Rating: 
Summary: Posthumous publishing at its worst.
Review: What a disappointment. I truly loved "A River Runs Through It", also by Norman Maclean and that, combined with my recent interest in books about smokejumpers, made me excited at the prospect of this book. I couldn't be more disappointed. Try as I may, I simply can't even continue to read this book, it is THAT bad (I read about a third of it). In the preface to the book, the publisher makes note that this book was published after Maclean's death. While the gesture is admirable, the result is appalling. They also make mention that Maclean worked on this book for many years never finishing it and with the book always searching for an identity. Sadly, I think he worked without an editor all that time or at least one of any worth and that identity is certainly never found. This book rambles in so many directions it makes it impossible to continue reading. Their effort to honor this man instead has turned into a terrible lasting impression.This book is filled with mindless incoherent random ramblings of an old man who had too much he wanted to say and no idea how to say it and for some reason thought he could make it relevant to the story of the Mann Gulch tragedy. The story is cluttered with pages and pages of irrelevant stories that serve only to distract the reader and the story loses focus immediately. Additionally, his assumptions of what the men were thinking and suppositions of the things that happened seem to make this much more a work of fiction than the claim of it being non-fiction. If you want to read a story about smokejumping, save your money and buy "Jumping Fire" by Murray Taylor instead. It is far more rewarding.
Rating: 
Summary: A story of a story
Review: The book is about the Mann Gulch Fire of 1949. Mr. Maclean held a keen interest in the story for many reasons including his love of the outdoors and of "woodsmen". As a journalist piece the book is too long and wordy but if you take it as a story of a story things work out just fine. The first part describes the fire itself in great journalistic style. The second part, where Maclean goes into is passion to find out for himself what happened is less journalistic and more like a story. It is Maclean's story of the story of Mann Gulch. Take the story in that mode, sit back and enjoy Mr. Maclean's magnificient, almost poetic, prose and learn just about all there is to know about a tragedy that occurred so long ago.
Rating: 
Summary: An Old Man Rambles On
Review: I purchased "Young Man and Fire" after reading author Norman Maclean's son John's excellent "Fire on the Mountain." While both books concern similar subject matter, that being the devastating effects of forest fire "blowups" and the resulting loss of firefighters' lives, John's book is simply a much better read than his father's. Some of the problem may be that Norman died before "Young Men" was completed despite having spent nearly eight years on it. Norman Maclean writes is a flowery literary style, which may have been appropriate for his "A River Runs Through It," but is distracting in a work of non-fiction. Additionally, only the first third of the book is about the fire itself. The remainder focusses on the attempts by Norman Maclean and others to determine how the disaster happened, and quite frankly it is just not interesting enough to justify 200 pages of text. "Young Men and Fire" is not a bad book for those interested in the subject matter. But as a work of journalism, it is lacking.
Rating: 
Summary: A Passionate Search for the Truth
Review: My favorite book....
Young men losing their lives in terrible ways has not been an uncommon thing in this world. The fire in Mann Gulch on August 5th, 1949 could have easily joined the uncounted number of unexplained, brutal, seemingly senseless, and mostly forgotten events that have claimed young lives since the beginning human history.
It is Maclean's struggle to illuminate exactly what happened one day on a remote hillside in Montana that elevates the Mann Gulch fire and those who died there to the unforgettable.
And struggle he does; with the imposing geography of Mann Gulch, where repeated visits to the rugged area underscore his own increasing physical frailty and mortality; with the science of wildfire behavior, where the technical factors of time, terrain, weather, and fuel must be understood to comprehend the the fire and events that occured on the ground; and with the challenge to perceive something beyond the physical and human demensions of the fire-to get to something deeper that needs to be understood as well.
Maclean inserts himself into the narrative, so his writing of the book is an integral part of the story being told. There is obviously an imposing intellect at work here, and also a strong heart. Although the book is not perfect, largely due to the author's death prior to the book's completion, Maclean's heroic effort to understand thoroughly, and write truthfully about this event enobles the book's imperfections. The obviously uncompleted last chapter offers a tantalizing glimpse of a conclusion that reaches through time towards the eternal.
Rating:
Summary: You ever wonder....
Review: In all you are in the thick of the burning forest fire that killed thirteen federal employees named the elite fire crews called smokejumpers. As Norman Maclean says we come from a breed that is rare in our souls, but in all we find ourselves with the occupation of patience and a race against time. As this event happened in 1949 in 1994 it happened the same way as jumpers, hotshots, and ground pounders were making a game of the similarities of the Mann Gulch fire that this time killed fourteen federal employees, including Don Mackey. Don Mackey was the heart and soul of smokejumping as John Maclean puts it in his
acclaimed book, Fire on the Mountain: The True Story of the South
Canyon Fire. To all you crazy people, including women, yes they add a since of direction, family to us we welcome you..
Rating:
Summary: Young Men and Fire is outstanding on many plains
Review: This is one of my favorite books of recent years. The story of the Mann Gulch fire is tragic, and compelling. McClean's investigation of the tragedy melds well with his investigation of his own mortality. The story of the Crew Chief Dodge and his escape fire - a technique now taught to firefighters but at the time very controversial, is gripping and poignant. I learned of this book from the song "Cold Missouri Waters" on the "Cry Cry Cry" CD. I found the song compelling, but after reading the book, it brings tears to my eyes each time I listen. I enthusiastically recommend both, together.
Rating:
Summary: Maclean's most haunting (and haunted) work
Review: I read this book after A River Runs Through It, and found that while I had liked RIVER I couldn't put this one down. Unfinished at the time of the author's death the book has some bumpy spots, but the language and the mixture of story and theory will keep you up late and come back to you again and again, especially if you are a lover of the country that Maclean invokes so well. I should warn you that friends that I have sicced on this book have either loved it with me or hated it, and parts are not for the faint of heart, but this is definitely a book to keep.
Rating:
Summary: My single favorite work of non-fiction
Review: I picked up this book by chance, captivated by the title and by the jacket. Since I first read it seven years or so ago, I have returned to it time and time and time again. (Indeed, I am using sections of it in a course I will be teaching soon on men and masculinity). The publishing world has seen a plethora of non-fiction books on tragedies and natural disasters in recent years, with "The Perfect Storm" and "Into Thin Air" perhaps the most successful. But those two bestsellers pale in comparison with the subtlety, the grace, and the sheer power of Maclean's story of discovering what happened to a dozen young firejumpers on a steep Montana hillside many years ago. In the final fifty pages, as remembrances of survivors mix with a technical discussion of wind and flames, Maclean's prose is so vivid, so pure, so unadornedly beautiful that I had to put the book down three or four times because my eyes were filling with tears. 'Tis a rare work of non-fiction that can do that! I am a deeply urban person. I know nothing of forestry or firefighting. I have never been to Montana. And I was gripped by this book from start to finish, even as Maclean skilfully avoids even the slightest shred of bathos or melodrama. It is a marvelous meditation on heroism and death, and on masculinity itself, and well, well worth the read.
Rating:
Summary: An Interesting book
Review: This is a very interesting book about the tragedy of the Mann Gulch Fire. The book is full of extensive details about not only the fire, but finding out what exactly happened on that hill that day. This book is not really exciting, but it is very educational and shocking. The structure of this book has a time-jumping pattern, so you have to read it closely to understand exactly what is going on. The first half of this book is about the fire itself, and the second half is trying to solve the mystery of it. You will not regret reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: Like Passionate Love
Review: This book is butter to my bread. It's the chicken to my noddle soup. Maclean's tale of his own personal enduring voyage through life and this tragedy is simply orgasmic. Without words to describe, Maclean touched me like no woman ever could. Read this book. Every penetrating word, every passionate jab thrown by his sentences will surely leave you crying to your mother. I like young men, as well as fire.
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