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WHITEOUT Lost in Aspen
New York Times Notable Book.
"He spent two years
roaming the streets, canyons and slopes of the Aspen area—drinking, skiing,
snooping and generally hobnobbing his way into the heart of a city most outsiders
think has no heart. He had loads of fun, almost lost his soul and managed to
escape the experience to write a fascinating book. With Whiteout: Lost in
Aspen, Mr. Conover has done the near-impossible. He has created a book about
Aspen that is fair and interesting at the same time."
"Conover is one
of our most original and intelligent journalists...What makes the book so special
is that, even as Conover takes on the Aspen icons who made the town into the
circus it now undeniably is—John Denver, for instance, with his est-influenced
Windstar Foundation, or Saudi prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdel Aziz, with
his fifty-five-thousand-square-foot, twenty-six-room 'pleasure dome'—he finds
himself getting sucked in. It's the easy life that hooks him, the skiing and
the women, the mountain biking and the hard-edged, new-age affluence, the 'specialized
world offering much that the outside world did not.' And Conover's true triumph
is to let us see his transformation—temporary though it may be—without trying
to make us sympathize, allowing us to keep our critical faculties intact."
"There is a real
story to be reported in Aspen. In a small but genuine victory for print over
video, Ted Conover, whose past books have chronicled hoboes and illegal aliens,
has told it in his new book, an account of two years among the rarefied locals
. . . Conover's book is not a political tract or an exercise in muckraking.
It is an engaging, well-reported narrative that rarely condescends to its subject.
The even-handed tone, far more convincingly objective than Wiseman's narration-free,
I-am-a-camera point of view, is no small achievement, given that the Aspen cast
of characters includes such barn-size satirical targets as exclusive health
clubs, over-the-hill drug dealers, movie stars and rock stars of wattages bright
(Jack Nicholson), dim (Stevie Nicks), and extinguished (Jill St. John)."
"Impudent and comic
. . . there's more than snow on Aspen's hills in this saucy travel guide."
"A fine, entertaining
ode to the new ski season . . . Aspen's hypocrisy, ostentation and plain old
weirdness are . . . hilariously documented. For the reader, it's a ride worth
taking."
"Conover's ability
to give himself entirely to the world he portrays is present again in Whiteout:
Lost in Aspen--a lucid, witty account that bristles with ironies but stays
clear of malice as it traces Aspen's progress from mining town to hippie hangout
to rarefied Hollywood outpost . . . It's not often that you read a travel book
in which you worry that the author's soul is in danger. The result is Conover's
funniest book yet, and one that has much to say about our country in the 1990s."
"A funny, caustic
view of life among the town's lotus-eaters."
"Valuable and often
fascinating."
"A book of wit,
insight, and, above all, that old Greek virtue, measure."
"A well-written
stream-of-consciousness-raising account of two years in a town that makes Disneyland
look like Cabrini-Green."
"A thoughtful,
piercing look
at the town we call Glamor Gulch . . . sure to be hailed as the first serious look
at a town that has become an icon of wealth, fame, self-infatuation and hedonism."
"Low-key, objective,
and unpretentious, Conover avoids cynicism, letting Aspen's event and individuals
speak for themselves."
"Entertaining and
engaging . . . a reading experience at once pleasurable and ultimately instructive.
Ted Conover has written a cautionary tale about the American dream. That his
readers will laugh at a score of passages and scenes in Whiteout does
not diminish the seriousness of his warning. 'I remember my cab-driver friend
who said he came to Aspen "for all the good times to be had. What else is there
in life?" he writes. Then he answers: "Well, the rest of the range of human
emotions, to begin with."' Conover's gift is to remind us of that range."
"A fascinating
study in spiritual geography."
from the back cover Whiteout is Ted Conover's classic report on life among the wealthy and the narcissistic--as well as some real people--in Aspen, Colorado. Former Hugh Hefner paramour and Playboy executive Barbi Benton holds her annual pajama party. Celebrity photographer Annie Liebovitz actually finds someone who doesn't want his picture taken: Hunter Thompson. New Agers claim UFO sightings and seek eternal life. Hardrock miners struggle to hold on to an older way of life in the face of all of this. And above it all is the undeniably majestic beauty of the Rockies. Unable to deny the seduction of the Aspen mystique, Conover is nonetheless able to keep his distance and emerge with an entertaining and insightful travelogue like few others.
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