Rating: 
Summary: A great book
Review: The book knows its place and doesn't try to do too much, and in doing so it succeeds. It is the story of a very curious and imaginative guy exploring a complex and old place. It tells exactly what happened, without embellishment, and comes off as a sincere work. The stories and characters stand on their own.
Rating: 
Summary: Is There an Editor (or Fact-Checker) In the House?
Review: The Meadowlands the book is much like the Meadowlands the place: both are filled with murky meandering channels, flowing sluggishly in random directions, and seeming to lack any overall organization or central purpose. To a reader looking for light inconsequential entertainment, this book's jumble and lack of advocacy are its charms. But someone hoping to learn a bit about the Meadowlands' biota, ecological history and culture will be left stuck in the muck. A good editor would have helped Sullivan craft a much finer book. A little more diligence to accuracy while writing would have helped Sullivan be more believable. For instance, when Sullivan writes on the effect of the weather systems known as 'Nor'westers' on the Meadowlands, does he really mean 'Nor'easters'? That is an incredibly sloppy mistake by a writer who isn't really paying all that much attention. And one that a good editor should have caught. At the end, I was left wondering how much 'creative liberty' went into the writing of this book. Based on this work, Sullivan simply is not a budding McPhee, Zukav or Lopez. This book much more cotton-candy filling than it is delicious science.
Rating: 
Summary: The Meadowlands: More Than Meets the Eye
Review: 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...."
Rating:
Summary: The Garden State?
Review: This was an excellent book. Suillvan describes the Meadowlands in an interesting manner. The stories of his explorations of this vast no-mans land are witty and funny. The characters he meets along the way are entertaining and real. I enjoyed the chapter about the infamous Jersey skeeters. Pick this book up, it's worth it.
Rating:
Summary: A great book about a notorious area.
Review: Without getting into an environmental polemic, (which would have been easy), Sullivan writes of a collection of adventures into the Meadowlands of New Jersey. This is a very unique, very readable, and very enjoyable book.
Rating:
Summary: Finding and Showing us the Beauty of an Abused Landscape.
Review: Written in a cool and quietly passionate style, Robert Sullivan's "The Meadowlands" tells the story of a largely neglected, much abused and exploited near-urban natural space. (In a large way, he lets The Meadowlands tell its own story). It is clear that Mr. Sullivan feels the beauty within the human-made ugliness of this resourceful wetland community sitting across the Hudson River from New York City, and centered amongst great industrial pollution. The natural habitat and the people living within that habitat, past and present, are the focuses of this easily accessible and well-written homage to a nostalgic playground from Mr. Sullivan's youth, and a site of deep meaning for him, as well. With compassion, but without deleting their idiosyncrasies and foibles, the author shares with us the various characters he encounters, both past and present. The Meadowlands shows how human beings have been neglectful of their natural surroundings, and tells us about the peopl! e who enjoy the gifts abused nature can still provide to us and, with vibrancy, brings to life the story of people who care deeply about these wetlands. Finally, Mr. Sullivan shows those willing to learn from this book, the importance and value of what we might consider the insignificance of restoring and preserving the many misused natural habitats that survive, and even thrive, all around us.
| 
