A Desert Country Near the Sea: A Natural History of the Cape Region of Baja California by Ann Zwinger

Abstract

334 Western American Literature The merit of Schulberg’s book does not lie in its thesis, despite the accuracy of his astringent comments on the nature of American publishing, culture, and the get-rich-quick ethic. The six figures are too disparate in their talent, their literary contributions, and their declines to allow for persuasive generalizations, other than that success has its price, and that’s true of any field. The real value of the book lies in its anecdotes about the different writers. The accounts of Lewis, Fitzgerald, and Steinbeck are useful because they give the reader who doesn’t have time for the big biographies vivid indi­ cations of what these people were like. The reminiscences about West are valuable because they show a lively, high-spirited, and witty young man very different from the image one might infer from his mordant books. The account of Heggen is interesting because the meteoric rise and sad death of the young Navy veteran whose slim novel became the famous play illustrate Schulberg’s thesis better than any of the other, much longer essays. The Saroyan piece, updated after the writer’s recent death, is perhaps the most valuable contri­ bution in terms of bringing original information to the reader about a man who was once considered very important, like Erskine Caldwell, but who was nearly forgotten by the end of his life. The essays are decidedly uneven in quality as well as length. Those on Fitzgerald, Lewis, West, and Saroyan appeared during the 1960s in Esquire, and the short piece on Steinbeck appeared in the Long Island newspaper, Newsday. The four were printed in 1972 as The Four Seasons of Success. Those on Heggen and West are the only new material in this volume, other than the long and banal introduction. In the Fitzgerald essay Schulberg seems to me to be a perfect Hollywood type: manipulative, tasteless, and memorable. The Lewis essay is on the other hand a wonderful recreation, entirely believ­ able, of the man — lonely, funny, and sad. Readers may judge for themselves whether John Steinbeck really sounded like this when he talked (here, about the Middle Ages of Malory) : “You know, in a lot of ways, Budd, those days are not so different from our own. An old order was on the way out. Some­ thing new was in the air, but no one knew exactly what lay ahead. The concept of chivalry was essentially a humanistic idea — going forth to do good deeds. Not just saving damsels in distress, but protecting the poor. It’s no accident that Kennedy’s Court was called Camelot.” ANTHONY ARTHUR California State University, Northridge A Desert Country Near the Sea: A Natural History of the Cape Region of Baja California. By Ann Zwinger. (New York: Harper & Row, 1983. 399 pages, $24.95.) In this work on the Cape Region of Baja California, Ann Zwinger desig­ nates herself as “creunetes desultorius — the desultory wanderer,” and her self-avowed desultoriness is responsible for the major strengths and weaknesses Reviews 335 of the book. It allows her to investigate a wealth of material, focussing now on geology, now on history, now on a Sally Lightfoot crab. However, in spite of the logical, spatial organization of the chapters, which move from the highest peak of San Lazaro to the underwater landscape off shore, the narrative at times leaves the reader uncomfortably leaping from contemporary mayors to early Jesuits while wishing for more information on a single topic. The persona who narrates this perambulation through the Cape allows us to feel strongly the alien element in the Baja California landscape. Her propensity for domestic simile — a ridge of rock looks “like a pudding full of dates and raisins” ; tiny jellyfish appear “like translucent pink Rice Krispies” — also highlights the alien surroundings through contrast. Neophytes easily identify with the narrator as she makes an unaccustomed and challenging climb only to stop short of the summit, or blunders into the thorns of a “jumping cactus,” or battles the intricacies of mask, snorkel, and wetsuit for the first time. Her reflections on relations with husband and daughters pro­ vide a thin but comforting overlay for the arid peaks and...