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Overview
“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
Synopsis
“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
The New York Times - William Grimes
The culture of the oyster cellar also provides a feast for the author, who notes, shrewdly, that the oyster resisted the usual status markers assigned to food. Although cheap, it was consumed by rich and poor alike, sometimes at the same street stalls. Unlike the lobster or the canvasback duck, its value was not a function of scarcity. "It was one of the few moments in culinary history," he writes of the second half of the 19th century, "when a single food, served in more or less the same preparations, was commonplace for all socioeconomic levels."
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
With Cod and Salt, author Mark Kurlansky proved that even the most ubiquitous foodstuff can serve as a subject for choice nonfiction. With this book, he takes a step toward prime delicacies.At first glance, this history of oysters in New York City seems fixed on a topic too slender for book-length treatment, but Kurlansky's richly anecdotal narrative convinces otherwise. Oysters and the city were once almost synonymous; the huge oyster beds on the Hudson contained half of the world's supplies. The Big Oyster is part diverting history and part cautionary tale: The exhaustion of New York's oyster beds was a needless environmental crime. Exquisite savor.William Grimes
The culture of the oyster cellar also provides a feast for the author, who notes, shrewdly, that the oyster resisted the usual status markers assigned to food. Although cheap, it was consumed by rich and poor alike, sometimes at the same street stalls. Unlike the lobster or the canvasback duck, its value was not a function of scarcity. "It was one of the few moments in culinary history," he writes of the second half of the 19th century, "when a single food, served in more or less the same preparations, was commonplace for all socioeconomic levels."— The New York Times