Book Review: The Big Oyster

The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell
by Mark Kurlansky

I read another of Mark Kurlansky’s books, “Salt: A World History”, last month for my Book Club. Though I didn’t choose the book this month, I’m a big non-fiction fan and I thought “Salt” was very interesting (though sometimes a little dry). Did you know Roman soldiers were sometimes paid in salt and that’s the origin of the word “salary”? Me neither.

So I looked for other food-themed history books by Kurlansky. I found “Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World” and “The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell.” The library waiting list for “Cod” was rather long so I moved on to "The Big Oyster."

Although the title and cover suggest that the book is about oysters, it's actually a history of New York City--the choices and, in particular, the mistakes (in hindsight) the city residents made in handling the environment that transformed Manhattan island and its surroundings from pastoral beauty to modern Gotham. Today, New York is the very representation of "city." This is how it got that way--through the eyes of the oyster. Here's more info if you would like to order it yourself from one of my favorite local bookstores.