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Title details for Cheap Land Colorado by Ted Conover - Available

Cheap Land Colorado

Off-Gridders at America's Edge

by Ted Conover
Ted Conover
Audiobook
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1 of 1 copy available
From Pulitzer Prize finalist and National Book Critics Circle Award–winning author of Newjack, a passage through an America lived wild and off the grid, where along with independence and stunning views come fierce winds, neighbors with criminal pasts, and minimal government and medical services.
“In these dispatches, [Conover] invites readers to ride shotgun along an unraveling edge of the American West, where sepia-toned myths about making a fresh start collide with modern modes of alienation, volatility, and exile.... In a nation whose edges have come to define its center, this is essential reading.”—Jessica Bruder, author of Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century
In May 2017, Ted Conover went to Colorado to explore firsthand a rural way of life that is about living cheaply, on your own land—and keeping clear of the mainstream. The failed subdivisions of the enormous San Luis Valley make this possible. Five-acre lots on the high prairie can be had for five thousand dollars, sometimes less. 
Conover volunteered for a local group trying to prevent homelessness during the bitter winters. He encountered an unexpected diversity: veterans with PTSD, families homeschooling, addicts young and old, gay people, people of color, lovers of guns and marijuana, people with social anxiety—most of them spurning charity and aiming, and sometimes failing, to be self-sufficient. And more than a few predicting they’ll be the last ones standing when society collapses.
Conover bought his own five acres and immersed himself for parts of four years in the often contentious culture of the far margins. He found many who dislike the government but depend on its subsidies; who love their space but nevertheless find themselves in each other’s business; who are generous but wary of thieves; who endure squalor but appreciate beauty. In their struggles to survive and get along, they tell us about an America riven by difference where the edges speak more and more loudly to the mainstream.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 1, 2022

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593627778
      • File size: 292438 KB
      • Duration: 10:09:14

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      October 17, 2022
      In this impressively detailed if somewhat diffuse account, journalist Conover (Rolling Nowhere) embeds among homesteaders living off the grid in Colorado’s remote San Luis Valley. In the 1970s, developers lured land buyers to the region with promises of “Western Worlds... filled with spectacular sports and outdoor adventure,” and laid out a dusty grid of subdivisions on the prairie, but the developments never took off and power and other utilities weren’t hooked up. And so “into the great openness of the flats flowed not only those seeking freedom in a good way but those seeking freedom from their bad deeds of the past—or even freedom to do more bad.” Conover, who first visited the valley’s “prairie dwellers” in 2017 as a volunteer delivering firewood and other necessities, eventually bought his own plot of land, and draws intriguing profiles of his neighbors and acquaintances, including military veterans, marijuana growers, and a Black woman from Chicago who came to the valley to join an African nationalist group but ended up moving into town and falling in love with a white man. Vivid biographical sketches fascinate, but several narrative threads are left hanging, including the tensions between the off-gridders and longtime Hispanic residents of the valley’s towns. Readers will wish this intriguing snapshot had a sharper focus. Photos.

    • Library Journal

      December 1, 2022

      Pulitzer Prize finalist Conover (Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing) offers a look into what might be considered one of the last frontiers in the continental United States--Colorado's San Luis Valley, home to a large off-the-grid community. For four years, Conover lived--on and off--with the residents and learned about the ethics, politics, and beliefs that guide their lives. Conover narrates his own work, which covers the history, often filled with false promises, of the valley as well as the struggles of modern residents, especially as they navigate the 2020 election, upheaval from racial unrest and the COVID pandemic, and long-term issues, such as generational poverty, little government assistance, and addiction. Conover's writing offers an empathetic look at those who choose to live off-grid by choice, birth, or necessity. The listeners learn that while the land is rough, many people also find it to be a sort of oasis. In his narration, Conover's affection for the land is evident, as is his respect for the residents. VERDICT Readers who enjoyed Tara Westover's Educated will be drawn to Conover's book. An excellent addition to any nonfiction collection that provides a glimpse into a little-known community.--Elyssa Everling

      Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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