Customer Reviews

Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Yesterday I retraced the route I first drove with Nick that first day I met him in 2005. I drove by the houses I identified to him as places where methamphetamine had been cooked or distributed. One has been torn down, one still appears dilapidated or "burned out." The other one I barely recognized because it is in such good shape with obvious care and attention being lavished upon it.
Oelwein, like many other rural communities, has changed significantly since Nick started this book. Our transformation, thankfully has been extremely positive. We have a new library, a sewer treatment plant that is not violating Clean Water Act Regulations, an absolutely gorgeous downtown area, 400 new jobs in the last 18 months, a microbrewery with multistate distribution agreements, new shops and restuarants, and a new community college campus that allows high school kids to take the kinds of classes previously only available to prep school kids, or kids in major urban centers and allowing them to graduate with an A.A. degree the same day they get their high school diplomas.
My point is simply this: None of the above listed things were here that day Nick and I went to Leo's for lunch. The town was (and still is in some ways) suffering from all the forces described by Nick. There was a palatable sense of despair. The last two chapters describe the start of the transformation, but all books end, and Oelwein's story definitely has not.
The problem is insidious and scary. As of 6.15.2009 52% of my juvenile case load is still because of methamphetamine use/addiction. The police are still arresting dealers and finding purer and more addictive product from Mexico.
Nick's research methods looked pretty solid to me. The Fayette County Sheriff's Office did have input. I was there when Nick and the Chief Deputy sat down together. Nick did contact colleges in the area. I was not privy to those conversations, but I know they were had. I know some conversations were not held because of refusal to return phone calls and emails. Are there some inacuracies? Yes, on the micro detail level, but they certainly do not detract from the story or affect it negatively. The lines drawn from point A to point B are 100% in my professional training and experience.
Nick was able to treat Oelwein fairly and report on an example of a town trying to find its way in a global economy. Oelwein and I both found hope during the writing of this book in spite of obstacles thrown up in our path, sometimes by the very government I represent on the front lines of the drug war.

This is an important sociological overview of meth in a small town in America's heartland - its production, distribution, abuse, prosecution, "treatment" and the destruction it leaves in its wake (individual, familial and societal). If you are looking for loads of juicy stories about the human tragedy of meth use (as some reviewers here apparently were), this is not the focus of the book.

Oelwein could be Anysmalltown, USA, where the bulk of the employment opportunities have dried up or moved away (in the name of progress - giant agribusiness), and where the inhabitants are looking to escape their troubles and feel better and have the opportunity to make a few bucks to boot. One of the great revelations of the book is that meth was formerly widely used, and historically was associated with increased productivity and an increased sense of well-being (although its bad side-effects were well known).

Just how Oelwein morphed from a railroad roundhouse/agricultural community into a place where people ride their bikes in the open in order to cook meth is a story well-developed in the book, told from the perspective of the prosecutor, the hospital chief of staff and the mayor. Their views on how Oelwein might be brought right again, and their own personal struggles of being in Oelwein are valuable - the approaches they ultimately take might serve as a model for other communities in dire circumstances.

How Oelwein's predicament dovetails with government anti-drug policy (and the incredible power wielded by the pharmaceutical companies lobbyists); the hierarchy of the Mexican drug industry; international regulation of the materials needed to make meth; and the rise of giant agribusiness (both for the low wages and no benefits, as well as the employment of persons of dubious nationality) is a tale of many a small town in America. In many respects, it is also a call to action on all of these fronts.

While the book is highly informative, it would have benefitted from much better editing. Written in a conversational tone, I began to be frustrated by so many sentences beginning with, "That's to say....". On page 183, Reding writes, "But I think I was also looking for the meaning of a small town in my own life and in my family's history. And what if anything, had changed so profoundly that when I would tell my father what I was seeing in Iowa, he was made to wonder if he would even recognize the place whence he comes."

That second sentence is sorely in need of a rework, and many of its ilk pepper this book. Here's another, on pages 184-5: "In the winter, they market-hunted jackrabbits, by which it is meant that they went out into the fields at night in the backs of trucks and killed the animals as they were temporarily paralyzed by the headlights." And one more, from page 222: "Or rather, it had long ago to him begun needing attention, and he was just now able to see this." Heaven help the reader!

Last, Reding comes clean when he reveals that his father had risen through the ranks of Monsanto to become its Vice Chairman, and I applaud him for his honesty. What I really didn't want to know concerned addictions in his own family - and what I really couldn't understand was that he reveals that he moved with his pregnant wife to back to St. Louis, and expresses great concern about raising a family there while nearby Jefferson County was the meth lab capital of the US (in 2005).

This book focuses on Oelwein, Iowa and the impact of methamphetamine use in the Oelwein area dating back to the 1980's. Author Nick Reding also studies other nearby small Iowa towns, notably Ottumwa and Independence. Reding looks at the long era of steady decline suffered by Oelwein from the eighties to about 2005. Then in 2005, there began a significant upsurge in the town which included the establishment of new businesses and a new junior college. Reding largely credits the leadership of Mayor Larry Murphy for this revival.

I feel that this book would have been a lot stronger if Reding had stuck to Oelwein or, perhaps, added a couple of towns like Ottumwa and Independence. Instead, he often jumps all over the place in the U.S. and Mexico. True, he was looking at the national/international ramifications of meth. And, he does devote the great majority of the text to small-town Iowa. But, whenever Reding strays from Iowa small towns, the writing almost invariably gets weaker.

I do feel I learned a lot about meth manufacture, distribution, sale, and addiction from this book. But long before I read Methland I knew a couple of things that I would like to think every American over the age of, say, twelve should know. That is, (1) meth is a highly addictive drug, and (2) it will destroy lives. Reding has many stories that confirm both.

Along with his study of meth, Reding presents an overview of life in a small Midwestern town. I have several relatives who live in towns similar to Oelwein, and most of Reding's words ring true. Everybody knows everybody's business. People will sit and drink beer in local taverns while they gossip and remodel legends. They get together at local restaurants and coffee shops too. (How often have you eaten with a neighbor in a restaurant?) Small town residents often care about each other and are willing to help each other, simply because they know each other, in contrast to the "lonely crowds" of the big cold cities. Reding has many poignant anecdotes that reinforce these notions. He got to know quite well Oelwein residents like the mayor, assistant county prosecutor, a prominent local physician, and the police chief. He also became well acquainted with area meth addicts.

It's easy to see how an eager researcher like Reding in a small town like Oelwein could meet people who would talk to him for hours and hours, and even become his friend. Reding used these contacts to build some captivating stories.

Reding deftly looks at why meth addiction spreads. It gives the user a highly seductive feeling of power and happiness. Users look for this high because they are frustrated. They're frustrated, according to Reding, because they are poor and all seems hopeless. Reding indicates that they are poor because "Big Agriculture" has come in and shut down the family farm on which the local economy was based, or, as in the case of Oelwein, a local meatpacking plant has come under the control of people who slash wages and eliminate benefits because they can exploit newly arrived (often illegal) immigrants. Once the local economy starts to slide other businesses close and more lose their jobs. People move to the big cities or to places like California looking for work. The tax base drops so social services decline at the very time that residents need them the most. Those who are left behind don't like what they see: rot. Meth likes rot.

Meth is easy to produce, although home production often leads to fires and explosions. But users can literally make their own. A key ingredient can be extracted from cold medicine. Reding indicates that greedy pharmaceutical companies and their related retailers could more effectively limit illicit access to these cold medicines, but they want that cold medicine cash. Although it is cheap to buy at first (indeed, dealers give it away to hook the "innocent"), the addict needs more and more to get the same high. Soon, due to the drug's impact on the physiology of the brain, the only way to feel good is to use the drug. Taking the drug away from a hardcore addict places that addict in a certain kind of hell. The drug also damages internal organs. In-home production exposes the user (and anyone else around, including children) to waste products that are highly toxic. Use results in bizarre (Reding gives many vivid examples), often illegal, behavior. Users become dealers. Some dealers amass a fortune, becoming "role models" for other meth addicts. Organized crime based in Mexico gets involved. Users end up in jail and prison. Often on the very day that they are released from incarceration they start using again.

The big problem with this book is that Reding goes far beyond the above themes. He throws in all kinds of statistics, government reports, and quotes from sociologists. He talks vaguely about things like the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. It seems to me that he often just clicked on paste and inserted, say, a few sentences or paragraphs without trying to integrate it with the rest of the text. He includes unnecessary details about peoples' lives. At best peripheral figures are treated to long biographies. He also is given to grandiose phrasing that comes off as awkward. There are several typos. He repeats himself. Although there are scattered lengthy stretches of good writing, all in all, this is one poorly written, inadequately edited book. I wondered if someone was actually paid to edit/proofread this book.

I can only speculate that Reding did not really have enough after he had researched what was going on in Oelwein for a lengthy book, so he padded and padded. Then he padded some more. He threw every tidbit into the mix. True, a lot of these tidbits are fascinating, but most just do not belong in this book.

I'll give it a four for intensity and the undeniable passion that Reding brings to this book. After all, it inspired me to write my longest review at this site. But, it's at best a two for writing. So, it averages out to a three.

"Methland" tells at least four important stories simultaneously - 1)How a small Iowa town (Oelwin) went from prosperous to an economic basket-case and back, while becoming first infested with local meth labs and then free of their scourge. 2)How illegals from Mexico are vaporizing well-paying jobs that American natives formerly filled. 3)Why America's "War on Drugs" is a farce. 4)Life, as experienced by several key players in Oelwin's experience with drugs.

By May, 2005, Reding reports that half the buildings on Oelwin's main street stood vacant, foot traffic was practically non-existent, seven in ten children lived below the poverty line, burned-out homes of former meth labs dotted the town, and the high school principal was arranging for police to patrol the halls with a drug-sniffing dog. (As a cross-country truck driver with a penchant for off-route travel, I can attest to the sad economic plight of most small towns.)

Iowans saw 1,370 meth labs seized in 2004, up from 321 in 1998, and Nathan Lein, Asst. Co. Attorney, estimated 95% of his cases were related to drugs (including a 3-year left alone for a week to take care of his younger sibling). Reding follows Roland Jarvis, a worker at the meat plant, who had seen wages fall from $18/hour with benefits (1992) to $6.20/hour, without benefits as the plant was sold (closed in 2006 - the number of workers had dropped from 800 to 99) and populated by illegals often solicited in Mexico by offers of two months free rent (up to 22 in a two-bedroom home).

Roland Jarvis began using meth to fuel 16-hour work days at the meat plant trying to establish a nest egg for a new family, and progressed to setting up his own meth lab as wages fell. A meth-cooking accident created a fire that burned his mother's home down, hospitalized Jarvis for three months, and disfigured him for life (lost his nose, much of his skin melted, his fingers became nubs). Yet, despite repeated trips to prison by both Jarvis (7 out of the last 10 years) and his mother, four heart attacks, a child requiring a kidney transplant because of maternal meth abuse during pregnancy, and almost no remaining teeth, Roland continued to use meth throughout the span of the book.

Reding also meets Lori Arnold (Tom's sister), who starts as a runner for illicit meth prescription users in Ottumwa, and progresses to manufacturing her own meth while buying a bar, car dealership, 14 homes and a 144-acre horse farm to hide and facilitate operations. Imprisoned for 8 years, she too is unable to break the habit - though the local $7/hour work alternative without benefits at the meat plant wearing a 50-lb. protective suit in near-freezing temperatures didn't help either.

The New York Times reported in 2001 that 40% of agricultural workers were illegals. (Imagine what it is now.)

Ultimately, the mayor's (upgrade sewers and roads to attract new businesses), prosecutor's, and police chief's (stop almost everything that moved in an effort to check for drugs) efforts were followed by new jobs in town, and the elimination of area meth labs. (The police chief was Jarvis' class-mate in high-school. Lein, the county prosecutor, grew up nearby and still went home weekends to help his parents farm.)

At about the same time, Washington passed new legislation making it more difficult to acquire pseudoephedrine, and our national drug czar declared victory. The bad news was that violent Mexican gangs then took over the manufacture and distribution of meth.

The really bad news is that it doesn't take much imagination to suspect that Oelwin's experiences were repeated nationwide. Readers are left wondering, "What makes meth so attractive?" Reding senses that economic despair is a factor, though not the only one (Jarvis started when he was making good money). Inquiries from experts supports a conclusion that meth makes a user feel good and lasts long (about 12 hours, though the effect becomes less with repeated use), heightens and prolongs sex, and provides sustained energy. Meth also presents attractive opportunities to those with an entrepreneurial bent - eg. Lori Arnold.

Finally, "Why does the U.S. have the world's biggest drug problem, and why don't all our high-paid educated university professors with time off for research come up with useful answers?" Irving Kristol, in a 6/14/09 column, reports cocaine usage is now 5X that in 1914 when it was legal; meanwhile the number incarcerated has boomed to 5X the world average (from rough parity) since the "War on Drugs" began.

This was a really hard book for me to start. I have lived in Iowa throughout the methamphetamine epidemic. We are third in amphetamine arrests in the nation--by total number, not per capita. I have taken care of countless addicts. I have had repair people in my house obviously tweaking while trouble-shooting the problem they were called to fix--often not successfully. I get it. But I am very thankful that I picked this book up and read it rather than assuming that I knew it's contents before I started. In many ways, I had not given the roots of the problem much thought, so I missed some of the complexity within. But start it I did, and I got rapidly caught up in the story, thinking about the interconnectedness of problems we face, both as a rural state, and as a country. I smile when people start off the conversation "the problem is...." because of course that isn't the whole problem at all, it is only part of the problem. Poverty, opportunity, education, class divisions and difference, these all play a role in what happened. There is a bigger picture to look at as well, and Reding tries to get us to look at it all--the close up as well as the 30,000 foot view.

The book focuses on methamphetamine in Iowa in general and in Oelwein, IA specifically, but there is a message that we should all take to heart and think about the responsibility we bear in the overall problem. The contributions to drugs in general and meth in particular being an attractive nuisance are in many communities--but why did this take place in rural America? The role of Big Agra and Big Pharma, mixed with illegal immigrants in rural America and smuggling through the southern border, are real. They are not overblown in the telling, and they each have a role. The recession is another factor--economic hard times seem to hit farm economies first.

Reding does a great job of sympathetically portraying the people who have been personally devestated by methamphetamine addiction, juxtaposed against those who face just the realities of rural Iowa life. The best in Oelwein is pretty hard. The worst is hideous. Reding does a masterful job of portraying people who have robbed their parents, poisoned their kids, and blown up their homes not as monsters, but as people. Mistakes were made. There is someone for everyone to relate to in the story. We do not pull back to an entirely moral stance, but rather have more of a "but for the grace of God go I" reaction to at least someone in the story. There are no real solutions put forward, but there is some hope offered--mixed with caution that we really need to think in a bigger and better and more connected way. The author demonstrates the value in carefully unfolding the factors that got us here and studying them. The book encourages us to look for the places that share these risk factors because it is unlikely to have gone away.

I was dismayed with Dr. Mason's literary critique as I perused through the reviews of Nick Reding's "Methland." I just read it while on vacation, having taken interest in the subject as my homestate of Montana has been way out ahead of anywhere in the nation with its anti-meth campaign, and I also have read Mr. Reding's other book, "The Last Cowboys at the End of the World." I found both books to be well-written stories, and worthy of consideration. Indeed, if I thought it was not written well, I'd have no problem saying so.

But, I am writing this comment to tell potential readers to ignore Mason's scurrilous and specious review because it is replete with inaccuracies. I wonder if he actually read the book, and if he did, if he didn't develop a chip on his shoulder because an outsider was writing about his county. This would cloud anyone's objectivity, and apparently, it has, as several of the doctor's points are easily refuted by someone who simply paid attention to what was written. Indeed, it would seem as if the reviewer is jealous he was not a source or something, like he knows better.

Here are a few examples of how Mason's critical review is plain wrong:

1) The Oelwein police chief's name is Jeremy LOGAN, not "Love." The fact that Dr. Mason lives in Fayette, Iowa, and insists he knows about Oelwein as if he lives there seems suspect if he doesn't know the police chief's name. This also makes his contention that Reding should have spoken to the sheriff seem like "my source knows more than your source." It makes sense that Mason knows the county sheriff, but that is not who Mr. Reding is writing about in this very specific story of Oelwein--not Fayette County. Reding says this in his first couple of pages in the introduction.

2) Mr. Reding states plainly that he is comparing Oelwein's poverty statistics to URBAN rates, where the majority of Americans (hence likely readers of his book) live. Mason takes what Reding says and adds an analytic layer that takes Mr. Redings argument out of context. I can't speak for Mr. Reding, but I assume he did this for a reason--and likely not a conspiratorial reason as Mason suggests: Meth is a horrible problem, why on earth would someone cook the figures to make this point? The point is self-evident that small towns are drying up everywhere--I've read this in the Economist, Time, and saw it on one of those prime time news magazine shows and heard it on NPR. How in the world is Mr. Reding missing facts? It is common knowledge, and he simply puts a stat to it.

3) Reding plainly states, again, that this book depends on five people: the mayor, the doctor, the police chief, the assistant county prosecutor, and a meth addict; for its views of Oelwein. I believe it is the writer's perspective of who he wants to maintain as his main characters. He is the writer, after all, and it is his prerogative on how best to tell a story. As a reader, I can't imagine having anymore main characters to keep track of, especially if each of these existing characters represent their character-type within reason.

4) Mr. Reding plainly states that he returned home to Missouri with his family (read the Epilogue), and has family ties to the mid-West and Iowa (read chapter eleven). Thus, he lives in Missouri, not NYC, and is a local mid-westerner. (Because I left Montana for a job does that mean I'm no longer a Montanan--whatever dude.) A reading of chapter eleven plainly says that Mr. Reding's father worked for Montsanto, not ConAgra, as you contend, and anyone who reads that part of the book can see that he is proud of his father and his family, who apparently realized the American dream from being dirt farmers to successful businessmen. Indeed, if I am not reading it wrong, I think PRIDE and missing his DAD is why the author moved home.

I find Mason's accusation about his father particularly mean and crossing the line. Above all else, it is a grand piece of evidence that Doctor Mason is precisely guilty of what he accuses the author of: a rather bizarre collection of made up comments masquerading as fact ... pop psychology and a general Opraized conspiratorial view of the world. It makes me wonder what kind of a doctor you are to make a diagnosis of someone (Reding having paternal issues) on a public venue who you haven't seen or evaluated in your office? Geez, that sounds like POP-PSYCHOLOGY to me! If you are a psychologist, I'm pretty sure you just violated your professional code.

I think that by misinforming potential readers and taking aim at the author on a handful of points that I just refuted off the top of my head (and very quick references to the Table of Contents) that it is the Doctor who is guilty of trivializing both this book, the subject matter and what I can only imagine was several years of hard work by the author.

I recommend this book because Meth, as Reding has convinced me, is an American problem. The book takes a very complex topic and dissects it through five people's experiences with it--POV I'd never thought of, frankly. The book may not cover everything there is to know about Meth, or represent every story that could be told by those affected by it, but it successfully does what the author said he was trying to do: tell the story of a town with a Meth problem. I for one have a far greater understanding of the problem--who would have thought that big business plays a role by their bottom-line approach? I would have never known that it wasn't just a bunch of dirtballs who made life decisions poorly. And, I didn't have to read a sleepy, wonky sociological book to get that understanding, but a good story instead.

When I first heard of "Methland" I was cynical and skeptical. I am a transplanted Chicagoan who has lived in Oelwein for 30 years. I have worked in community corrections in Oelwein and most of the counties in Northeast Iowa for almost 29 years. My bachelor's degree is in journalism so I have a true respect for skillful, accurate reporting and an understanding of the difference between fact and opinion. After reading the first salacious chapter online (I felt like a voyeur) I knew I had to buy the book in order to make an informed decision about it. I am glad I did.

Unless you have personal or professional experience with methamphetamine, the topic tends to make people queasy. And when you see the topic highlighted in YOUR town with observations about and quotes from people y ou KNOW, it is surreal and somewhat upsetting.

Methamphetamine production, sale and use have been overwhelmingly costly to Oelwein and rural America in general. But even at its worst, the town did not belong to the Roland Jarvis' of the world. And even the suggestion that it did, chafes.

In my opinion, this book is an essentially accurate representation of the dry rot that meth has inflicted on a wonderful town. It does not reflect 2009 Oelwein as THAT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE. But the subtitle of the book is the death and LIFE of an American small town and it does begin to chronicle the process of Oelwein rising again.

Would I have made some of the observations or emphasized some of the things that Nick Redding did?

No

But I did not write the book, he did. And that is his prerogative.

But, Mr. Redding, please get a better fact-checker. Methland contains some blue ribbon snafus.

- Pat Taylor

Everyone has heard of the meth epidemic; its scary effects on human life and the social fabric have been in the papers and on the news nationwide for what seems like a very long time. As meth gained a high public profile, many people have looked at the isolated elements of what we now call the drug wars. What we haven't had is any insight into how meth came to occupy a central place in so many lives and so many towns. More than a description of how bad it all is, this book attempts something much more ambitious: explaining how the political and social dynamics work to make meth what it is. Reding's argument of how the intersection of Big Pharma, Big Agra, mis-directed governmental action (and inaction), labor economics, sociology, and human greed brought us to this dangerous place is laid out against a narrative about a real town and its all-too-real people. Reding has a journalist's soul and he writes like a novelist. While there are several heroic characters in Oelwein, not everyone in the story is admirable; however, he respect their humanity and has a certain sympathy for the mesh they are caught in. The final section, which is about why this matters to us and how we can think about it, is nuanced and layered--there are no easy answers but there are some important ways we can think about it as we move forward.

I was very interested to read this book as Oelwein is only 18 miles from my hometown. I was very disappointed when I finished it. While there were some interesting aspects, I felt the author jumped around so much it was hard to follow. More than once, I had to look back to see if I had missed something. There were also many factual errors (UNI is in Cedar Falls, not Cedar Rapids, Iowa City isn't the largest city in Iowa, and so on).

I did find the information on Lori Arnold interesting, but that was only part of the book.

An interesting subject, but a so-so book.

I was intrigued by the premise of looking at a section of the country that I am not as familiar with, and looking at it in terms of the unique challenges it faces from meth abuse. The beginning of the book fulfilled the promise of its title and presented a detailed description of the town of Oelwein and some of its residents. However, about midway through, the book trailed off into an unfocused discussion of the meth trade generally, the drug cartels and government inaction. This was an unnecessary deviation. It would have been more powerful to really explore the effects of meth abuse by talking to the children of addicts. I was left wondering, when do children in these places first come into contact with meth? What is it like for them to live in a family with meth addict parents? Why do some who have seen the effects still make the choice to start taking meth? What is prison like for meth addicts? Is it enough to make them want to change or is the drug too powerful? What are schools doing to combat the problem? What type of community outreach is there? How do parents of meth addicts feel that the drug impacts them? These are all the personal types of questions thatI was hoping to see addressed in the book. I was hoping to get a better feel for the human impact of the drug, and instead ended up with a meandering discussion about the tangled web of immigration and the drug trade. Even if the author wanted to go that route, spend some more time telling me about the immigrants, why they came to the US, why they chose the meatpacking jobs, how are their day to day lives better/worse than in their home countries. What do they feel about selling drugs? Is it just a means to an end, or do they wrestle with watching the impact it has on people? How does it impact their children? I was, in short (or not so short) disappointed that the book went off the tracks. If you are really showing the Death and Life of an American Small Town, I want to know more about the people who are at the center of the storm. I think this is an important discussion to continue to have.