Legends of the American Desert

September 1, 1997
Shoumatoff (The World Is Burning) set himself to write a "sweeping hydrohistory" of the Southwest--"the least American part of the United States"--but as the project expanded so did his focus, and it then became his intention to write of his own relationship with the region in a book that would be "the next Ulysses." Though falling short of that, he has nonetheless produced a rich biography of the area. The book is the extended monologue of a scholar, adventurer and seeker enamored of and intimately knowledgeable about the indigenous cultures of the Southwest; the overlay of Latino culture; a study of the flora and fauna; the dominating need for water that has influenced custom and politics; the pollution of that water and the land by mining interests--all of which are played against the author's own encounters with the Southwest at different periods of his life. His explorations take him from Mexico, along the route of the conquistadors to California, Arizona and New Mexico to the settlements of the ancient Anasazi, Hopi, Navajo and Apaches, and builds friendships with their descendants--the "billboard culture" of Anglo-Albuquerque--whose culture is idealized by alternative lifestylers. Though it falls short of Shoumatoff's stated ambitions, the book is an enchanting melange of portraits of the extraordinary region and people of the Southwest.

August 1, 1997
Shoumatoff (The World Is Burning, LJ 8/90) has a great deal of fine writing to his credit, so it's a disappointment to find his latest--and longest--effort to be such a scattered, uneven work. His work misleads with its title and confuses as Shoumatoff changes roles--from raconteur to scholar to "hip" journalist. The book is divided into three loosely themed parts, beginning with water (or the lack of it) in the Southwest and ending with the author's acknowledgment of his self-serving attachment to Native American causes. In between, the subjects Shoumatoff covers range from the travels of Cabeza de Vaca to contemporary society in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Shoumatoff provides an explanation for the book's lack of cohesion in his acknowledgments (he's worked with eight different editors and three publishers since beginning the work in 1985). This title is easily enjoyed in bits and pieces but not as a whole. Recommended for larger public libraries.--Janet N. Ross, Sparks Branch Lib., Nev.

August 1, 1997
Shoumatoff has accrued a considerable reputation for varied and perceptive travel writing, and his latest book will not disappoint his avid fans. His focus now is on the American Southwest, where "everything comes down to the dryness." Through the many but fast-moving pages, the author immerses his fortunate readers in "hydrohistory," which charts the evolution of the southwestern environment, a place where water is at a premium, from prehistory to just yesterday. Shoumatoff focuses on past and present conditions of human, animal, and plant habitation--all in the face of the need to adapt to the scarcity of water. Elevating his account to superior travel writing, Shoumatoff smoothly blends geology, geography, history, economics, and even paleontology into a complete course in the American desert's story from the time of immigrant Native Americans coming over from Asia on the frozen Bering Sea to the kingdom of the cowboys in the nineteenth century to today's influx of retirees. Much richness to be mined here. ((Reviewed Aug. 1997))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1997, American Library Association.)