Superbly written, Escalante’s Dream is a multidirectional literary and historical exploration of the unknown American Southwest, transporting the reader through exhilarating discovery shadowed by mortality.
The wistfulness of Escalante’s Dream arises...from Roberts’s physical and existential trials ... The book that results is an amiably discursive, often beguiling entry in what has become a venerable literary form: the expedition in pursuit of an expedition. Roberts knows his Southwestern history, and he knows how to craft an artful sentence. The one thing he doesn’t appear to know is just how cranky he sounds when people he meets along the way don’t share his Escalante enthusiasm ... no one can accuse David Roberts of lacking acquaintance with the truly treacherous.
To steer his trip, Roberts relies heavily on both Escalante's journal and report compiled by a bevy of scholars in celebration of the expedition's bicentennial ... Roberts is clearly infatuated with both texts, but it's in the minutiae of these complimentary guides that Roberts will likely lose many readers; neither of the accounts were written to entertain, and Roberts himself—though occasionally wringing insight from between the lines—falls short of truly re-animating the expedition ... rather than ditch the trail in pursuit of more fertile ground—the margins of my copy are filled with personal pleas for him and his wife to go rogue and chase a little whimsy—the author remains frustratingly dutiful to the original route ... It's unfortunate that Roberts relegates his sickness to the periphery of his road trip, for it's in those rare instances when he humors the sentiments of his own mortality—when he honestly confronts the limits of his latest adventure and affords himself the luxury of reflection—that Escalante's Dream finally comes to life.
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.
...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 ... this work breathes new life into a centuries-old journey.
Anthropologically inclined readers will note that some of Roberts’ book learning is well out of date, with ethnic designations such as Papago and Anasazi long since supplanted; and though he critiques William Least Heat-Moon’s travel writing in passing, there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.
... somewhat disappointing ... The narrative bogs down in mundane details...from which no significance is wrung and which don’t connect to Escalante’s travels ... 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.
