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Title details for The Big Oyster by Mark Kurlansky - Available

The Big Oyster

History on the Half Shell

by Mark Kurlansky
John H. Mayer
Audiobook
3 of 3 copies available
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3 of 3 copies available
Before New York City was the Big Apple, it could have been called the Big Oyster. Now 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, whose influence on the great metropolis remains unparalleled.
For centuries New York was famous for its oysters, which until the early 1900s played such a dominant a role in the city’s economy, gastronomy, and ecology that the abundant bivalves were Gotham’s most celebrated export, a staple food for the wealthy, the poor, and tourists alike, and the primary natural defense against pollution 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 island hunting ground of the Lenape Indians to the death of the 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.
Kurlansky brings characters vividly to life while recounting dramatic incidents that changed the course of New York history. Here are the stories behind Peter Stuyvesant’s peg leg and Robert Fulton’s “Folly”; the oyster merchant and pioneering African American leader Thomas Downing; the birth of the business lunch at Delmonico’s; early feminist Fanny Fern, one of the highest-paid newspaper writers in the city; even “Diamond” Jim Brady, who we discover was not the gourmand of popular legend.
With The Big Oyster, Mark Kurlansky serves up history at its most engrossing, entertaining, and delicious.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 28, 2006

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780739353905
      • File size: 285536 KB
      • Duration: 09:54:51

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • Lexile® Measure: 1300
    • Text Difficulty: 10-12

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Mark Kurlansky transforms facts into fascinating historical narrative. Producer John McElroy abridges such narrative seamlessly. Tom Stechschulte reads it perfectly. A shush of waves and the cry of a seagull launch Kurlansky's tale of New York City's early history, seen through the fortunes of its most important bivalve, the oyster. It's a fascinating story of greed, gastronomy, and disastrous ecology told with Kurlansky's typical zest. Stechschulte provides telling accents for some of the historical characters; otherwise, he simply reads--reads, that is, in his scratchy, attractive voice with evident interest and exquisite pacing. This is a match between author, abridger, and narrator that will have audiobook listeners cheering. A.C.S. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      Starred review from February 15, 2007
      Few Americans realize that New York City was once a coastal paradise, with sweet breezes, shimmering marshes, and clear waters nurturing the best oysters in the world. Native Americans tossed into middens millions of discarded shells that are still being unearthed, and, until the early 1900s, oysters were the signature food of the metropolis. Kurlansky (Cod ) dishes details of social and culinary history, Colonial recipes, and anecdotes about larger-than-life oyster eaters like Diamond Jim Brady. The bounty endured for centuries, with plump, tasty, abundant, and cheap oysters nourishing the city's rich and poor every day. The dense oyster population also filtered the entire harbor of impurities. Sadly, their descendants finally succumbed to pollution, and the days of "the big oyster" have long been forgotten. John H. Mayer's timeless voice resonates as he relays Kurlansky's tale of a paradise squandered. A big, satisfying listen; highly recommended.Judith Robinson, Univ. at Buffalo

      Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from September 26, 2005
      Here's a chatty, free-wheeling history of New York City told from the humble perspective of the once copious, eagerly consumed, now decimated eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginicas
      ). Research addict Kurlansky (Cod
      , etc.) starts from the earliest evidence of Lenape oyster middens, or beds, discovered by explorer Henry Hudson and others as evidence that natives enjoyed the shellfish as a delicacy, much as the Europeans did. When the Dutch arrived, the estuary of the lower Hudson, with its rich confluence of rivers, contained 350 square miles of oyster beds—"fully half of the world's oysters." The huge oyster stores contributed mightily to the mercantile wealth and natural renown of New Amsterdam, then inherited by the British, who were crazy about oysters; pickled oysters became an important trade with British West Indies slave plantations. While cheap, oysters appealed equally to the rich and poor, prompting famous establishments such as black-owned Downing's oyster cellar and Delmonico's (the enterprising author handily supplies historic recipes). The exhaustion of the city's oyster beds and pollution by sewage effectively eclipsed the consumption of local oysters by the 1920s, yet the lowly oyster still promotes the health of the waterways by its natural filtering system as well as indicating the purity of the water. Kurlansky's history digresses all over the place, and sparkles. Agent, Charlotte Sheedy.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 3, 2006
      Who knew that New York City was once the oyster capital of the world, and that at one time it held half of the earth's supply, harvesting 700 million in 1880 alone? Or that oysters were not just a delicacy for aristocrats but also affordable, cheap even, sustenance for working folk. Tom Stechschulte's pairing with Kurlansky's (Salt
      , Cod
      ) ode to the heyday of the Crassostrea virginicas
      (the eastern oyster) is a dead-on perfect match. With an authoritative yet amiable tone and sounding very much like Gene Hackman, Stechschulte delivers the information in as calm and instructive, yet wholly engaging way. The Big Oyster
      is a cautionary tale of man's nature, which lays waste to any exploitable resource, with conservation always a tardy afterthought. Stechschulte's fine reading entertains while educating about how New York City, once known for its oysters and concretely connected to the sea, slowly becomes an island unto itself, losing its connection to its surrounding waterways completely and, along the way, lost some of its unique identity to the name of progress. Simultaneous release with the Ballantine hardcover (Reviews, Sept. 26, 2005).

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Lexile® Measure:1300
  • Text Difficulty:10-12

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