Revenge of the Saguaro: Offbeat Travels Through America's Southwest

By Tom Miller

Book Overview

Tom Miller's Southwest is a vortex of cockfights and cantinas, of black velvet paintings and tacky bolo ties, of eco-militants, border-crossers, and eccentric characters whose outlook is as spare and elemental as the desert that surrounds them. This is Miller's turf. With wit and insight, he reveals how the clich s of romanticism and capitalism have run amuck in his homeland. When a saguaro cactus outside Phoenix kills its own assassin, it becomes clear that no other guide to the Southwest manifests such a clear moral vision while reveling in the joy of this magnificent land and its people. Originally published by National Geographic as Jack Ruby's Kitchen Sink, it received the Gold Award for Best Travel Book in 2000 from the Society of American Travel Writers.

Tom Miller has been writing about the American Southwest and Latin America for more than three decades. His ten books include The Panama Hat Trail, which follows the making and marketing of one Panama hat, and Trading with the Enemy, which Lonely Planet says "may be the best travel book about Cuba ever written." Miller began his journalism career in the underground press of the late '60s and early '70s, and has written articles for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Smithsonian Magazine, Natural History, and Rolling Stone. He lives in Tucson, Arizona, with his wife, Regla.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1933693606
• ISBN13: 9781933693606
• Release Date: March 2010
• Publisher: Lee & Low Books, Incorporated
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

The Cradle of Undiscovered Civilization (and Black Velvet Painting)

I've been really getting into travelogues lately, mostly because I cannot afford to travel nearly as much as I'd like. The American southwest embodies a mythical place in my head. I suppose it's because whenever I fly to Nevada or California (via a short layover in Phoenix, which I never get to explore), I'm awed at how much of this country is truly and utterly empty. Which of course makes me want to 1) learn all about it; and 2) move there pronto. Barring the latter, as Ohio is not yet done sucking the life out of me, I've had to settle for the former. This is some serious southwest - not the midwestern housewife's dream once she's realized she'd rather be doing something else, something involving crystals and flowy clothes (a la Taos, NM). This is the southwest where the border with Mexico is just a vague idea, and people eek out a meager living in the middle of the freakin' desert. Miller writes with Edward Abbey's fondness for this last American frontier, and even includes his own meetings with Abbey in the narrative. Where Miller differs though is that he writes about the people of the southwest, and their intimate relationship with the land, and each other (the section on Bisbee is particularly engaging). I couldn't put this book down, and after completing it, the American southwest is still a mystery in some ways - something that can only be experienced first hand. Though I did learn the likely origin of the dreaded black velvet painting.

Jack Ruby's Kitchen Sink

Miller weaves a wonderful tale from several personal (and at first glance unrelated) experiences. Enchanting ramblings about the American Southwest will influence anyone's opinion about this spectacular region of North America. This book provides a great read and much anecdotal knowledge that encourages readers to share these stories with others...sometimes as if they had lived these experiences themselves!