Norman Maclean only published two books in 87 years: A River Runs Through It (made into a successful film starring Craig Sheffer, Brad Pitt and Tom Skerritt) and Young Men and Fire. In many ways, this is such a shame as there was something lyrical about how Maclean put pen to paper.
While his first book won wide acclaim, Young Men and Fire has received mixed reviews. It seems to be the kind of book a person either loves or hates. I definitely fall into the former category!!
The book, published posthumously from an unfinished manuscript, details Maclean's 40+ year obsession with the Mann Gulch [Forest] Fire in north-central Montana. On that searingly hot day in August 1949, 12 smoke jumpers plus one forest ranger lost their lives when a fair sized fire became a blowup.
Maclean takes us back to the fateful day and thoroughly discusses all the known particulars that led to these 13 deaths. Relying on testimony from the 3 survivors plus a trove of US Forest Service photos and reports, Maclean retraces their steps one-by-one. He even teamed up with several US Forest Service employees in the 1980s to make 3 trips to Mann Gulch to try to understand the science of what caused the fire to sweep over most of the crew as it did.
At this juncture, I should interject that one of the chief reasons this story is so meaningful to me is that I spent the Summer of 1979 on a US Forest Service hotshot crew. While I never experienced a blowup, I fought on many fires in the remotest of areas, including near Hell's Canyon and the Eagle Cap Wilderness in dry eastern Oregon. Consequently, reading this book brought back many memories of similar -- though not congruent -- situations.
The one aspect of the book that may not appeal to every reader is that Maclean spends a good deal of time philosophizing. He tries to put himself in the shoes of the 13 who lost their lives and to try to figure out -- however imperfectly -- what they were thinking as the flames overtook them. Needless to say, as a philosophizer myself, this is one of the aspects of the book that I enjoyed the most.
Young Men and Fire is definitely going on a bookshelf in my bedroom. It is one of those books that I will re-read more than once. It's a beautiful story about a terrible tragedy as it pays homage to the 13 young men who never made it out of Mann Gulch alive.
While his first book won wide acclaim, Young Men and Fire has received mixed reviews. It seems to be the kind of book a person either loves or hates. I definitely fall into the former category!!
The book, published posthumously from an unfinished manuscript, details Maclean's 40+ year obsession with the Mann Gulch [Forest] Fire in north-central Montana. On that searingly hot day in August 1949, 12 smoke jumpers plus one forest ranger lost their lives when a fair sized fire became a blowup.
Maclean takes us back to the fateful day and thoroughly discusses all the known particulars that led to these 13 deaths. Relying on testimony from the 3 survivors plus a trove of US Forest Service photos and reports, Maclean retraces their steps one-by-one. He even teamed up with several US Forest Service employees in the 1980s to make 3 trips to Mann Gulch to try to understand the science of what caused the fire to sweep over most of the crew as it did.
At this juncture, I should interject that one of the chief reasons this story is so meaningful to me is that I spent the Summer of 1979 on a US Forest Service hotshot crew. While I never experienced a blowup, I fought on many fires in the remotest of areas, including near Hell's Canyon and the Eagle Cap Wilderness in dry eastern Oregon. Consequently, reading this book brought back many memories of similar -- though not congruent -- situations.
The one aspect of the book that may not appeal to every reader is that Maclean spends a good deal of time philosophizing. He tries to put himself in the shoes of the 13 who lost their lives and to try to figure out -- however imperfectly -- what they were thinking as the flames overtook them. Needless to say, as a philosophizer myself, this is one of the aspects of the book that I enjoyed the most.
Young Men and Fire is definitely going on a bookshelf in my bedroom. It is one of those books that I will re-read more than once. It's a beautiful story about a terrible tragedy as it pays homage to the 13 young men who never made it out of Mann Gulch alive.
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