geographic and gastronomical account of how the oyster affected life in New York and America. In many ways the oyster is the canary in the coal mine of our inland waterways. If the oyster is happy with the water....you are probably OK with the water. No oyster.....don't even think about jumping in. Oysters kept New York City harbor water clean for millenia....until overwhelmed by chemical pollution.
Just this morning I picked up Mother Jones, and read an article about the largest oil spill in American history: in Newtown Creek between Queens and Brooklyn. Having read Mark's book....I already knew the history of Newtown Creek...once the source of millions of oysters and the support of an entire social structure.
Oysters had started a comeback there in 1997. Ooops. Back to the drawing board.
Buy the book. Learn something.
Book Review: Everything You Wanted to Know About New York Oysters
Summary: 5 Stars
As a practicing malacologist, I generally avoid reviewing books in my field on Amazon. However, The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell by Mark Kurlansky is less about oysters as invertebrates, but rather, it provides an oyster's-eye view of the evolution of modern New York City. The author makes a strong case for the importance of Crassostrea virginica in the sociological and economic development of the Big Apple: All the major events in the city's 350 year history can somehow be related to peoples' insatiable desire for oysters.
The style of The Big Oyster is more typical of a travelogue, but instead of adventuring across space at a particular time, Kurlansky is moving along the time line of a particular place. (And, really, Relativity says that this contrast doesn't actually exist: Space... Time... What's the difference?) One could take any number of paths through the history of New York, and this book happens to follow oysters. The author, though, is adept at finding intersections with other topics, and besides covering oyster preparation (with lots of recipes), oyster harvest and the oyster market, such interesting but disparate topics as Native American relations, transportation, prostitution, pollution and Diamond Jim Brady all find a place in this tale.
While I would not recommend The Big Oyster to students of invertebrate zoology on the basis of the book's biological merits, I found it to be an interesting and entertaining read. The Big Oyster left me craving both a plate of raw oysters on the half shell and more to read by Mark Kurlansky.
Book Review: Seafood from New York? Who new.
Summary: 5 Stars
Pizza's, weiners, and spagehtti, but seafood? Before reading this book I had no idea that anyone (except the indians, and we all know what happened to them)aite anything from the waters around New York. Between the street run off, the overflowing sewers and being well chummed by the remains of mafioso, it was inconceivable that the waters of NY were at one time one of the most productive estuaries (where fresh water mixes with salt water)in the world. But as soon as the New Yorkers realized it, they started in true New York fashion to destroy it. Seemingly as fast as they could. It only took them about 300 hundred years and did not let outbreaks of oyster related cholera and other diseases stop them. It is no wonder that most NY oysters were cooked. Only the brave, ignorant or suicidal would eat a sewage marinated NY oyster raw.
These are only a few of the facinating facts that you can rake out of this interesting book. I found the segments of NY City history facinating too. Read this book then watch Scorsese's Gangs of New York again. It will give you new insight into a period of our nation's largest city.