tRats: Observations on the History & Habitat of the City’s Most Unwanted Inhabitants is a very interesting and unusual book. It is written by Robert Sullivan, who decides to observe city rats in their natural habitat. It has several up and downsides.
tWhen given the parts on his actual experiences, the book is quite nice. It talks about their behavior and what he noticed as well. It describes the conversations that he had with exterminators, scientists and everyday people that he meets along his way. It does a great job of describing all the places that he went on his quest to understand rats and explaining why rats and the species that they follow, people, do many things. It is overall a great and thoughtful book.
tHowever, there are quite a few downsides. The parts talking about the history can get quite boring. There also some sections that talk about people that were important to rat studying or had an interesting story that had to do with rats that are slow. However, overall it is a great book.

Rats are always interesting. This book, however, was not-- very strangely organized, it obviously lacked a strong editor. There were a lot of portions that seemed entirely out of place, whether barely-connected history or unnecessary personal narrative by the author. The principal organization of the book is the author's remarks on spending a year in an alley watching rats, and at this point, the framing device of "One Year In..." has gotten so old by now that it's likely to make you feel tired of the book before you begin. In addition, the problem with this book is that Sullivan doesn't get that I'm reading it because the book is called RATS, not because it's called SULLIVAN ON RATS. Especially egregious was the penultimate chapter which, for some reason I don't understand, is not at all about rats, but rather about some personnage of the American revolution about whom I couldn't care less. Typical and predictable conclusions about rats-are-us, and rats-are-the-USA! follow. Yawn.

That said, the chapters that actually taught me stuff about rats were pretty neat. I just wish the whole book had been composed of those, as that's why I took the thing out of the library in the first place.

A writer fascinated by both natural history and human history spends a year observing New York alley rats, combining observations about the rats, sifting through the natural history of rats and the hunting thereof, and sifting backward through the history of the alley through the history of Europeans in America.

This was less logical and more fun than I anticipated. The author talks about "his" rats, then jumps around to some other subject, often only tangentially connected to the supposed subject material.

If you're looking for a solid book about rats, maybe this isn't it. But if you're open to a cross-discipline study of history only loosely centered on rats, this is the book for you.

I knew I would enjoy this book, but I had no idea I would love it. Why is this book about rats so enjoyable? I can't say for sure. It's weirdly funny. It's got history, it's got science, it's got beautiful descriptions of garbage bags being run over by catering trucks. I want to be friends with the author.

for my post-human sociology class! rats are interesting

Rats are the urban planning of urban planning

I would like to say that I picked up this book with interest, thinking that if I lived in New York I should do my due diligence and come to know the local fauna. At that time, I thought of rats as relatively benign, like any other animal, simply with a bad reputation due to stories. So, wryly, I thought I’d read the nature writing of the city and walk away with an appreciation for the depth and nuance of rat life.

I was wrong; they are disgusting, disquieting demons. They can chew threw concrete and iron, they are everywhere, and you can never get rid of them. They carry disease, they are just plain bad.

The writing on this is classic long form journalism, more casual in places than I’ve come to expect from more recent examples of the same kind. It actually doesn’t do all it could, and there isn’t a lot of in-depth discussion about the nature or culture of rat colonies (probably because going near them I’d a BAD IDEA). But it delivers on the promise (does kind of lose the thread toward the end with some revolutionary war history).

Even though true documentaries are one of my passions, this book comes close enough. Its take as a "not quite encyclopedic" book on rats is more of a travelogue that follows a man who spends a year satiating his curiosity for the rats that live so close to all of us, but are mostly hidden from view.

The book consistently left me wanting for more in depth findings, and each reference he gave to a more substantial book he had used in his research made me want to abandon his book in search of better facts.

This said, the book was still interesting, if for nothing more than it saved me a year of my own life dedicated to rats; a pursuit that I could clearly see myself doing for the same reasons as the author. Curiosity, and a hunger for more hands on information.

Urban nature writing. While researching rats, Sullivan also tells the story of the social history of the New York alley he becomes a fixture in. He becomes this fixture so the rats become comfortable with him there and they go about their business of running through restaurant garbage every night. He also attends exterminator conventions in the mid-west and is given access to the World Trade Center after 9/11 to find the rats are doing well and fine among all the death and destruction.

I found this book full of random and interesting information about rats and their place in this world. I was also entertained through the whole book and amazed that this guy's wife let him back in the house every night.

What a weirdly enjoyable book.

If I had to guess why this book was written, I’d say it was to shine light on the real settlers of NYC, the rats and pests that were long before people. Rats are surprisingly important to the city’s history as the author did a good job of explaining. They’re everywhere- in poor, rich, and middle class areas.The great equalizers, rats have played a role in the growth and death of many NYC neighborhoods and beyond. One of the most interesting parts of the book to me was the chapter on the garbage riots of the 1970s and how rats became an important pawn to the union strikers asking for fair wages. Rats were also used as weapons (literally) in the Harlem tenant strikes in the 1960s and helped lead the city towards safer and cleaner housing for immigrant families. There’s a lot of history interwoven in the authors narrative and I liked the way he painted a picture of rats as citizens of the city alongside humans.

What I didn’t like was how he went overboard on romanticizing the rats. One of the last chapters is completely devoted to one rat, The Rat King, and the author watches him for days until one day he comes back and the big rat is dead. I’m glad that was one of the last chapters because it started making me question this man’s sanity.

It was a really interesting book and it made me curious about the “old history” of New York City and where I live. To paraphrase the rat man, there’s a lot going on under your feet if you’re curious enough to look at it.

not as heavy on facts about rats as the title might lead you to believe, but a really enjoyable meander through the history of rats in new york city (and america). kind of like reading a well-written and well-researched account of someone's wikipedia spiral, which i mean in a very complimentary way.

Everything you wanted to know about rats and then some, and without question one of the greatest book covers in the history of books, with its view of rat Manhattan. I couldn't recommend Robert Sullivan more.