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class="ContentHearHedAccredatnWrapper-GFiQf cDNVlV"><div data-ttid="ContentHearTleBlockWrapper" class="ContentHearTleBlockWrapper-cjmSKp jbzVNV"><div data-ttid="ContentHearRubric" class="ContentHearRubricBlock-LmpbT kkDiIx"><div data-ttid="ContentHearRubricDateBlock" class="ContentHearRubricDateBlock-kAQcZP fTFWxD"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX dZhWBL bric ContentHearRubricContaer-eTudtt iRsSlw"><a class="RubricLk-gRWSOU fgWnkQ bric__lk" href="/magaze/books"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">Books</span></a></div></div></div><h1 data-ttid="ContentHearHed" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ ContentHearHed-NCyCC iUEiRd NbxED hpJvIc">What Gog Off the Grid Really Looks Like</h1></div><div class="ContentHearAccredatn-lfctVB etVsnJ ntent-hear__accredatn" data-ttid="ContentHearAccredatn"><div class="ContentHearDek-bIqFFZ Mtme">In “Cheap Land Colorado,” Ted Conover hunkers down a valley that has bee a mag for dreamers and the disposssed alike.</div><div class="ContentHearByle-kmPyCa gvUmxJ"><div class="ContentHearByleContent-dpPmNn DRFq"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl ContentHearByl-cZqgyJ bHLeKI"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH ivtvgj byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss byle__preamble">By </span><a class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM ByleLk-gEnFiw iUEiRd ggMZaT cXqSTL eErqIx byle__name-lk button" href="/ntributors/kathryn-schulz">Kathryn Schulz</a></span></span></p></div><time data-ttid="ContentHearPublishDate" dateTime="2022-11-21T06:00:00-05:00" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ ContentHearPublishDate-eIBicG iUEiRd kYZrFA iINaCX">November 21, 2022</time></div></div></div></div><div class="ContentHearLeadAsset-hGbumP fEknXh lead-asset ContentHearLeadAssetWrapper-hfXHEc Grck lead-asset--width-fullbleed" data-ttid="ContentHearLeadAsset"><figure class="ContentHearLeadAssetContent-kOfYSG dRGWbI"><div class="ContentHearLeadAssetContentMedia-bLEIpi jjhWdS lead-asset__ntent__photo"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW jvZaPI rponsive-asset ContentHearRponsiveAsset-bREgIb hONbnm"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz HgOn"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa ContentHearRponsiveAsset-bREgIb hONbnm rponsive-image"><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w, 1920w, 2240w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="People standg outsi a trailer the mountas." class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></picture></div></div></span></div></figure></div><div class="ContentHearLeadContentFullWidth-cvJzX hHaBOT"><figure class="ContentHearLeadContentCaptnCred-hSIIqJ kQVfzg"><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE iTuhkZ ptn ContentHearLeadAssetCaptn-hPWmSN kuCzGS"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo iXWezO ptn__text">Though roughly the size of New Jersey, the San Luis Valley is home to fewer than fifty thoand people.</span><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnCred-ejegDm iUEiRd iicloT jbIJNS ptn__cred">Illtratn by Eiano Ponzi</span></div></figure></div></div></hear></div><div data-attribute-verso-pattern="article-body" class="ArticlePageContentBackGround-cNiFNN kbAoLA article-body__ntent"><div class="ActnBarWrapperContent-lasBkU cAHp"><div class="ActnBarWrapperComponent-cjwxLS bEeSLb"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="ActnBarWrapper-dhxmQh kNjTbQ viewport-monor-anchor"><button id="bookmark" aria-label="Save this story" class="ActnBarButton-dyFOZU hQrwCF bookmark large-screen"><span class="ActnBarSendaryButtonPrimaryIn-isbvyN cAwccV 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23.9508V2.95081H14V3.93211H6V22.1845L12.5 18.5536L19 22.1845V8.83866H20V23.9508Z"></path><path class="in-bookmark-fill" d="M23 3H20V0H19V3H16V4H19V7H20V4H23V3Z"></path></svg></span><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ ActnBarButtonText-bYXYuh iUEiRd bkefvo gkccfO">Save this story</span></button></div></div></div><div class="LightboxWrapper-dxsWBV hhylRt"><div class="ArticlePageChunksContent-etcMtP bwyLBj"><div data-ttid="ArticlePageChunks" class="ArticlePageChunks-fLyCVG Uozmo"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa EOneK body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><figure data-ttid="IameEmbed" class="IameEmbedWrapper-sc-dRedg cjyRVU iame-embed"><div data-ttid="IameEmbedContaer" class="IameEmbedContaer-hptgUZ fXVBaX"><div class="IameEmbedAspectRatWrapper-hFVJps BKpgQ"><iame class="IameEmbedContent-cMdiev csnuAY IameEmbedContent lazyload" height="90" width="100%" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-orig allow-popups" tle="Embedd Frame" data-src=" allowfullscreen="" allow="toplay *; encrypted-media *; clipboard-wre; toplay; fullscreen; picture--picture"></iame></div></div></figure><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">“In the Uned Stat,” Gert Ste once observed, “there is more space where nobody is than where anybody is.” That was te 1936, when she wrote “<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">The Geographil History of Ameri</a>,” and remas so today. The numbers are startlg, and not only if you live someplace like the Upper East Si of Manhattan, wh your hundred thoand neighbors per square e. Add up all the veloped areas the fifty stat—the ci and suburbs and exurbs and towns, the highways and railways and back roads, the orchards and veyards and fay farms, the ncentrated animal feedlots, the rnfields and wheat fields and soybeans and shum—and will amount to a fifth of our natn. What is all the rt? Forts, wetlands, rangeland, tundra, glaciers, barrens, bodi of water of one kd or another. If you don a bldfold, throw a dart at a map of the untry, and m to livg where lands, you will most likely end up alone, the middle of nowhere.</p><p class="paywall">All that open space has an endurg hold on the Amerin imagatn. There’s a reason serv as the backdrop for so many polil ads and pickup-tck mercials: reprents the ill-fed notn of liberty that we claim as our foundg ial, and functns as a kd of llective backup plan should some ccial opportuny or exigency arise—a place to prove our mettle, a place to start over, a place to which, if ph me to shove, we might flee and never be found. Most of do not put this proposn to the tt. But, by choice or chance or lack of any other optn, a handful of people really do wd up tryg to make a life somewhere the almost eighty per cent of Ameri that is sentially unveloped land.</p><p class="paywall">Some of those people are the subject of Ted Conover’s “<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Cheap Land Colorado: Off-Gridrs at Ameri’s Edge</a>” (Knopf). Conover, who was raised Denver and is now a profsor of journalism at New York Universy, might be thought of as a reporter the Gee Plimpton mold; to wre about his subjects, he prefers to spar their rgs and scrimmage on their fields. Unlike Plimpton, however, he sticks around for months or years, often unr distctly unfortable circumstanc. For a book about morn-day hobo (“<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Rollg Nowhere</a>”), he learned to hop eight tras and spent months ridg the rails; for a book about undocumented immigrants (“<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Coyot</a>”), he lived wh Mexins on both sis of the borr, pickg u cs orchards and travellg across the Sonoran Dert and the R Gran; for a book about the New York State prison system (“<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Newjack</a>”), he got a job as a rrectns officer and worked for a year si Sg Sg.</p><div class="GenericCalloutWrapper-tojWn cBtRxy llout--has-top-borr" data-ttid="GenericCallout"><div class="ExternalLkEmbedWrapper-hNDkqw cDXXLC" data-ttid="external-lk-embed--le"><div class="ExternalLkEmbedText-glBTSy gRKpCf"><a aria-label="<strong>The Bt Books We Read This Week</strong>" class="external-lk external-lk-embed__hed-lk button" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ ExternalLkEmbedHed-dSIMOS iUEiRd zdLg gsZLZF"><strong>The Bt Books We Read This Week</strong></span></a><p class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ ExternalLkEmbedDek-btrWcN iUEiRd kxnNhB jwHNCY"><em>Read our reviews of notable new fictn and nonfictn, updated every Wednday.</em></p></div><a aria-label="<strong>The Bt Books We Read This Week</strong>" class="external-lk external-lk-embed__image-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa ExternalLkEmbedRponsiveImage-iGydLQ dGzCDw rponsive-image"><img alt="" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src=" srcSet=" 120w" siz="100vw"/></picture></a></div></div><p class="paywall">Then me November 8, 2016. The day before the electn, Conover had clared on a rad program that Donald Tmp would never w the Princy; afterward, like untls other members of the media, he was stunned to the nvictn that he no longer unrstood his patrts and need to embark on a grand reëdutn. In keepg wh a long tradn of believg that the immensy and wildns of our natn hold the key to s sential character, he found himself thkg about the least populated parts of his home state. “The Amerin firmament was shiftg ways I need to unrstand,” he wr the new book. And so, eager to learn more about his fellow-cizens, Conover head wt, to a place where almost none of them live.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">The cheap land of “Cheap Land Colorado” is the south-central part of the state, a regn known as the San Luis Valley. The largt alpe valley the world, has an average elevatn of more than seven and a half thoand feet, a uple of thoand feet higher than the Mile High Cy. Although is parable size to New Jersey, which has a populatn of 9.3 ln, the valley is home to fewer than fifty thoand people, around ten thoand of whom live a sgle town, Alamosa. Most of the remag rints live other, smaller towns, but some of them—maybe around a thoand people, although no one seems to know for sure—live sttered across an enormo area of the valley known as “the flats.” Nearly all the people Conover meets on the flats are poor, yet they generally own their own land. In fact, most of them were drawn to the area bee is possible to buy a piece of Ameri there for rock-bottom pric—typilly, somewhere between five hundred and a thoand dollars per acre, or roughly half what you’re likely to pay for a sgle square foot Manhattan.</p><p class="paywall">There is a hch, of urse. The flats posss almost no astcture: no electricy, no water, no sewer system, no pavement, prec ltle Inter or cell service, and a long drive on dirt roads unknown to most mapmakers for jobs or schools or medil re or a gallon of k. Most of the people Conover meets live trailers, sometim gmented wh sheds and shacks; they buy tanks of propane and two-hundred-and-seventy-five-gallon dms of water, rely on generators or solar panels for electricy, burn their trash barrels, and e outho for human waste. A signifint number of them, takg advantage of Colorado’s lax dg laws (if also equently bendg them), grow marijuana.</p><div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--article-mid-ntent" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--article-mid-ntent nsumer-marketg-un__slot---ntent"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><p class="paywall">All this is somewhat surprisg, bee the San Luis Valley has many of the hallmarks of a lovely—and pricey—place to live. It has a dry climate, enjoys nearly two hundred and fifty days of sunshe a year, and boasts spectacular views: to the east, Great Sand Dun Natnal Park, and, towerg behd , the Sangre Cristos; to the wt, the snowpped peaks of the San Juan Mountas. The weather is ld, but not atypil for the Rocky Mounta Wt, and the water rourc are plentiful by sert standards. Nothg, other words, mak the valley trsilly ls appealg than, say, the sert land around Joshua Tree, California, where five acr might n you a quarter of a ln dollars.</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-1 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">Conover keeps his rears wag for too long, almost half the book, before sayg anythg about how the San Luis Valley me to be a mag for the disposssed. That story—about greed, grift, crly, and the great Amerin yearng to own thgs—begs after the Send World War, when velopers started acquirg unveloped land, rebrandg as rintial, and subdividg to lots for sgle-fay hom. The hont on ma the land livable before sellg off, puttg everythg om roads and utili to ho, swimmg pools, and golf urs. The dishont on did not, which is how people around the untry, dreamg of retirg sunny Florida, wound up buyg a piece of unhabable swampland.</p><p class="paywall">This subdivisn craze reached southern Colorado the neteen-seventi, when velopers began buyg up enormo swaths of the valley and givg them nam like R Gran Ranch. One pair of savvy bsmen staked out property l for an timated forty thoand five-acre lots, grad the roads meant to nnect them, and then did absolutely nothg else, except profligately promote their product. They placed ads <em>TV Gui</em> and newspapers natnwi, promisg “spectacular sports and outdoor adventure,” “game galore,” and “Healthful Sunbright Ski”; they bought up lists of people who had purchased rifl or Wtern novels or subscriptns to huntg magaz, then sent them mailers hawkg five acr for unr two grand sh, or thirty dollars a month at six-per-cent tert. The tactics worked: a stunng number of people bought land the flats sight unseen. One salman relled, “That guy Illois would tell his neighbors, ‘Yep, I jt bought a ranch Colorado. I’m gonna n out there this summer and check out.’ ”</p><p class="paywall">Those neighbors might have been imprsed, but the Feral Tra Commissn was not. The advertisements suggted that land the San Luis Valley was a good vtment, which, given the absence of ameni, was plaly unte: unhappy buyers uld not sell their parcels for what they had paid, if they uld sell them at all. In 1979, unr prsure om the feral ernment, the velopers agreed to ncel all outstandg bts and refund as much as fourteen ln dollars. But they never ma any further improvements, wh the rult that, a half century after those origal lots were surveyed, land the San Luis Valley, unlike the vast majory of real tate Ameri, has appreciated almost not at all.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">“Cheap Land Colorado” opens wh a problem. Conover wants to meet the off-gridrs of the San Luis Valley, but many of them live there precisely bee they do not want to be met—a preference they sometim broadst, he wr, “by closg their driveway wh a gate, or by chag a dog next to their ont door, or by postg a sign wh a rifle-spe motif that says, ‘If you n read this you’re wh range!’ ” As a way around this prevailg spicn of strangers, he starts volunteerg for an outreach program n by a social-service anizatn lled La Puente, based Alamosa and wily rpected around the valley. In this pacy, he driv around the flats a pickup tck wh the group’s signia on s si, visg properti, troducg himself to their owners, and, as a more or ls leral icebreaker, offerg them ee firewood. (In the valley, as an Annie Proulx story, eezg to ath is an ever-prent possibily.)</p><div class="Contaer-bkChBi byNLHx"></div><p class="paywall">This strategy pays off, that Conover’s book is full of remarkable characters. The clu Frank and Stacy, who live threadbare but cheerful chaos a mobile home wh their five homchooled dghters, a ckatoo, var dogs, and, outsi, goats, a pig, ducks, and, soon enough, Conover himself, who pays them a hundred and fifty dollars a month to park his newly acquired trailer on their land. There is also Pl, a gay guy who has lived the flats for more than a quarter of a century—long enough to raise up om saplg-hood a ltle grove of Che elms, the envy of other rints a part of the valley almost entirely void of tre. There is Zahra, who moved om the Chigo area to help start an Ain-natnalist group, got fed up wh the would-be lear’s dishonty and his half-fished home, squatted elsewhere the flats for six months, and then fell love wh a whe rancher who grew up the valley. There is Le, who intifi as havg Asperger’s syndrome, excels at fixg anythg electronic, pans for gold the nearby mountas, and dreams of makg money by sellg goat k, heirloom tomato, and homema chee. There is Nick, a reprentative example of a lol speci known as a prairie rat: “a person who uld probably get a mimum-wage job somewhere if he wanted to but preferred jt to hang out, subsist, keep a low profile, and do the dgs that ma him happy.” There is a namels genr-nonnformg uple who are wily disliked, partly for their self-prentatn but also bee they are mored to be okg meth their trailer and are ught pumpg water om the R Gran, which is illegal and, the valley, almost the greater actn. There are people is impossible not to spise, like Zane, a tattoo artist om Alabama who, together wh a iend, flnts his disregard for ernment and law enforcement until they are both arrted on charg of sexually abg their dghters; people is impossible not to py, like Geneva, whose hband and son die wh six months of each other, the latter after g too close to an electril le; and people is impossible not to admire, like Teotenantz Ruybal, stern, steady, and passnate, who ns a homels shelter that serv rints of the flats when a crisis stras their already meagre rourc or a trailer prov no match for the high-sert wter.</p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embed__asset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kKwZhx rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="RponsiveCartoonWrapper-iTMMjI eXTYsS rponsive-rtoon AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset viewport-monor-anchor"><a class="external-lk rponsive-rtoon__image-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa RponsiveCartoonImage-hzNqyc ikeCcH rponsive-rtoon__image rponsive-image"><noscript><img alt="Police officer looks down and notic that the doomsday clock is unplugged." class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></a><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE iTuhkZ ptn RponsiveCartoonCred-bKlQqO faLAFb rponsive-rtoon__cred"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnCred-ejegDm iUEiRd iicloT bmQtfn ptn__cred">Cartoon by P. C. Vey</span></div><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTA-eiqqMB iDCQRs"><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTAWrapper-CYIqa iTbFtf"><div class="RponsiveCartoonLkButtonWrapper-hqDAJK eSEhbj"><button aria-label="Copy lk to rtoon" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg button__label">Copy lk to rtoon</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT button__in-ntaer"><svg class="in in-pylk" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Copy lk to rtoon</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178637)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M16.3488 10.5017C16.2107 10.7357 16.2926 11.035 16.5318 11.17C16.7709 11.3052 17.0767 11.225 17.2148 10.991L18.4648 8.87225C19.5694 7.00002 18.9139 4.60601 17.0007 3.52508C15.0875 2.44415 12.6412 3.08562 11.5366 4.95785L9.53657 8.34782C8.432 10.22 9.08751 12.6141 11.0007 13.6949C11.1888 13.8012 11.382 13.8908 11.5785 13.9642C11.7819 14.0403 12.0058 13.9485 12.1147 13.764C12.2794 13.4849 12.1103 13.1276 11.8083 12.9992C11.7041 12.9549 11.6014 12.9044 11.5007 12.8475C10.0658 12.0368 9.57417 10.2413 10.4026 8.83712L12.4026 5.44715C13.2311 4.04298 15.0658 3.56187 16.5007 4.37257C17.9356 5.18327 18.4272 6.97878 17.5988 8.38295L16.3488 10.5017ZM7.6526 13.4983C7.79067 13.2643 7.70873 12.965 7.46959 12.8299C7.23044 12.6948 6.92464 12.775 6.78657 13.009L5.53657 15.1278C4.432 17 5.0875 19.394 7.00068 20.475C8.91385 21.5558 11.3602 20.9144 12.4648 19.0422L14.4648 15.6521C15.5694 13.78 14.9139 11.3859 13.0007 10.305C12.8127 10.1988 12.6195 10.1091 12.4229 10.0357C12.2195 9.95975 11.9956 10.0515 11.8867 10.236C11.7221 10.5151 11.8911 10.8724 12.1932 11.0008C12.2973 11.0451 12.4 11.0956 12.5007 11.1525C13.9356 11.9632 14.4272 13.7587 13.5988 15.1628L11.5988 18.5529C10.7704 19.957 8.93555 20.4382 7.50068 19.6274C6.0658 18.8167 5.57417 17.0212 6.4026 15.6171L7.6526 13.4983Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button><div class="AlertWrapper-gvFATk MdjE RponsiveCartoonLkAlertPopup-BPAXn kdMXRM shoppg-alert" role="dialog"><div aria-hidn="te" role="prentatn" class="AlertArrow-daOgye AlLda alert-arrow"></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ AlertMsage-jgAjgo bVCFRm ifgabc iOlxjf alert-msage"><p aria-hidn="te">Lk pied</p></div></div></div><button aria-label="Shop" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg button__label">Shop</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT button__in-ntaer"><svg class="in in-rt" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Shop</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178638)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M4 3H2V4H4.23828L6.99617 15.2631C7.11483 15.6982 7.50998 16 7.96094 16H18.0365C18.4875 16 18.8826 15.6982 19.0013 15.2631L20.9648 7.26312C21.1383 6.62698 20.6594 6 20 6H10V7H20L18.0365 15H7.96094L5.03652 3H4.58055H4ZM10.0365 19C10.0365 19.5523 9.58881 20 9.03652 20C8.48424 20 8.03652 19.5523 8.03652 19C8.03652 18.4477 8.48424 18 9.03652 18C9.58881 18 10.0365 18.4477 10.0365 19ZM11.0365 19C11.0365 20.1046 10.1411 21 9.03652 21C7.93195 21 7.03652 20.1046 7.03652 19C7.03652 17.8954 7.93195 17 9.03652 17C10.1411 17 11.0365 17.8954 11.0365 19ZM18.0365 19C18.0365 19.5523 17.5888 20 17.0365 20C16.4842 20 16.0365 19.5523 16.0365 19C16.0365 18.4477 16.4842 18 17.0365 18C17.5888 18 18.0365 18.4477 18.0365 19ZM19.0365 19C19.0365 20.1046 18.1411 21 17.0365 21C15.932 21 15.0365 20.1046 15.0365 19C15.0365 17.8954 15.932 17 17.0365 17C18.1411 17 19.0365 17.8954 19.0365 19Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button></div></div></div></span></div></figure><p class="paywall">Ruybal grew up the San Luis Valley, but most of the other people “Cheap Land Colorado” arrived there later life, generally propelled by the kds of forc—grief, stutn, divorce, addictn, abily to f , outstandg warrants—that produce eher profound ertia or a tenncy to drift. One such person is Matt Ltle, a La Puente employee who, addn to the many other ways he helps Conover—trag him for his volunteer work, hchg up the trailer he buys and drivg out to the flats—provis the tle for his book. An Iraq War veteran and a native of a moribund Wt Virgia steel-l town, Ltle married a home-town girl, had two sons, then won the state lottery and bought a hoe for his fay. One of his sons turned out to have paranoid schizophrenia; the hoe, which was not sured, burned down. Three months later, his wife died, of chronic obstctive pulmonary disease. Ltle, sperate to get away and dreamg about imag he’d seen old <em>Field & Stream</em> magaz, went onle and Googled “cheap land lorado.”</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">All of the people are fascatg, but none of them is the ma character of the book. That role go to Conover, who lls the send chapter “My Prairie Life, Part I” and the third “My Prairie Life, Part II.” The tl change after that, but the gist remas the same. As a wrer, Conover is most at home the first-person prent tense; he prefers the closp to the wi-angle shot, actn to exposn, the immediate moment to ntext or history.</p><p class="paywall">The virtue of this approach is that brgs the San Luis Valley to relief. Conover has a good eye for the particulary of life on the flats: a kid out ridg her bike crash to an antelope; a fay drs s pet Chihuahua a leopard-sk sweater to keep om gettg eaten by hawks; a man cshed beer ns to landspe the area outsi his trailer, as a suburbane might e mulch. All along, the sle and the solu of the valley quietly assert themselv. By day, on the long dirt roads, lols roar to tersectns at top speeds, knowg that if a vehicle were headg toward them s dt plume would be visible om afar; by night, the sky above those same roads is nse wh stars, while rabbs and nighthawks appear like fleetg motn-picture shows the headlights.</p><p class="paywall">Still, all this immediacy at a st, one I felt acutely throughout the book: off to the si of Conover’s own high beams, a great al li darkns. The tens of thoands of other people livg off the grid elsewhere Ameri are acknowledged a sgle parenthetil asi, and the spe of ral poverty this untry go entirely unmentned. You would not know om “Cheap Land Colorado” that life the San Luis Valley, prented here as extraordary, looks a lot like life untls other impoverished plac. Nor do Conover pay much attentn to the stctural problems that have swept his characters out onto the flats, like so many Joads on the road. Although he wrote an entire book, “Wheout,” about Aspen, which is a few hours away and has a median home price upward of three ln dollars, we get no nsiratn of that town here, no sense that the liv of the rich have any bearg on those of the poor.</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><asi class="PersistentAsiWrapper-VGrR daRVRt persistent-asi" style="posn:absolute;top:to;height:to" data-ttid="PersistentAsiWrapper"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--rail"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--rail" data-no-id="rnx3rf"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></asi></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="fn9f7"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa EOneK body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">The cumulative effect of all this is that “Cheap Land Colorado” reads ls like “Evicted” or “The Warmth of Other Suns”—two other books about the qut to fd a home Ameri—and more like a travelogue. The San Luis Valley we enunter the book exists mostly sofar as Conover is there explorg ; only ocsnally do we see the place or s people whout the wrer the ame. Sometim this thor-centric perspective serv the story well. After his first night alone his trailer, Conover wak up the morng to disver that everythg si is iced over—cludg his toothbsh, left damp the night before, and, more prsgly, his door, which has ozen shut, trappg him si. It is a classic fools-sh- moment, light wh a sharp-edged shadow, and tells all we need to know about the chronic proximy, such a place, of disaster.</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-2 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">But on the whole “Cheap Land Colorado,” although nsistently tertg to read, is hamstng by the hoverg prence of s thor—not bee Conover isn’t good pany on the page but bee his book never fds another foc. It is full of so many pellg people that he uld have assembled a tly stellar ensemble st—or, nversely, picked a few of them and stuck wh them long enough to make their own prairie liv vivid, expansive, and illumatg. Instead, most of the characters wanr and out of the book whout leavg much behd, except for the imprsn that potentially ptivatg stori have gone untold. After meetg a mother and dghter, Rhonda and Kea, who me to the San Luis Valley by way of Chigo and California, Conover wr, “They were among the few Black people I had seen out there, and I was cur about what forc had attracted them to this place—or phed them om somewhere else.” If he ever sated that cursy, he don’t tell ; they show up jt once more the book, and are gone aga the space of two paragraphs.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">What mak this distractible style of storytellg particularly tratg is that is at odds wh what Conover claims to do. This is somethg he lls “immersn journalism,” a method he teach at N.Y.U. and wr about another book of his, “Immersn: A Wrer’s Gui to Gog Deep.” As he explas those pag, immersn journalism is “work that grows out of a wrer’s efforts to learn about somebody else’s world by placg himself for a while.” Th fed, is basilly distguishable om participatory journalism, as was lled Plimpton’s day, and om New Journalism, whose practners—Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson, and so on—threw themselv to other worlds wh gto. For that matter, is also difficult to distguish om a lot of pla-old-journalism journalism, at least of the book and magaze varieti.</p><p class="paywall">Why, then, the new term? Blame journalism schools, which, like neteen-seventi real-tate velopers, are the bs of creatg subdivisns and sellg them to the public. Immersn journalism, long-form journalism, lerary journalism, vtigative journalism, narrative nonfictn: all this was once the open rangeland known simply as “reportg.” No matter what other name you g up for the work, has always been the se that the bt way to tell a story is to get as close to as possible and learn as much about as you n. Whether the rult is short or long, shallow or ep, bare-bon or brimmg wh scen has nothg to do wh how you characterize the procs of wrg , and everythg to do wh faiar nstrats: the outlet, the edor, the budget, the nature of the story, the proclivi and abili of the thor.</p><p class="paywall">Still, llg a work of nonfictn “immersn journalism” do matter one rpect: shifts the emphasis away om the story and toward what the wrer is dog to tell . Conover has no difficulty nvcg that the flats are a fascatg place, but when he m on how they “felt like a perfect plement to my life New York Cy” he mak his own time there seem like ral splay. Nor is eful to learn that, sce 2017, he has availed himself of the flexibily of his amic reer to make “more than twenty trips to the valley.” Details like that are meant to nvey his mment and bolster his credibily, but journalism is not junr high school. You don’t need to prove that you did your homework; you jt need to know your stuff.</p><p class="paywall">In this se, Conover tells , what he wants to know is why Tmp won the 2016 electn. Yet “Cheap Land Colorado” ntas no nsiratn of that state’s electoral polics, although they are noteworthy: the last two Printial electns, an creasgly blue Colorado gave s electoral vot to Hillary Clton and Joe Bin, while the six unti that make up the San Luis Valley were more divid, wh three of them votg for Tmp both tim, two of them votg Democratic both tim (by up to eighty-one per cent of the vote some of the towns), and one of them flip-floppg. Nor do Conover reflect on the challeng of votg a place like the flats. Colorado has been a vote-by-mail state sce 2013, but ral livery don’t exist out on the flats, and ’s unclear how many people, a muny disproportnately characterized by poverty, transience, and distst of ernment, would travel to a signated pollg statn to st their ballots person.</p><p class="paywall">All of this rais a qutn: Did the Tmp voters Conover went wt to meet actually vote for Tmp? He never asks, and we never learn. When, the urse of the book, we do cross paths wh <em class="small">MAGA</em> typ, they are already faiar to —om our own muni, and om years of der journalism. We wns an exchange between a nservative uple and a liberal volunteer who has e as part of a church group to help fix up their property; we s on a vis wh some particularly out-there nspiracy theorists (the C.I.A. is n by the Vatin, John McCa donated a billn dollars to Al Qaeda, etc.); we watch as the ronavis and Black Liv Matter protts reach the San Luis Valley, both wh tragic rults; we learn that Matt Ltle and Le—the one who dreams of sellg goat k and heirloom tomato—have grown nvced that the 2020 electn was stolen.</p><p class="paywall">Conover prents all this almost whout ment. Although he don’t hi his own views, he also mak no real effort to acunt for those of his subjects, and, spe his stated goal, I began to spect that he didn’t really re all that much about how, or if, his new neighbors had voted. This change of heart, if that is ed what happened, renrs the ame of “Cheap Land Colorado” somewhat wobbly. Yet also as somethg of a relief, after years of ted Tmp-era journalism which certa liv sudnly mand attentn for purely stmental reasons and those fartht removed om power were expected to illumate s ner workgs. It is, after all, extraordarily difficult to expla this immense untry and s lns of cizens. We are trated by anecdot bee they seem arbrary and unreprentative, trated by statistics bee somethg urgent and human always p them, trated by the past bee is not reliably predictive, trated by the future bee remas stubbornly unknowable.</p><p class="paywall">But, although our natnal character might be elive, we are, as “Cheap Land Colorado” regularly remds , a natn full of characters. Conover’s book is burstg wh dreamers and dggi, drifters and grifters, the lud, the dangero, the salt of the earth. It is difficult not to experience some fellow-feelg for almost all of them, and for the place self, which offers up to even the poort of the poor s astonishg granur. And so is strange but not altogether surprisg when, the end, Conover simply succumbs to the allure he set out to expla and cis to buy land the flats: five acr, pl a trailer, the middle of a nowhere that, for him, is now the center of somethg. ♦</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--rail"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--rail" data-no-id="529duf"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 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data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-2" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href=" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ fzzTdh summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">The Novelist Whose Inventns Went Too Far</div></a><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd kxnNhB jDyfzW summary-em__k">After the Ao-Cuban wrer H. G. Carrillo died, his hband learned that almost everythg the wrer had shared about his life was ma up—cludg his Cuban inty.</div><div class="SummaryItemByleWrapper-boCfbi cuRXdL summary-em__byle-date-in"><div class="SummaryItemBaseByle-fFbXkY cgDBtc summary-em__byle"><div class="summary-em__byle__ntent"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH dSEWiO byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss byle__preamble">By </span>D. T. Max</span></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="SummaryItemWrapper-iwvBff hNpSyX summary-em summary-em--ARTICLE summary-em--no-in summary-em--text-align-left summary-em--layout-placement-text-below summary-em--layout-posn-image-left summary-em--layout-proportns-50-50 summary-em--si-by-si-align-center summary-em--si-by-si-image-right-mobile-false summary-em--standard SummaryCollectnGridSummaryItem-WColm hKqhyj" role="button" tabx="0"><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb cPpCwE summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-3" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg bDvSkO summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz ktcjQn"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg bDvSkO summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="The Upper Wt Si Cult That Hid Pla Sight" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="SummaryItemContent-eiDYMl XMZX summary-em__ntent"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX kImuKS bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN lapGFj summary-em__bric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">Unr Review</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM dVrbhU summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-3" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href=" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ fzzTdh summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">The Upper Wt Si Cult That Hid Pla Sight</div></a><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd kxnNhB jDyfzW summary-em__k">In the sixti and seventi, the Sullivanian Instute had a wng sal pch for young New Yorkers: parti, sex, low rent, and affordable therapy.</div><div class="SummaryItemByleWrapper-boCfbi cuRXdL summary-em__byle-date-in"><div class="SummaryItemBaseByle-fFbXkY cgDBtc summary-em__byle"><div class="summary-em__byle__ntent"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH dSEWiO byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss byle__preamble">By </span>Jsi Wter</span></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="SummaryItemWrapper-iwvBff hNpSyX summary-em summary-em--ARTICLE summary-em--no-in summary-em--text-align-left summary-em--layout-placement-text-below summary-em--layout-posn-image-left summary-em--layout-proportns-50-50 summary-em--si-by-si-align-center summary-em--si-by-si-image-right-mobile-false summary-em--standard SummaryCollectnGridSummaryItem-WColm hKqhyj" role="button" tabx="0"><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb cPpCwE summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-4" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg bDvSkO summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz ktcjQn"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg bDvSkO summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="The Lows of the High Life" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="SummaryItemContent-eiDYMl XMZX summary-em__ntent"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX kImuKS bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN lapGFj summary-em__bric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">The Weekend Essay</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM dVrbhU summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-4" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href=" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ fzzTdh summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">The Lows of the High Life</div></a><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd kxnNhB jDyfzW summary-em__k">I had never had money, and then I did. 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