Customer Reviews

Searching for Steinbeck's Sea of Cortez: A Makeshift Expedition Along Baja's Desert Coast

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This was a great read! I have been to many of the places in the late 1960s and early 1970s that Romano-Lax visited, and I can vouch for the accuracy of her descriptions. I admire her courage (or possibly foolhardiness) in going on such an odyssey with her husband, two young children and a mentally questionable captain who also happened to be her brother-in-law. Oddly, I can identify with being with a mentally deranged person in Baja California. I was also in that same fix in 1968 when I joined a zoology field trip to San Felipe, Baja California Norte, only to find that one of my companions was seriously depressed to the point of being suicidal (it later turned out that he was on drugs). Travel to the Sea of Cortez seems to result in such strange associations.

I used to own an old copy of Steinbeck and Ricketts that I had been given for cleaning up a storage shed. It was the only book in the shed and I was surprised to find it. I fingered through Ed Ricketts' descriptions and photographs of porcelain crabs and murex shells. I read the text and pondered Steinbeck's philosophical diatribes. But most of all it made me want to go to Baja. Within a few years of my discovery of the book I traveled to northern Baja three times and later made an extensive trip as far south as La Paz in Baja Sur. Despite the problems, Baja left its mark on me and I never regretted any time that I spent there. My main grief is that I missed a trip to Cabo San Lucas in 1971 that I had an opportunity to take.

The mangroves, the beauties and problems of Bahia Concepción, Mullegé, La Paz, Loreto, the Colorado River delta and Golfo de Santa Clara are well known to me and Romano-Lax has described each of these so well that I almost felt that I was back on the beach smelling the salt air and watching v-shaped formations of pelicans as they seemed to float almost effortlessly over the surging tide.

Ed Ricketts would have approved of this book. Although he never liked to get his head wet, he was apparently most alive when wading in the surf and tidepools. In some ways this book is more a tribute to him than to John Steinbeck, but in this case you really can't separate them.

If you are at all interested in the sea and/or Baja California, you need to read "Searching for Steinbeck's Sea of Cortez: A Makeshift Expedition along Baja's Desert Coast." It is the next best thing to going there yourself!

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This is an ambitious book, well done. Its special beauty comes from Romano-Lax's ability to weave together so many elements into an enticing, captivating whole. There's the travel narrative, of course, with a string of adventures (and misadventures) involving her family -- including 5-year-old son Aryeh and 2-year-old daughter Tziporah -- and the challenges presented by an increasingly unstable brother-in-law who's also their boat's captain. There's the literary element, presenting new perspectives on John Steinbeck's Sea of Cortez explorations with buddy Ed Ricketts and fresh insights into their relationship. Toss in science, natural history, environmental issues, glimpses of Baja California's rich culture, and marvelous descriptions that give a strong sense of place. Then add in Romano-Lax's search for answers, her desire to understand how the Sea of Cortez has changed since Steinbeck's time, and, finally, her own shifting perspectives on what it means to know a place (or "know" anything) -- and the many ways of knowing. In the end, Romano-Lax's travels are multi-dimensional: across the Sea of Cortez, through time, and -- perhaps most important of all -- internally. The trip was well worth taking and I savored it from start to finish.

There were so many ways of tackling what could have been a splendid sea voyage. Instead, it appeared to have been a taxing, challenging, emotional and financial disappointment for the crew.

Although the book picks up in pace and focus at page 133 on, the author was confusing toward the reader in not letting us know at the beginning what this book was about. Was it truly to discover Steinbeck's old route, was it to explore the sealife of the Cortez waters? Was it a family sailing trip with a grumpy captain and a toddler who wailed and vomited almost daily? Was it just a mundane journal of a sea voyage gone wrong? I really wanted to enjoy this book and tried hard.

Sometimes I felt lost with the nautical or marine terminology. That's why I only gave this book three stars instead of four. The author becomes more of an environmentalist toward the end as well, ranting about how Mexico and its people and the tourists should take better care of the shores and the Marine life or else so many fragile ecosystems will perish, as they surely have since Steinbeck's time.

The family didn't truthfully follow the Steinbeck/Ricketts voyage as the four spent more time in northern Baja along the coast, a region so unlike the southern Baja with its colder climates and gustier winds. Since I live in Arizona and the Sea of Cortez is only a four-hour drive on Mexican backroads, I was especially wanting to read more on that part of the waters. But, that part of the trip came toward the end of the journey and was a hasty finale void of many more detailed observations given at the start of the book.

I will agree with other reviewers who said Andromeda was very critical of her former brother-in-law. She seemed critical of EVERYONE. Sometimes her descriptions of the Mexicans was downright rude, based on whatever bad experience she was going through at the time. In fact, she comes across as a very critical person toward everything, which makes enjoying her book hard.

The end, like many mediocre travelogues, ends anticlimactically. Time and money ran out and so did the book. The end meant an end of the sour mood and that was a relief. Still, I was left wondering what the main purpose was of this book? There were so many things the travelers should and could have done better through more thorough planning and better accomodations. The two young children would have been happier, too and not been so traumatized by some of the incidents that they endured toward the end.

I love Baja (visited at least annually for 20-plus years), and Steinbeck books, so the title of this book snookered me into buying it. When I heard someone had written a book to recreate the destinations of that earlier trip I eagerly sought it out. Misleading and disappointing. Frequent allusions/comparisons to Steinbeck/Ricketts' "Log" don't change the fact that this wasn't an expedition in any way, shape, or form...but simply an extended family vacation conducted on the cheap! The resultant book (with nothing but an intriquing title)was merely the way to pay for it. The first half of the book was mostly spent unnecessarily beating up on the poor brother-in-law, whom had volunteered to accompany the author (and her husband and small kids)and sail the very small borrowed sailboat. Five people on a 26 footer. Nearly anyone whom has spent much time in Baja has readily duplicated or exceeded the experiences reported in this book. Unfortunately I read the entire thing, presuming it would just have to get better, but no such luck. Funny how a title (and a pretty cover) can sell a book.

Parts of this book are highly interesting, but others would have better been omitted. What I liked most about the book were the author's insights into the book that inspired her and her husband's journey - Steinbeck's Log from the Sea of Cortez. For anyone who shares a fascination with the Log from the Sea of Cortez, as I do, the author provides valuable background information on the book and the trip that inspired it. On the downside, the author seems fixated on trashing her brother-in-law, who piloted the boat her family used in attempting to re-create Steinbeck's journey. Obviously there was a personality conflict here, and her extended diatribes (which seemingly take up a full third of the book) seem mean-spirited and unwarranted. The book would have been vastly better if all of this material had been removed.

I agree with another reviewer who stated that the continual and constant trashing of the author's brother-in-law gets old real quick. But to make matters worse - she has a whining attitude about almost everything. Read Sparky's book - good tales by a contemporary who was on the cruise with Steinbeck. Worst of all - THE BOOK HAS NO INDEX - no way of looking up place names, creature names, etc. It's worthless as an on-the-spot guide.

but I am not sure that anyone could really recreate the voyage of the western flyer and capture the same magic. The Sea of Cortez is different and so are the players.

As a person who finds travel narratives relatively dull and often self-indulgent, this book stunned me in its lyric (and plot-based) grace. What a delight to read!