Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town

Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town

By: Nick Reding  

Buy it now at Amazon.com!

Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5

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, longlasting, 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 twenty 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.

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA

Release Date: 2009-06-09

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Great book. - Having graduated from Dunkerton High School-20 miles away, I found this to be an excellent book that filled in a lot of questions I had about Oelwein and other small towns in NE Iowa. Returning to the area at least annually since leaving for college I found Dunkerton, Oelwein and other small towns increasingly "blighted" and abandoned looking. My Brother purchased a home near Fairbank-approx. 10 miles from Oelwein so we made numerous trips to Oelwein during a renovation of his home. The time frame was the early to mid-2000's...approx. the same time frame as when this book was written. I was SHOCKED at the condition of Oelwein and can attest to the closed business, boarded up homes, unkempt lawns and property etc. I think Reding nailed the cause as a combination of good jobs leaving and the meth problem. Often times when I questioned my parents about people I knew from growing up there I was told they had gotten into "drugs". I participated in Ragbrai numerous times and can also attest that the WORST overnight town was Oelwein in 2002. I saw a town very unprepared for the event. Few food options, restaurants that ran out of food, transportation sorely lacking, poor signage, etc...It appeared that no on cared to prepare. Their seemed to be a great deal of apathy from the residents as well. Our group was also told to be careful if we chose to go to the bars, that there were a lot of "rowdy locals" and "druggies". We chose to stay in our campground.

I understand the defensiveness of the residents of Oelwein but the facts remain as Reding writes about them. The town fell tremendously from say 1970's until the 2000's.

As for the critics who point out the inaccuracies and slam the book because of them...REALLY? WOW, have you missed the point. The book is an interesting, quick read and sheds a great deal of light on a major problem.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Very informative but never boring - I thought this book was outstanding. He blends real life stories with factual information and background that was really compelling. They should make this book required reading for every high school student. They will not want to touch meth after reading about the man whose body basically melted after a meth explosion and will never have a normal life again.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Meth is a symptom, not a cause, of small town crisis. - Great book. Loved it from start to finish. This was written by a journalist, so there is a journalistic style to the book, but it is remarkable the holistic and thorough job he has done trying to track down the human stories underlying all these complicated trends AS WELL AS interpret the larger geopolitical and economic context. In short, he points fingers at globalization, deindustrialization, large corporate interests (both agribusiness and retail), a weakened federal government, and poor immigration policy - these intertwining processes, often stretching across the globe, created a "perfect storm" through which meth was able to penetrate and flourish. Just as one example, the fact that meth is manufactured from a legal and highly lucrative cold medication makes its control nearly impossible if big pharmaceutical companies and the big pharmacy retailers don't want to lose their market share (knowing that a lot of their sales are due to meth). And he ends by suggesting parallels, and even co-operation, of the drug trade and global terrorism, a sobering thought.

The strength of this book is that it is grounded in the story of Oelwein, IA, and the people of this small town. There is a lot to be hopeful about in reading about these people, their connections to the meth problem, and their agency in responding to it, in various ways. I very much appreciated that he grounded the story in his own family history. The identity politics of meth - an historically blue-collar, rural, working man's drug - are fascinating. He also makes the case that we'd all better pay attention to these problems and not write them off as just an outcome of weak addicts, but recognize how interconnected our whole geopolitical-economic system is and how central these processes are to all of our livelihoods and well-being. Well said! I plan to assign this book as required reading in a class I am teaching this fall.

Customer Review: 3 out of 5
Interesting observations, but tackles too many issues at once - ''Methland'' has a lot of interesting observation about the rapid spread of meth usage, and focuses specifically on the town of Oelwein, Iowa, which was nearly destroyed by the drug. The author shows how meth became a popular drug with blue-collar workers, and it's usage correlated with the rise of large agricultural and pharmaceutical manufacturers, which harmed small businesses in towns like Oelwein.

The book follows the life of several townsfolk who were, one way or another, directly affected by the meth crisis. This includes mega meth dealer Lori Arnold, sister of actor Tom Arnold. As meth became more common, the town of Oelwein declined in importance and prosperity.

Where the book got hard to swallow is the author tries to tie together a whole host of societal trends and say that these events led to the rise of meth in rural areas like Iowa. The problem is the author mentions in passing that meth is also popular in some urban gay communities (far removed from the rural Heartland) and also how the rise of Mexican immigrants in rural agricultural areas helped it spread. I started to think you could write a book about meth users from many different angles that could undercut the author's main point that changes in economics and corporate polices in rural areas are what caused the epidemic.

If you are interested in the meth crisis I do recommend the book. However, I think the author tries to pin the whole problem on large scale events that were only a backdrop during meth's rise and he shies away from explaining why some people go wild over the drug while others in difficult circumstances avoid it like the plague that it is.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
The Real Deal - Excellent Book - As a police officer, I regularly witness the ravages of meth, both with abusers themselves and, sadly, their children. The author has done a superb job documenting America's meth crisis with a thoroughly researched and well documented book. He occasionally strolls into irrelevant country with some of his principal sources, but that doesn't detract from this book's many strengths. His detailed documentation of how big pharma fueled the meth crisis is excellent and a truly underreported story that much of mainstream media has overlooked. I read some critiques here quibbling about extremely minor inaccuracies in the book, particularly trivia about the town itself. Ignore that noise. This is a great book that cries out for a revised edition in a year or two because the landscape of meth is undergoing a significant metamorphosis right now. Redding is an excellent writer, and I look forward to more of his reportage in the future.

--> Find out more about "Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town" at Amazon.com or Order Now