Fire

Rating:
Summary: Hot Book From a Hot Writer
Review: "Fire" is not a singular text as the cover would suggest. It is more a collection of essays, beginning with the featured story of storm jumpers. As the author explains, he began this book many years ago with the idea of stringing together a collection of stories about dangerous jobs around the world. He got sidetracked while researching one of those stories and turned it into the book "The Perfect Storm."

So, if you are searching for a sequel to "The Perfect Storm" about a band of firefighters, this isn't that book. But it is an intriguing group of essays about "hot" situations all over the world. Junger introduces fascinating characters like an old aboriginal islander who still spears giant sperm whales because he can't find a replacement for the job that provides for his fellow islanders. He also travels to war-torn Serbia and gives a haunting recount of a doomed group of hostages taken in Kashmir.

Junger is thrifty in his writing; he understands the drama in his story and gets to it. These stories read quickly and are the perfect size for a short session with a book. I also find his research to be extraordinary. Not only does he recount the important details of events, he also gives wonderful summaries of the settings, occupations or phenomena covered. For instance, I now have a fairly good understanding of how a wildfire spreads and also know what forensic details are most important to those investing deaths of firefighters.

In recent years, the genre of non-fiction writing has exploded. Along with John Krakaeur, Sebastian Junger is producing books that are both well-written and enjoyable, and what more could you want as a reader?

Rating:
Summary: Hot book from a hot writer
Review: "Fire" is not a singular text as the cover would suggest. It is more a collection of essays, beginning with the featured story of storm jumpers. As the author explains, he began this book many years ago with the idea of stringing together a series of stories about dangerous jobs around the world. He got sidetracked while researching one of those stories and turned it into the book "The Perfect Storm".
So, if you are searching for a sequel to "The Perfect Storm" about a band of firefighters, this isn't that book. But it is an intriguing group of essays about "hot" situations all over the world. Junger introduces fascinating characters like an old aboriginal islander who still spears giant sperm whales because he can't find a replacement for the job that provides for his fellow islanders. He also travels to war-torn Serbia and gives a haunting recount of a doomed group of hostages taken in Kashmir.

Junger is thrifty in his writing; he understands the drama in his story and gets to it. These stories read quickly and are the perfect size for a short session with a book. I also find his research to be extraordinary. Not only does he recount the important details of events, he also gives wonderful summaries of the settings, occupations or phenomena covered. For instance, I now have a fairly good understanding of how a wildfire spreads and also know what forensic details are most important to those investing deaths of firefighters.

In recent years, the genre of non-fiction writing has exploded. Along with John Krakaeur, Sebastian Junger is producing books that are both well-written and enjoyable, and what more could you want as a reader?



Rating:
Summary: He has been there. He has done that.
Review: A damn fine journalistic masterpiece. Mr. Junger takes the reader through the 1994 fires in Idaho to modern day Afghanistan and the rebels' fight against the Taliban. If you've ever read "The Perfect Storm", you know that Junger is a master at setting up the scene and describing the action in vivid detail. He takes it up a few notches in this book. I now consider myself an expert on wildfires, genocide, whale hunting, illegal diamond trading, and getting shelled by the Taliban. This book far exceeded my hopes.

Rating:
Summary: Pedestrian
Review: After reading the reviews of this book in the trade press, I was expecting something more than "Bill Bryson's Modern Disaster Stories". But that's what this book reminds me of: pulp fiction, or should I say non-fiction. The stories are interesting but self-serving. We're all supposed to be impressed by the author's wonderous experiences. But his coverage is superficial and nothing is said that is new, informative or particularly insightful. It's interesting but not worth the money. Wait for the paperback or, better yet, borrow the book from the library. One can only wonder what wonderful things Junger's publicists offered the reviewers.

Rating:
Summary: This is not fair!!!
Review: After so much success with PERFECT STORM, Junger rapidly released another book.

But, to my surprise, it was not made of original material1 IT's just a compilation of old magazine articles from old times!!

Come on, Junger, you can do better than that to cash some more money!

This intention behind this book is so commercial, that they even used terribly small letter type in the mass market papaerback edition, to reduce the number of pages and, consenquently, the cost, while selling the book all the same by thu usual US$ 7.99! Shame on you, Mr. Junger!

Rating:
Summary: Misleading title
Review: Amazingly enough I ran onto an excert of the book "Fire" by Mr. Junger in "Vanity Fair" magazine having nothing else to look at and waiting for time to pass. I was immediatly attracted to the article, which only told about the forest fire fighting, because my father was a forest fire fighter with the BLM. I ate up the article and immediatly ordered 2 books. One for myself and one for my father. This is when Amazon.com did not have a full review or much info on it at all. The magazine article did not mention anywhere about the book having "other" stories in it not related to fire fighting. After page 43 I was dissappointed and bored. It was "forced" reading after that. The magazine excerpt was almost the exact 43 pages from the book. I could have saved my money and just copied the magazine article. The book should have been called "Collected stories of dangerous jobs and political situations" or something. Vanity Fair and the title and cover of the book were very MISLEADING as to the content of the book and though I enjoyed "The Perfect Storm" (the movie) and the first part of "Fire", I was very disappointed. I hope my dad doesn't throw out the book.

Rating:
Summary: Taken in
Review: Another example of a publisher (and author) capitalizing on fame. Perfect Storm was great - Fire isn't. Just because Junger had a blockbuster is no reason to republish a bunch of old magazine articles and call it a book. There's a reason no one ever heard of Junger before Perfect Storm: his articles were nothing special, so why make a book out of them. This limp hardcover is the worst case of bait and switch I've ever seen in the publishing business. I got ripped off. Don't get fooled into thinking this is remotely like the Perfect Storm, or for that matter, a real book.

Rating:
Summary: Junger is Amazing!!
Review: Being a weather fanatic, fascinated by weather and nature and it's effects on people, my interest in this book was initially centered on the fire fighting aspects of the first stories. Having been trapped by a forest fire on a backpacking trip in Idaho years ago, it was very interesting to read about the individuals who fight these fires as well as the explanations about the weather that sets up the dangerous explosiveness of these fires. The firefighters put their lives on the line every time they answer the call. The stories were extremely well told and in his style of writing Junger takes life and death situations and lays them out, simply and clearly, with all necesssary detail to deliver a vivid perception of the intense events.
The rest of the book was even more important. Junger covers the deadly wars in Kosovo, Cyprus, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan. His explanations about the background of the situation and where they stand are so timely now after September 11th. His stories on the terrorism, hate, religion and politics that continue to eradicate life and hope in these regions is an eye opener and as always clear and concise and very, very human.
This was a fascinating and haunting book that portrays the human spirit in it's most undaunted strength when faced with danger, death and horrific events. It shows people who are uncompromising in their beliefs of what they must do no matter what the odds against them may be.

Rating:
Summary: Eclectic, Published Articles on Dangerous Situations
Review: Caution: In quotations, this book often contains another four letter word that begins with "f." The purpose seems to be to capture the emotional intensity of those being interviewed. Many of the war essays include gruesome details about inhuman actions. If such things are hard for you to bear, please consider that before deciding to read this book.

This book often shows the skill of a well-disciplined story teller, taking you where you would probably never go on your own. Unfortunately, some essays shower you with more detail than you probably wanted to know. The strength of the book is that you will get a strong visceral sense of what it is like to be in these situations, often from graphic descriptions of injuries. The weakness of the book is that it usually says very little about what the lessons are for each of us. So you will probably find the coverage to be wider than it is deep. In most situations, you will see little more than that bad things happen to people who receive poor communications or poorly follow the good messages they do receive.

The title "Fire" (despite the cover art) should be considered by potential readers to be describing "danger" rather than a book which is The Perfect Storm treatment of smoke jumping (parachuting in to fight a forest or brush fire). If you want a novelization of a recent cataclysmic event, Fire is not the book for you. These are factual essays featuring the observations of those who lived the events.

Journalist Sebastian Junger was drawn to the idea of being a smoke jumper as a young man. Finding out that he could not qualify to become one, Mr. Junger instead learned to climb trees to earn money while developing his writing career. Soon, he found himself drawn to the unexpected potential dangers of that kind of work. Having injured himself due to inattention, he was shaken to realize that he should pursue his thrills vicariously as a writer.

Without a book contract, he began doing on-site research about dangerous occupations. Fortunately, he was granted access to his beloved smoke jumpers and produced two essays about them. "Fire 1992" describes two visits he made to Idaho in that year to observe first a minor and then a major fire. "Blow Up: What Went Wrong at Storm King Mountain 1994" looks at the tragic death of firefighters in Colorado when a "creeper" of a fire suddenly moved forward at 18 miles per hour and wiped out all but three people who were on the slope. Both stories contain many exciting moments, lots of interesting information about fighting fires, and useful perspectives on how to manage a situation with people at risk with unpredictable frequency.

The book then takes an abrupt turn and interviews the "last living harpooner" on Bequia in the West Indies, "The Whale Hunters 1995." Under the whaling conventions, islanders are allowed to kill two humpbacks a year, and usually don't. Mr. Athneal Ollivierre describes what it is like to go out in a small sailing ship with a hand harpoon and kill a full-grown humpback whale. The article also tells a lot about the international politics of protecting versus hunting whales. If you are like me and would like to preserve whales, you will probably find this story more disgusting than interesting. In reality, not much happens during Mr. Junger's visit. The harpooner had earlier retired. No whales were caught in 1994, and none were seen in 1995 prior to this article.

"Escape from Kashmir 1996" then begins a series of articles about bloody actions by guerrilla bands and governments. The exciting part of this story is that one man escapes, and you learn more about how he did it. "Kosovo's Valley of Death 1998" explores atrocities in Prekaz where Serbian police murdered 55 people. "Dispatches from a Dead War 1999" contains articles by both Mr. Scott Anderson (visiting the Turkish part of northern Cyprus) and Mr. Junger (visiting the Greek Cypriot southern part of Cyprus).and brilliantly explores how a Turkish invasion in 1974 has been institutionalized into a permanent source of potential conflict. "Colter's Way 1999" returns to the American West to consider the implications of John Colter's legendary escape from the Blackfeet while naked and barefoot by outrunning his captors. Flourishing in the dangerous frontier, Colter was dead within two years of civilized living. "The Forensics of War 1999" describes the details of pursuing Serbian war criminals, from finding evidence among the corpses to the legal issues involved in establishing guilt. "The Terror of Sierra Leone" looks at how the riches of the diamond trade in Sierra Leone serve to unsettle the peace. "The Lion in Winter 2001" is a compelling portrait of Northern Alliance leader Massoud against the Tailbone prior to his assassination two days before the attacks on the United States in September 2001. Excluding the Cloture article, each of these essays is interesting for its perspectives on what causes these unending conflicts, why they are so hard to end, and what might be done differently to bring about peace and reconciliation.

The book's overall theme is the human fascination with danger, even while filled with fear. People want to have those experiences. Journalists want to be there and write about the experiences. And many armchair adventurers want to read about these gritty events, which is why this book sells well.

I came away with great respect for Mr. Junger, after appreciating what he had to go through to locate and write about these stories. His willingness to take on risks for readers is clearly a five-star effort!

Where do dangers bring out the best in you? Where do dangers steal away your potential to be your finest? How can you select your path to be more effective?

How can you help solve the problems of troubled people and nations everywhere?

Rating:
Summary: Wide But Not Deep
Review: For any author attempting to satisfy readers after delivering a book as widely celebrated as, "The Perfect Storm", the task is almost impossible. This is the task that Sebastian Junger faced when presenting his second book to readers. The 10 stories he collects here will be familiar to many as the majority appeared in magazine form prior to being collected between these covers. With his first book he demonstrated how well he could place a reader in the midst of a tale. His writing was detailed, authentic; he gave readers a vicarious experience of feeling they were close to, if not on The Andrea Gale. He wrote what he felt he needed to write to tell the story. These are essentially magazine articles, and as such are confined to the space they were allotted.

The stories are well written and have the effect, intended or not, of becoming bits of autobiographical sketches of the author. I enjoyed this aspect, and it raised my general enjoyment of the collection. The amount of knowledge a reader may possess on a given topic will also determine how interesting the stories will be to a given person. With all the information that we are receiving daily about Afghanistan, his story, "A Lion In Winter", may have less impact than it might have had if the nightmare of September 11 had not happened. I am not suggesting the story is poorly done; rather its informative value may have been overtaken by current events.

These stories will also take you to the sites of forest fires, to Kosovo and the author's first person accounts of the evil he witnessed, to The Caribbean, and to Sierra Leone. Most of these articles have themes and endings that make the fate of The Andrea Gale much less graphic and unsettling. Much of what is relayed is from places where war is actively being pursued, or the mess that is left behind contemplated.

The author will frequently take an incident from the present and relate it to events no less horrible but often less well known, or worse, less acknowledged. It is at these points that his writing expands from that of a reporter speaking of a given event, to a person placing his experience in the context of a larger history. I have recently read two books documenting a trial where the issue of Dresden in World War II was prominent. Mr. Junger quotes figures from the effects of the bombing of Dresden that are not consistent with the historical record. This was the only item presented as fact that I believe to be inaccurate. I don't know whether he knew the correct appraisal when he wrote the story, however either he or his editor should have corrected it prior to the story being published in 2001. This issue is not a fatal flaw, as the events at Dresden are an example of the horrors of war. It still rates as an item worth noting for history must be as accurate as possible, and corrected if new facts emerge.