Methland

The Death and Life of an American Small Town

By: Nick Reding

Narrated by: Mark Boyett

Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

The dramatic story of the methamphetamine epidemic as it sweeps the American heartland a timely, moving, very human account of one community s attempt to battle its way to a brighter future.

Crystal methamphetamine is widely considered to be the most dangerous drug in the world, and nowhere is that more true than in the small towns of the American heartland. Methland tells the story of Oelwein, Iowa (pop. 6,159), which, like thousands of other small towns across the country, has been left in the dust by the consolidation of the agricultural industry, a depressed local economy, and an out-migration of people. As if this weren't enough to deal with, an incredibly cheap, long lasting, and highly addictive drug has rolled into town.

Over a period of four years, journalist Nick Reding brings us into the heart of Oelwein through a cast of intimately drawn characters, including: Clay Hallburg, the town doctor, who fights meth even as he struggles with his own alcoholism; Nathan Lein, the town prosecutor, whose caseload is filled almost exclusively with meth-related crime; and Jeff Rohrick, a meth addict, still trying to kick the habit after 20 years. Tracing the connections between the lives touched by the drug and the global forces that set the stage for the epidemic, Methland offers a vital and unique perspective on a pressing contemporary tragedy.

©2009 Nick Reding (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Mark Boyett’s narration is terrific. He deftly conveys the town’s efforts to deal with the problem and defines various key residents. Particularly strong are his portraits of town doctor Clay Hallburg, who personally observes the growth of the drug and the decline of the town, and prosecutor Nathan Lein, whose caseload is almost entirely meth based." ( AudioFile)

Not so good I was not impressed

Well read but boring in the extreme. This story had potential to be a realy good one. Unfortunately the author did not meet that potential in any way. Reads as interesting as stereo instructions.

Ho Hum

Narrators articulation is great....but the content
reads like an agricultural report. Far too many adjectives for my taste.

This was a documentary...

Would you try another book from Nick Reding and/or Mark Boyett?

I would love to give them another chance but I must say, I did not enjoy this at all. It sounded like a documentary. I couldn't connect to any of the characters in any way. Very disappointing....

Has Methland turned you off from other books in this genre?

Well now I know my feelings about documentaries..I don't like them.

What didn’t you like about Mark Boyett’s performance?

The narrator was very dry and boring...

Kind of tedious, and not much about meth

I was hoping for something detailed about the sorts of people who get sucked into the orbit of this horrible drug, and how it plays out for them over the course of their lives. I know, it's not a pretty story, but I thought it would be interesting and worth reading and thinking about.

This book, surprisingly, doesn't deliver much of this. There's all kinds of generalized, hyperbolic statements about the corrosive effect of meth on small town America, but then the author kind of "falls in love with" his three main characters -- a small town mayor, the same town's chief of police, and the town's assistant prosecutor.

Ok, that's great, and they are honest, hardworking people, without a doubt. But the bulk of the book isn't really about meth at all!! It's about these three guys, and where they eat dinner, and what they are doing to help the town, and what their love lives are like. Again, they seem like really good people, but honestly, reading about these three is about as interesting as watching paint dry.

I will say that other reviewers are kind of harsh on the author for attempting to connect the phenomenon of meth with other economic and social trends in the rural United States. I didn't find this to be a great problem with the book, except for the relative lack of hard data to support the author's suppositions -- which I would have enjoyed hearing. More troubling is the fact that the author completely botched the description of the chemistry of meth. It's not just a "simplified" or non-technical version of the truth. It was downright wrong.

All in all, the book was kind of a disappointment. I did finish the book (in the hope that it would redeem itself by the end), but in the end I also wish I hadn't gotten started with it.

A series of essays more than a book about anything

I'm from Iowa and I really wanted to like this one. Interesting subject(s) but it's not a riveting read. I struggled to find a beginning a middle and and end. When it was over I felt I had only read a first draft, I think the editor failed on this one. Instead of a book, I heard several essays, about a small town, about meth, about the drug trade but in the end, they were not tied together in a meaningful way. To make matters worse the essays were not well realized either. Each one had a few interesting pages but there is not enough to each to be compelling. What was the point about writing a whole book about methland? There's a book there but this wasn't quite it.