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Dec 15, 2010

Emily rated it:

I was expecting this to be an overview of the meth epidemic in America's small towns. Instead, the author is specifically trying not to tell that story, but to go beyond and around it to expose the conditions in small-town America that make its denizens susceptible to the twin evils of meth and despair. Using the example of the town of Oelwein, IA, the author explores issues like education, employment, immigration, law enforcement, the DEA, the dearth of treatment programs, etc.

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Sep 24, 2009

Donna rated it:

This book is about Oelwein, IA - my hometown. It's also about the meth epidemic in small towns throughout the U.S. Meth is most prevalent in rural areas, where poor people cook up small batches in their kitchens. Reding focuses much of the book on the period between 2005-2007 when meth coverage was at it's height in the media. Reding also relates the history of methamphetamine use -- it was given to soldiers during WWII to keep them going for days without sleep or food and prescribed to house More...

5 comments like (16 people liked it)

Feb 26, 2010

Schuyler rated it:

This is more of a 3 1/2 star rating (I put my support behind Meghan and her undying, relentless campaign for a more accurate 1/2 star, or even 1/4 rating system. Listen up Goodreads! Or you're nerdy community will revolt!).

Apparently, after reading some reviews by some native Iowans (is that what they call themselves?) there are a few factual inaccuracies throughout the book, such as Iowa City is not the largest city in Iowa, or that The University of Northern Iowa is in Cedar Fall More...

5 comments like (10 people liked it)

Apr 19, 2011

lauren rated it:

This book was obviously written by a dude. And this dude is secretly really into an idealistic fantasy of small towns, but he knows the whole meth epidemic thing goes against that, so he tells the reader he doesn't believe in it. But i've enjoyed the book. Amongst all the bro-ing it up with the locals, he tells a really interesting story of the social, economic, psychological, etc, aspects of meth in small town america. It sort of makes me never want to go to a small town. Everyone knows everyon More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Nov 10, 2011

Elisabeth rated it:

I keep reading books about meth, and I keep finding myself engrossed in the stories. Methland starts where Beautiful Boy and Tweak leave off. Those books are excruciating personal family stories, one written by the father (David Sheff), one by the son (Nic Sheff), about the son's addiction and the repercussions on the lives of the family members as well as the addict. Set in California, they chronicle Nic's descent from healthy, successful college-bound high school student to the life of an addi More...

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Jan 16, 2012

Kira rated it:

Against all odds, Methland managed to be at times downright boring (aforementioned passage notwithstanding). I understand what Reding was trying to do: focus on the underpinnings of meth, as opposed to its direct and immediate effects. After all, we’re so desensitized to addiction, so capable of dismissing as weak-minded addicts who refuse to help themselves, that perhaps there is merit in looking at a drug from an economic standpoint, as something that takes a toll on everyone, if only indirect More...

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Jan 08, 2012

Diann added it

While METHLAND is centered on a single town in the Midwest that had seen the usual exodus of ambitious young people for better jobs and been left with nothing but menial positions in various factories or fast-food restaurants, it’s easily comparable to–-and even mentions–-small Southern towns left bankrupt and jobless after the departure of textile mills and poultry processing plants. In many ways, crystal meth, as shown in Donna Tartt’s THE LITTLE FRIEND (Knopf), is a perfect fit for Down Here, More...

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Dec 12, 2011

Joe rated it:

Interesting telling of the recent history of meth in America, focusing on a few people and small towns as illustrative examples.

The book itself is compelling, both in its telling of how meth turned from a relatively small problem among people on the outskirts -- motorcycle gangs and such -- into a crisis that touched, and continues to touch, the lives of huge numbers of people, as well as the way it tells the human stories of users, police, and prosecutors who deal with meth on a perso More...

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Aug 24, 2011

Heidi rated it:

Fascinating book about the takeover of meth in a small town in Iowa. The personal stories were horrifying and depressing. It wasn't just about individual choices, though...there is so much more to the meth story. The pharmaceutical company who actually went so far as to synthesize an alternative to pseudoephedrine to be used in cold medicines, but then shortly after was bought out by Pfizer who chose not to follow through. The meat packing plants and other factories who once provided good pa More...

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Jul 24, 2011

Lindsay rated it:

Narrative non-fiction about the effects of methamphetamine on a small town in Kansas. Beautifully written. Meticulously drawn characters: The local prosecutor who busts tweakers by day and farms his parents' land at night; the local GP fighting a one-man war against meth, his small town hospital, and the insurance companies; the methhead who blew up his mother's house and melted most of his fingers and facial features in a lab mishap; Tom Arnold's sister Lori who revolutionized the meth trade in More...

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May 01, 2011

Jen rated it:

Many people are familiar with the meth scourge, but there are two new things (at least to me) offered in this book that make me recommend it. First, Reding includes explanations of how lobbyists for the pharmaceutical industry weakened legislation, and how the cold medicine industry makes a phenomenal profit off of meth. Second, he also shows how the decline of local industry (and America's insatiable appetite, literally, for cheap meat) led to a rise in meth in the midwest. Those are just two s More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 26, 2011

Kathleen added it

Methland: the Death and Life of an American Small Town, by Nick Reding, narrated by Mark Boyett, produced by Audible Inc., downloaded from audible.com.

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. Journalist Nick Reding, originally from Iowa with his family still there, becomes enmeshed in the story of Crystal Meth and its effect on the Midwestern small towns. More...

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Jan 26, 2011

Clara rated it:

I got my copy of this from the library and I think some previous patron may have actual cooked meth over the book: it had all manner of gross, weirdly coloured chemical stains throughout. Normally, I would return such a suspicious copy and wait for one to come into my store, but in this case I was hooked after a few pages, before I'd discovered the unfortunate circumstances of my copy. I read this with a keen personal interest: I grew up in a town as direly affected by methamphetamine as the w More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 23, 2010

Kasey rated it:

It seems odd to say I loved this book, given the subject matter, but in a strange way I DID love reading it, maybe in the way you can love anything so intelligent and large-hearted, no matter the topic. And it is definitely a grim topic, and Nick Reding's writing is unblinkingly honest. But he does manage to find some hope in the sad and hopeless-seeming stories he tells, especially in the story of the way the mayor of the little Iowa town that is the subject of Methland raised an enormous amo More...

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Dec 07, 2010

Patrick rated it:

I finished this book months ago, and decided to finally write about Methland after I saw that one of my friends (thanks Sara) had put in on her visual bookshelf. It is a great work on the ins and outs of meth, what it does to people and their communities, and describes the human cost to the use of this very dangerous drug.

Reding conducted an enormous amount of research talking to users and law enforcement, doctors and lawyers in order to give a broad picture of what meth has done to a More...

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Dec 05, 2010

Janet rated it:

hi Janet
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Loading... Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town by Nick Reding (Goodreads Author)
Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town 3.61 · rating details · 1,026 ratings · 340 reviews
The dramatic story of the methamphetamine epidemic as it sweeps the Am More...

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Sep 22, 2010

Trishnyc rated it:

As more and more Americans move away from small towns to urban areas, many carry with them an idealized version of the places they left behind. They imagine idyllic scenes of families at work and play, engaging in simple pursuits, farming the land, attending places of worship and living low key lives. But many of these towns are becoming unrecognizable as communities are swept up in the consumption of a dangerous drug that leaves its users physically and mentally damaged, financially depressed a More...

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Jul 22, 2010

ICPL added it

A friend from Oelwein, Iowa was distressed to learn that Nick Reding’s best-seller focused on his hometown. True enough, Methland paints a pretty grim picture of Oelwein earlier in this decade, but goes on to outline steps the town has taken to clean itself up.

Reding aims to provide both the macro and the micro approaches to meth. He interviews addicts, a prosecutor, a local doctor and a couple imprisoned dealers. He ties the destruction of small towns to the farm crisis, and ultim More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Apr 23, 2010

Alexa rated it:

Graphic and disturbing account of how Methamphetamine rose in middle America in the 80's & 90's.

Reding gets to the heart of the heartland's small town demise and addiction to Meth. He supplies ample evidence of how economic, food and drug policies along with manufacturing and immigration trends (not isolated from these same policies) helped make the meth lab as common as McDonalds are across middle America. We get to know the characters (the law enforcement officials, the addic More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 09, 2009

Ben rated it:

I'm tempted to describe how the initial rush of the first chapter couldn't be replicated but that I still couldn't put the book down, and when finished I wound up cooking it and smoking it. I know that's juvenile, but one of my favorite editors once said "go with the gag" when in doubt, so fuck it.

This book has very good long term reporting about the international networks that have made meth American as apple pie, using a town in Iowa's struggles with the drug as a focal p More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 02, 2009

Tara rated it:

Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town

Nick Reding puts all of the pieces together in an excellent investigative book that exposes the complex and seemingly unstoppable forces behind the epidemic, while also revealing its human cost through individual stories that will make you hurt. If you grew up in a small town, you know these people.

The heartland's struggle with meth addiction is largely rooted in a cataclysmic shift from small farm and ranch o More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 13, 2009

Sharon rated it:

Economic collapse has played an important role in the growth of meth production and use in rural America.
This book is definately worth the read. I learned about the origins of meth; what makes it so popular; and that it may be impossible to stop the production and use of meth. Pharmaceutical lobbyists, Mexican drug cartels, and large companies like Cargill are indirect business associates; the driving force among them being their profit margins. Money is the devil in disguise.

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Oct 11, 2009

Benjamin rated it:

Original review at INDenverTimes.

I need to start this review with this admission: I believe nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, told to me about drugs by any governmental agency. When it comes to drugs, I apply the same rule to public health officials that I apply to personal injury lawyers and car salesmen: If I see your lips moving, I know you’re lying. See, as a member of the DARE generation, I’ve lived through more drug scares than I can count, and seen nearly every one of th More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Oct 06, 2009

Jamie rated it:

A native midwesterner, Reding spent a few years imbedded in the small town of Oelwein, Iowa, reporting on its meth epidemic and teasing out larger conclusions about small town, largely midwest meth.

There are quite a few fascinating tidbits - similar to the Wire, Reding writes the "good guys" as being flawed people, with alcohol problems and intimacy issues, and some of those who are methed out as being good people who took a wrong path. Occasionally this results in repetiti More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 30, 2009

Shawn rated it:

Methland was a good read with many interesting facts and ideas about the USA, drugs, rural life in America, and America's immigration policy. Some highlights in entertainment include: millions of Americans high high high, thousands and thousands of Mexicans manufacturing and distributing meth, 40% of U.S. meat-packing plant employees: illegal aliens/meth distributors, entertainer Tom Arnold's sister: meth queen of Iowa/federal prison parolee, U.S. pharmaceutical industry so powerful that it tak More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 22, 2009

Judith rated it:

I think this is the first time I ever read a nonfiction book that I couldn't put down. The story he tells is incredible, yet true. It's not just a story about drugs in America. It's a story about big business, illegal immigration, lobbyists, and the FDA. I knew that meth was easy to make, and that one of the key ingredients is pseudoephedrine, an ingredient in most common cold medicines. What I didn't know is that for the past 20+ years, anti-drug groups have been trying to pass bills to fo More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 08, 2009

Robert rated it:

This noteworthy book was certainly an eye-opener for me. My vision of midwest small-town America was steeped in the stories of my mother's annual visits in the 1930's from Chicago to her cousins who lived in northeast Iowa--on a farm. Yes, Iowa's small farm towns possessed all that is right and great with America--hard work, simple but worthwhile lives, and a golden goodness. When I traveled to Iowa for family reunion picnics in the '60's, 70's and into the 80's little I saw would tarnis More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 08, 2011

May-Ling rated it:

i saw nick reding speak at stanford on a panel with two doctors/professors and he piqued my interest enough to pick up the book. i'm so glad i did, since my knowledge of meth is incredibly sparse. to give you an idea of how sparse, i didn't even know that crank was another word for it.

in methland, the author follows several people within the city of Oelwein, Iowa, with a population of about 6,000 over the course of 2-3 years. as time passes, he updates us on their lives, as well as ins More...

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Feb 22, 2011

Emmett rated it:

Methland is Nick Reding’s portrait of small town America and the devastation resulting from widespread meth addiction in the last three decades. Reding combines profiles of meth combatants and addicts alike with an account of the complex history of the drug. Reding’s invocation of Steinbeck’s Travels With Charley late in the book is indicative of the spirit with which Reding tackles his subject. While he travels far and wide by car to gather information for his story, his focus on the Iowa town More...

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Dec 24, 2011

hillary rated it:

p. 92
"Douglas Constance is a rural sociologist at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. Constance puts Reinarman's point in a different context when he says that the United States is 'psychological, not a sociological nation.' What he means is that we will always hold the individual responsible over the group, blaming the drug addict instead of investigating the environment in which he grew up, and (conversely) celebrating the quarterback above the team following a win." More...

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