Usfs 1919 the Ranger the Cook and the Hole in the Sky

Rating:
Summary: Forgotten novella from "A River Runs Through It"
Review: Norman Maclean's "A River Runs Through It" also contains a short story and another novella, "USFS 1919: The Ranger, the Cook and a Hole in the Sky." It just might be better than his more well know novella. The novella chronicles the 17-year old Maclean and his job with the nascent United States Forest Service during the summer of 1919. The USFS crew is a collection of misfits, those too young or too old to have seen service in WWI, and before the Forest Service trained professional rangers. This is a rare coming of age story, one tempered by the views and judgments of the 70+ years Maclean had lived before writing th novella. The characters are sharply drawn, the situations comedic and poignant, and the observations totally unvarnished.