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The Mole People: Life in the Tunnels Beneath NYC
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Plot Summary of The Mole People: Life in the Tunnels Beneath NYC
"At times Ms. Toth's account of homelessness in the dark, dangerous warrens beneath NYC can be frightening, heartbreaking, and infuriating all in the space on one paragraph. She interviews many of those who have temporarily or permanently dropped out of society to live underground. Their reasons are usually due to serious addictions to drugs or alcohol, mental health issues, evasion from law enforcement, or extreme destitution.
It is a world of death, disease, poverty, and fear where the author sometimes finds children, married couples, and intellectuals amongst the citizenry of the tunnels.

With names changed to protect identities, the characters she encounters include Brenda, Bernard, Bob, Sam, Frederick, Carlos, and Blade to cite a few are a demographic representation of the above ground population. They are white, black, Hispanic, educated, simple-minded, deranged, middle aged, young, employed, unemployed, gay, and straight. Numbering in the thousands, they live off the scraps of world above, rummaging dumpsters or frequenting soup kitchens to eat. Sometimes they do the unimaginable and catch “track rabbits” (rats) for sustenance. "
David Fletcher, Resident Scholar



Review Analysis of The Mole People: Life in the Tunnels Beneath NYC
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
job/profession: - bum
Job/profession/poverty story Yes
Kind of living: - general poverty story
Period of greatest activity? - 1950+

Subject of Biography
Profession/status: - unemployed
Eccentric/Mental Yes
Eccentric: - eccentric - mentally ill - deluded - emotionally unstable - wild - a bit retarded
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
Nationality - American (!)

Setting
United States Yes
The US: - Northeast
City? Yes
City: - New York
Misc setting - sewers/subways
Century: - 1980's-Present

Style
Person - rotating 1st
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
Book makes you feel? - concerned
Lot of foul language? Yes
Commentary on society? Yes
Commentary on - race - love/sex - decency - selfishness - capitalism - dying
Writer's slant towards subject: - neutral
Story of entire life, or part? - story of set of events during life
Is this a biography of several people? Yes
Pictures/Illustrations? - More 6-10 B&W
How much dialogue in bio? - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
A LOT of info about personal vices? Yes
Lot of titilating info about love life? Yes
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Jennifer Toth Resident Scholar Profiles

 TOP SCHOLAR:
  David Fletcher  

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