A lively, thoughtful tour through the history and culture of Phoenix, El Paso, Las Vegas and other cities of the region’s deserts and plains. But it’s also a guide and a warning ... The portraits that emerge both enhance and poke holes in the stories the Southwest tells itself.
Paoletta spends the most time, digs the deepest, and has the most fun in the region’s two splashiest success stories ... Unsparingly details the ways the southwest was not filled with promise for everyone ... Clear-eyed.
Mr. Paoletta’s narrative also misses the fact that many people moving to the Southwest are themselves minorities ... Typically, Mr. Paoletta despises master-planned communities. But these are the places where many minorities reside or hope to reside ... Rather than sunbaked oddballs or brutal exploiters, the people of the Southwest are creating a new multiethnic society in the desert. For this, they deserve a far more balanced depiction than found in American Oasis.
