Imagine a grunge nort Jersey version of John McPhee's classic <b>The Pine Barrens</b> and you'll get some idea of the idiosyncratic, fact-filled, and highly original work that is Robert Sullivan's <b>The Meadowlands</b>.  Just five miles west of New York City, this vilified, half-developed, half-untamed, much dumped-on, and sometimes odiferous tract of swampland is home to rare birds and missing bodies, tranquil marshes and a major sports arena, burning garbage dumps and corporate headquarters, the remains of the original Penn Station--and maybe, just ,maybe, of the late Jimmy Hoffa.  Robert Sullivan proves himself to be this fragile yet amazingly resilient region's perfect expolorer, historian, archaeologist, and comic bard.