Rating: 
Summary: Mole People
Review:
"Mole people" is the term that is given to the homeless living under the subways of New York City. The author Jennifer Toth takes you down in to the sewers and exposes you to the life of the people who live in this environment. She talks to the homeless who live down in the tunnels and listens to their stories and what they have to say about life. This story makes you think a lot about what is happening in the world and how you should never take anything for granted. Even though this story was creepy and frightening you can't help but keep reading to see what happens next and whom Toth would interview next. I think this book should get a four out of five stars because the author does a very good job on getting you lots of information about the lives of the mole people and it is a very interesting and exciting read.
Rating: 
Summary: "Mole People"
Review: "Mole People" is a very real and grasping book, it is a book that makes you think. I read Mole People for a class and found it to be one of the best books I have ever read. Toth reveals a wide range of characters from the underground tunnels of New York. From victims, like the two girls from Iowa who are now drug addicts. To survivors like Bernard who looks out for others when no one else will, Toth also meets killers like Blade who will kill you for a dollar. This book is one of those very few that you will remember long after reading it, because you will remember the people and their stories. I give mole people two thumbs up.
Rating:
Summary: The Reality of Life Underground
Review: As a newspaperwoman, Jennifer Toth wrote an article describing life in the tunnels beneath New York City. She met "mole people" (tunnel dwellers) while researching the article. After her article appeared on the newspaper's front page Ms. Toth spent a year exploring the tunnels and interviewing tunnel dwellers. This book describes her experiences and is an excellent example of investigative journalism.As Ms. Toth's contact network grew she met a variety of tunnel dwellers. Examples include J.C., a member of a 200-person tunnel community where the children are held in common (initially he refuses to guide Ms. Toth unless she will "promise to remain underground for a week and to wear my hair in braids." -- she refuses); Sam, an ex-social worker who leads another 200-person tunnel community (no one may leave without his permission); and Blade, a tunnel dweller who first befriends and guides Ms. Toth but ultimately attempts to control and enter her private life. Life underground is neither romantic nor pretty. Ms. Toth's recollections and interviews illustrate the reality of life underground: chemical dependency, danger, disease, and poverty. Her recollections and interviews also illustrate tunnel dweller's greatest weapons: discomfort and fear. Her book is an excellent description of NYC tunnel life, the suffering of all homeless people, and the societal challenge that the homeless represent.
Rating: 
Summary: A Place For All The Misfits!!!!
Review: I have no time or sympathy for "The Mole People" as the people who live in the Subways and tunnels are called.They choose to live there where they can spend their days in darkness geting high or drunk. They do not wish to conform to the Rules that may be found in a Homeless Shelter so they drag their children down with them into the darkness.What particularly disturbed me about this book was the profile of the so called "Mayor Of The Underground" who discourages people from ever seeing the light of day again. He is portrayed in the book as being a sociopath and rightly so. Just because he has forsaken his own dignity as a human being should not entitle him to try to exert any influence on anybody else's life. The Mole People choose to eat "track rabbits'" i.e. rats in a city where 5 star restaurants regularly put out meals from the homeless.The author tries to gain our sympathy for these misguided misfits but all she succeeded in doing was digust me.
Rating:
Summary: A descent into darkness...
Review: In Mole People, Jennifer Toth has pulled back the manhole cover of modern society and revealed and entirely different world from that which most of us know. Armed at first with only an urban myth, Ms. Toth digs beneath the surface of society and introduces us to the scores of homeless who occupy the sewers and tunnels underneath New York. The images and situations are both fascinating and horrifying. Toth bravely descends into the depths of the underground, seeking out people and their stories. Her journey is an amazing one; fraught with danger at every turn from enemies both real and imagined, into the very depths of society. We are given glimpses into the dark netherworld of addiction and mental illness, and in investigating and telling these stories, she manages to never be exploitative; rather, the author lets the reader decide for themselves. We are shown that even in the darkest depths, the human spirit perseveres. Entire communities exist beneath the streets, sometimes quite elaborately, with designated leaders, teachers, and in one case, even a registered nurse. These people are society's rejects and by their own testament, many of them choose to exist in this dark world. They all have their own reasons for living this way; some bear witness to terrifying tales of lifetimes of abuse, others the horrors of addiction. And yet, within these battered souls, there remains a degree of dignity, at least for some. These people are survivors in the truest sense of the word. How many of us aboveground in the so-called civilized world would be able or willing to forage in dumpsters or catch rats the size of small dogs for food? This isn't to say that there aren't some very dangerous people living the subterranean life - along the way, we are introduced to petty tyrants who rule their little communities with violence and fear, as well as a darkly disturbed young man who believes himself to be Satan; a young man that even the police fear. We meet several women, and their stories are often the most horrifying. Many of the women interviewed have come from abusive lives, and they seem to know little else; hooking up with profoundly violent, abusive men in order to be `safe,' often at the expense of their hearts, souls, and sometimes their lives. Jungle law seems to prevail in this world - while rape and other sexual violence does exist in the tunnels, it is not restricted to women by any measure. In this underground world, most people are either predators or prey. I did learn, to my dismay, that many social and outreach programs are wastes of both time and money, that scared cops often beat and brutalize the underground homeless for little reason, and that youth gangs often descend into the tunnels to beat, rob, and even set fire to people whose only wish is to live quietly in the dark without disturbing anyone. I'm not sure what I was looking for in this book...verification of C.H.U.D. (Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers) legends, tales of desperation that would make my life seem great in comparison, or just a better understanding of the human condition. I found that in many cases, these people are little different than the rest of us, and perhaps that's where it got really scary. Many of the people interviewed were once like many of us; one or two paychecks from disaster. It is clear that Ms. Toth bears some scars from her experiences in the tunnels - I admire the efforts she took to investigate the subterranean world and share her findings with us. I have heard that some people's only complaint with this book is that it didn't end on a hopeful note. I think Ms. Toth should be applauded for not candy-coating the stories and ending on a false note with this endeavor because in the real world, there are no easy solutions. Many of the people existing in the tunnels have traveled some very twisted roads to arrive where they have, and no amount of feel-good social programs or religious outreaches are going to find the answers to all the questions raised in this book. Instead, we are forced to take a hard look inside ourselves and realize that we're all in this together, and that simple kindness and compassion are the greatest gifts we can offer.
Rating:
Summary: Lost Angel (the name/curse an underground menace gives Toth)
Review: Jennifer Toth went down into the tunnels of Manhattan's subways during the early 1990s when she was approximately 24. She was shockingly, unbelievably brave and seems to have been almost destroyed by temporarily becoming a mole person herself. Although I have read accusations that her descriptions of underground passages are not accurate and that she may not have traveled the subways as extensively as she presents in the book, I still think that the account is amazing. I don't care if she only climbed down through the manholes and stayed within 20 feet of the exit. This book is not about the subway system, it's about addiction, depression, and compassion. Though not especially well-written, (my least favorite are her similes to obscure things she has probably only faintly experienced) the subject matter more than makes up for the prose. Ms. Toth seems to have allowed herself to get lost and dirty and confused, and the book details the strange afflication that the underground itself becomes. The descriptions of the characters she meets seem accurate, because Toth does not hold herself above anyone -- she befriends the people who she's writing about and seems only slightly more able to escape. This is the sort of adventure someone would only undertake while they were very young and it's amazing she didn't get more lost, killed, or become mentally ill. Though she sticks with her subject matter, even digressing into semi-applicable & college-thesis-like discussions of the underground in philosophy and literature, this story essentially concerns Ms. Toth's own coming of age or coming to terms with herself.
Rating: 
Summary: Dull....Too bad
Review: The author has a great subject in hand but never seems to be able to touch the reader...She lacks creativity and makes the whole story very dull. Too bad!!! Also the message to Blade at the end of the book that she didn't see/say anything is lame.
Rating:
Summary: an informative and a fun read
Review: The Mole People by Jennifer Toth was a wonderful novel that gave its readers incredible information about the underground. The book was written like a documentary, aimed to inform more than to entertain. The description that Toth used all throughout the book was excellent. "In the recess of the tunnel, Mac does not need a trap with stale food or a feces-soaked rag to catch 'track rabbits,' as rats are known to the underground homeless. They come because the garbage is as dense as its stench." Descirbing the scene she was witnessing, Toth gives her audience a clear picture of what underground life is really like. I think that Toth did an excellant job incorporating the facts along with the stories; making the book a very fun read. Some chapters were committed completely to statistics and opinions of the aboveground variety, while other chapters told the real life stories of inhabitants of the tunnels. The Mole People was fascinating in the sense that it introduced me to a way of life that I never even knew existed. The tunnels underground New York City are filled with thousands of homeless people; some living as far as seven stories beneath the street. With separate communities, some even including doctors, teachers and mayors, the people who live in the tunnels are all unique. Some of the mole people, as they are referred to by those uneducated about the underground, are very independent of each other, while others rely heavily on their tunnel neighbors. "The surprising wonder of Bernard's tunnel is less that people can survive in such an environment than that they can work together and even care, sometimes intensely, for each other." One of the many communites descirbed in the book, Bernard's tunnel is a prime example of a different society underneath the streets. Separate from the rest of the world, but with the same qualities as all great cities. I was greatly impressed with the research tactics that Toth used to get information for her book. Risking her life hundreds of times, she traveled deep into the tunnels to speak with all kinds of the underground population. She made the tunnels part of her life, making visits there every day, and gaining many friends along the way. I would recommend this book to anyone. It's an incredibley interesting book that will definitely open up any eyes to the importance of the mole people.
Rating:
Summary: A hidden world
Review: This book gives a look at the hidden world beneath New York City. Most of the people on the surface have no idea that such a place even exists. In this documentary Jennifer Toth visits this "Underworld" and speaks with and interacts with its citizens. There are touching stories of communities trying to raise children, and chilling accounts of thugs that kill for money, a cigarette, or even just because someone stepped in their way. I have seen poverty in my surroundings, as I walk down the city street, but I never dreamed that there could be people who have to live beneath the streets. At school I am working in a unit on poverty, and this book was recommended. I read it, interested to know of the hidden world, and I was informed, interested, and intrigued by it. You meet many of the underground dwellers, or Mole People, and learn about their communities and the roles they play in them. Many of them are much like above-ground villages. You also glimpse the large shadow death has over the tunnel, and the fear many of the Mole People dwell in. I highly recommend this book to any interested in the underground life.
Rating: 
Summary: Naive, and not very well researched.
Review: This book is full of amateurishness. While I respect anyone who writes a book, this subject matter would have been better served by someone a little less naive, and a little more worldly. The Mole People reads like a book report, sharing with shocked humanity, what seems like, the viewpoint of a high school senior on a church trip for the first time in New York City. For example, on page 74, the author, Miss Toth, reports as fact that "Track maintenance crews call tunnel homeless 'CHUD people', for 'Cannabilistic Human Underground Dwellers'," suggesting that mole people are so pervasive that they have their own well thought-out name, complete with acronym. Unfortunately for Miss Toth, if she had done a modicum of research, she would have discovered that CHUD was the title of a B-horror movie from the '80's long before being co-opted by a maintenance crew in New York. The book is full of anecdotes like this. Half-baked. Not well researched. Not believable. Not good reading.
THERE'S A REASON THERE'S ONLY ONE EDITION OF THIS BOOK. This book is so out of date (1993!), and not at all relevant anymore, if it ever was at all. Don't waste precious hours of your life. You won't learn anything and worse, you will be misinformed.
One star for subject matter. One star for writing a book. (Ahem.)
|
