Escalante's Dream

May 20, 2019
In this somewhat disappointing entry, adventure writer Roberts (The Mountain of My Fear) describes a six-week journey that he and his wife made through Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, intending to follow in the footsteps of two 18th-century Spanish friars. In 1776, Silvestre Velez de Escalante and Francisco Atanasio Dominguez undertook an expedition across North America, at the command of the viceroy of Mexico, in the hopes of developing trade routes and winning converts to Catholicism. Roberts planned to traverse the route laid out in Escalante’s diary, but the limitations of the now-75-year-old writer’s health and other setbacks forced changes, and he and his wife mostly didn’t even attempt to follow the actual route, which frequently involved harsh terrain and dangerous conditions. The narrative bogs down in mundane details—unsuccessful attempts to see parks and other places that are closed, the particular ingredients of lunches eaten while camping—from which no significance is wrung and which don’t connect to Escalante’s travels. At the journey’s end, Roberts reflects that he has “gone someplace far and strange and wonderful” with his wife. It’s a touching tribute, but this slow-paced tale of a marital road trip is likely only to interest Roberts’s most ardent fans.

June 1, 2019
Journalist, mountaineer, and popular historian Roberts (Limits of the Known, 2018, etc.) ventures deep into the rugged country of the Colorado Plateau in this tale of its earliest European explorers. It was a flash of inspiration on the part of a California-based prelate that sent Francisco Domínguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante--in Roberts' shorthand, "D-E"--riding from Santa Fe westward in late July 1776: It stood to reason that by doing so, they would end up at Monterey Bay. Things weren't quite so clear-cut; as Roberts recounts, they went without much preparation and with little idea of what awaited them, and, he adds, "To plunge into wilderness virtually unarmed and untrained for war would have seemed suicidal to most Spanish officials in New Mexico." D-E bumbled about, making contact with Native peoples unknown to the Spanish administrators but eventually learning that impediments such as the great deserts and canyons of the Colorado Plateau country ruled out an easy route connecting Spain's colonial provinces. While traveling their route, Roberts, ill with a recurring but for now manageable cancer and all the more intrepid for it, pays homage to his own partner of many years while recounting some of the more modern dangers that await in the form of camo-clad hunters and survivalists. Anthropologically inclined readers will note that some of Roberts' book learning is well out of date, with ethnic designations such as Papago and Anasazi long since supplanted; and though he critiques William Least Heat-Moon's travel writing in passing, there are more than a few of the same genre conventions at work here. Readers looking for a comprehensive account of the expedition will find too much Roberts in it, and readers eager to read Roberts' travelogue will find the Spanish colonial history laid on too thickly. Readers with a sense for both history and a living narrator, though, will find it just right, and they'll be glad that Roberts has lived to tell the tale. Armchair travelers looking for transport into difficult places will find this an engaging companion.

COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

July 1, 2019

In 1776, Franciscan friars Atanasio Domínguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante led a Spanish entrada (expedition of exploration) in a 1,700-mile loop through the North American Southwest. Only 12 men strong and with few supplies or firearms, the Domínguez-Escalante expedition traversed mighty rivers, yawning canyons, and waterless plateaus as they attempted to chart a trade route from New Mexico to California. Hunger and illness forced the explorers to turn back before reaching California, but none died nor harmed any natives along the way--a stark contrast to earlier Spanish and later American depredations. Thirty years before Lewis and Clark crossed the continent, these two idealistic priests crisscrossed the Southwest. Roberts (Limits of the Known) recounts the expedition's story, blending historical with personal narrative, interpreting, speculating, and reading between the lines of Escalante's diaries. For nearly 40 days, Roberts and his wife retrace the expedition's path on a road trip that is unexciting, but the personal element is poignant. Recently diagnosed with Stage IV cancer, Roberts treats this trip--and book--as his swan song. VERDICT As in Greg MacGregor's photo essay In Search of Dominguez & Escalante, this work breathes new life into a centuries-old journey. [See Prepub Alert, 1/29/19.]--Michael Rodriguez, Univ. of Connecticut, Storrs

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2019
Simultaneously with the founding of the American republic in 1776, Francisco Atanasio Dom�nguez and Silvestre V�lez de Escalante, a pair of Franciscan friars, set off from Santa Fe with a tiny missionary band to find a route to Monterey, the newly established Alta California capital. At first glance, they failed. They had little success converting native peoples, and they had to abandon their quest for the Pacific and turn back to Santa Fe. But the detailed journal that Escalante kept of their grand circle tour outlined the topography of what would be called the American Southwest. Several hundred years later, Roberts and his wife set off to retrace Dom�nguez and Escalante's route across what is now northern New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. Roberts recounts dealing with the hurdles of their expedition's path as well as his own lingering issues from cancer therapies. Roberts marvels at both the scenery and the current inhabitants' near total ignorance of its history; his deep love for this desolate land and awed appreciation for the achievements of earlier explorers make this a great adventure story with appeal far beyond the Southwest. Bibliography included.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)