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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
On the face of it, this is the story of unsolved arson at a high-glamour resort, a mystery packed with suspects that range from crusty ski bums to radical tree huggers to the resort's own corporate honchos. But underlying this entertaining true-life plot is a greater theme that is playing out across America. Here, tensions mount between the progress-minded shareholders of Vail Resorts Inc., environmentalists, and locals who simply pine for the days when they weren't priced out of having a meal--or a life--in Vail, Colorado. Elsewhere, similar hostility brews over conflicting interests in pricey tourist regions like Taos, New Mexico; the Florida Keys; and the Hamptons of New York. So while Powder Burn is an intriguing tale on its own, it also serves as a snapshot of our country as it struggles with its final growing pains. The modern corporatization of Vail Mountain is in direct contrast to its past, when a hard-drinking fellow could ride his horse into a bar and turn himself into local legend. Daniel Glick, a special correspondent for Newsweek, masterfully uses his reporter's eye for detail to deliver the spirit and breathtaking scenery of the Rocky Mountain West. He introduces personalities in rapid-fire succession, but, to his credit, the reader never feels overwhelmed or confused. The descriptions are so vivid--from the environmentalist tracking lynx paw prints through the snow to the vacationing company president staking out a Disney World pay phone as he receives updates on the 1998 fire's damage--that they remain fixed in the reader's mind as the story unfolds. It's a story that makes interesting reading for skiers, environmentalists, or anyone intrigued by the unfolding drama in our last wild places. --Jodi Mailander Farrell
From Publishers Weekly
Early on the morning of October 19, 1998, several raging fires caused $12 million in damage to ski lifts and buildings in Vail, Colo. Because construction of a vast new ski area that had been vehemently opposed by environmental groups was slated to begin that very day, arson was immediately suspected, and investigations revealed that the fires had been deliberately set. However, although a radical environmental organization claimed responsibility, the identity of the perpetrators was never discovered, and many local residentsAdarkly noting that the episode brought Vail's owners some much-needed sympathetic press, as well as insurance money that allowed them to rebuild outdated facilitiesAcontinue to believe the resort itself masterminded the event. Though unable to answer the all-important question of "whodunit," Glick, a Newsweek special correspondent for the Rocky Mountain region, provides a fascinating account of the tensions and cultural juxtapositionsAsometimes merely odd, sometimes deeply unsettlingAthat lurk beneath the idyllic, ersatz-Tyrolean surface of America's largest ski resort. Colorado, Glick notes, is populated by a volatile mix of diehard environmentalists and ruthless real estate barons, counterculture ski bums and titans of industryAall of whom coalesce in, and are particularly passionate about, places like Vail. Indeed, federal investigators found themselves confronted with a bewildering proliferation of suspects for the fires: it seemed that everyone within a 50-mile radius of the resort had a serious grudge against its owners, whose corporate HQ was known locally as "the Death Star." Combining solid investigative reporting with engrossing accounts of high-stakes wheeling and dealing and tantalizing glimpses of the glitzy life of the superrich, this is an irresistible story which, in Glick's hands, also reaches provocative conclusions about the more wide-ranging conflicts that beset the so-called New West. (Jan.)
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
On the face of it, this is the story of unsolved arson at a high-glamour resort, a mystery packed with suspects that range from crusty ski bums to radical tree huggers to the resort's own corporate honchos. But underlying this entertaining true-life plot is a greater theme that is playing out across America. Here, tensions mount between the progress-minded shareholders of Vail Resorts Inc., environmentalists, and locals who simply pine for the days when they weren't priced out of having a meal--or a life--in Vail, Colorado. Elsewhere, similar hostility brews over conflicting interests in pricey tourist regions like Taos, New Mexico; the Florida Keys; and the Hamptons of New York. So while Powder Burn is an intriguing tale on its own, it also serves as a snapshot of our country as it struggles with its final growing pains. The modern corporatization of Vail Mountain is in direct contrast to its past, when a hard-drinking fellow could ride his horse into a bar and turn himself into local legend. Daniel Glick, a special correspondent for Newsweek, masterfully uses his reporter's eye for detail to deliver the spirit and breathtaking scenery of the Rocky Mountain West. He introduces personalities in rapid-fire succession, but, to his credit, the reader never feels overwhelmed or confused. The descriptions are so vivid--from the environmentalist tracking lynx paw prints through the snow to the vacationing company president staking out a Disney World pay phone as he receives updates on the 1998 fire's damage--that they remain fixed in the reader's mind as the story unfolds. It's a story that makes interesting reading for skiers, environmentalists, or anyone intrigued by the unfolding drama in our last wild places. --Jodi Mailander Farrell
From Publishers Weekly
Early on the morning of October 19, 1998, several raging fires caused $12 million in damage to ski lifts and buildings in Vail, Colo. Because construction of a vast new ski area that had been vehemently opposed by environmental groups was slated to begin that very day, arson was immediately suspected, and investigations revealed that the fires had been deliberately set. However, although a radical environmental organization claimed responsibility, the identity of the perpetrators was never discovered, and many local residentsAdarkly noting that the episode brought Vail's owners some much-needed sympathetic press, as well as insurance money that allowed them to rebuild outdated facilitiesAcontinue to believe the resort itself masterminded the event. Though unable to answer the all-important question of "whodunit," Glick, a Newsweek special correspondent for the Rocky Mountain region, provides a fascinating account of the tensions and cultural juxtapositionsAsometimes merely odd, sometimes deeply unsettlingAthat lurk beneath the idyllic, ersatz-Tyrolean surface of America's largest ski resort. Colorado, Glick notes, is populated by a volatile mix of diehard environmentalists and ruthless real estate barons, counterculture ski bums and titans of industryAall of whom coalesce in, and are particularly passionate about, places like Vail. Indeed, federal investigators found themselves confronted with a bewildering proliferation of suspects for the fires: it seemed that everyone within a 50-mile radius of the resort had a serious grudge against its owners, whose corporate HQ was known locally as "the Death Star." Combining solid investigative reporting with engrossing accounts of high-stakes wheeling and dealing and tantalizing glimpses of the glitzy life of the superrich, this is an irresistible story which, in Glick's hands, also reaches provocative conclusions about the more wide-ranging conflicts that beset the so-called New West. (Jan.)
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
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