Rating: 
Summary: "Legends" is a proper title for this book
Review: If there has ever been a demonstration for the necessity of a good editor, this is it. "Legends" seems to be a loose aggregate of a huge pile of note cards without much shape or accuracy. Every page or two I find a mistake. These mistakes are often minor (like mis-copying the name of Baron v. Egloffstein from Walace Stegner's superior "The Hundreth Meridian"), but it certainly undermines everything else the author says. Aside from that the author is rather hypocritcal - he sneers at the racist Anglos in the Southwest, but has no problem refering to Chinese owners of dry cleaners as a mafia. He complains about the waste of water in the arid Southwest, but he makes sure to play a round of golf whenever he finds a green. I find the book rather irritating, and the only thing that keeps me going is the fact that the disjointed nature of the narrative makes it of no consequence if you read the book in daily five minute increments. If you want to read about the history of the Southwest, try Wallace Stegner's books, Anne Zwinger's "Deserts of the Southwest" or "Cadillac Desert", but don't waste your time or money on this.
Rating: 
Summary: Coyote is your guide
Review: It's easy to say what this book is not: scholarly treatise, reasoned argument, paean to the glory of the West.
It's harder to explain just what it is: lode of notes, memoir, non-linear travelogue, a really good yarn. Interweaving ancient and modern human history, often from first-person accounts, may be confusing but it creates a richly textured, multi-layered impression of a region that most Americans know only by its stereotype. This author is no blue coyote with a pink bandanna, he's the real thing: wily, bold, self-interested, sniffing up anything interesting (no matter how it smells).
However, it's sad to see someone who writes English so well abuse Spanish so terribly--some of the mistakes made me blush! Likewise, although we can't expect careful documentation of every fact in a memoir that never claims to be a history book, it is shocking to find the Cape of Good Hope mistaken for Cape Horn. There are many such errors in this book, which should not be printed again without basic editing.
Until then, take the "facts" and let the edits go! Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: Legends of the American Desert
Review: Mr. Shoumatoff writes well and entertainingly about one of the most intriguing places on the planet--i.e. the American Southwest. One thing that bothers me, though, is that I found at least one misspelled word--the car's name is Karmann Ghia and not Carmenghia as he (and, presumably, his editors) spelled it. Further, I found what I believe to be a couple of factual errors. Nevertheless, if you're interested in an entertaining view of the Southwest, you can't go wrong with "Legends of the American Desert."
Rating: 
Summary: legends of the non-editor
Review: My bigest complaint is that the book is FULL of factual errors.The author repeatedly makes reference to "vegas" as the roofbeams in adobe houses- those beams are "vigas". Vegas is plains, Las Vegas means The Plains, not The Roof Beams! The book is also horribly disjointed, it suffers from a severe lack of edititng. It seems the author makes all his judgments and conclusions about New Mexico from his visits to Albuquerque and Santa Fe (yeah, we call it Santa Fake also). I'm sure he would not be happy if I made judgments about New York state from a year visit to New York City! It is obvious that he was a tourista, he didn't stay long enough to find the true flavor of the desert.As a confession, I didn't finish the book. I got about 3/4 through it, then discarded it, it was not worth wasting any more time reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Sloppily written, error prone.
Review: My bigest complaint is that the book is FULL of factual errors.The author repeatedly makes reference to "vegas" as the roofbeams in adobe houses- those beams are "vigas". Vegas is plains, Las Vegas means The Plains, not The Roof Beams! The book is also horribly disjointed, it suffers from a severe lack of edititng. It seems the author makes all his judgments and conclusions about New Mexico from his visits to Albuquerque and Santa Fe (yeah, we call it Santa Fake also). I'm sure he would not be happy if I made judgments about New York state from a year visit to New York City! It is obvious that he was a tourista, he didn't stay long enough to find the true flavor of the desert. As a confession, I didn't finish the book. I got about 3/4 through it, then discarded it, it was not worth wasting any more time reading it.
Rating: 
Summary: One man's search for the "Other" in the Southwest....
Review: Reading Alex's book is like taking a road trip with a seasoned traveller. He mixes his fascination with other cultures with the spiritual quest for the "Other" that tribes and modern folk are still seeking. Does he find the "Other"? Like a good mystery writer he alludes to a sign when he returns home that gives him the great insight of his other, but whether he truly grasps its significance is left for the reader to ponder...
Rating:
Summary: good if you're touring the region; otherwise skip
Review: The director of Los Alamos National Lab is described as an Austrian-American and then his name is consistently given as "Sid Hecker". Sixty seconds of searching the web could have confirmed that Sidney is not a very popular name among Austrians and that "Sig Hecker" was director of LANL at the time of the book. Sloppy facts rolled into a well-organized and well-told story would be great, but this volume brings to mind a non-fan of Gibbon, upon obtaining a later book! Scribble, scribble, scribble, eh, Gibbon?" Still, there is enough to like and the book is fat enough that I think it might make a good companion while touring the Southwest. I give Shoumatoff for not respecting arbitrary political boundaries. He includes a substantial amount of material about territory that is now part of Mexico.
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