Although I have read accusations that her descriptions of underground passages are not accurate and that she may not have traveled the subways as extensively as she presents in the book, I still think that the account is amazing. I don't care if she only climbed down through the manholes and stayed within 20 feet of the exit. This book is not about the subway system, it's about addiction, depression, and compassion.
Though not especially well-written, (my least favorite are her similes to obscure things she has probably only faintly experienced) the subject matter more than makes up for the prose.
Ms. Toth seems to have allowed herself to get lost and dirty and confused, and the book details the strange afflication that the underground itself becomes. The descriptions of the characters she meets seem accurate, because Toth does not hold herself above anyone -- she befriends the people who she's writing about and seems only slightly more able to escape. This is the sort of adventure someone would only undertake while they were very young and it's amazing she didn't get more lost, killed, or become mentally ill.
Though she sticks with her subject matter, even digressing into semi-applicable & college-thesis-like discussions of the underground in philosophy and literature, this story essentially concerns Ms. Toth's own coming of age or coming to terms with herself.
