Review by Choice Review
Maclean's intriguing book is the result of years of research into the truth behind the controversial Mann Gulch forest fire that burned in Montana in early August 1949. That fire killed 12 young men, smokejumpers working for the U.S. Forest Service. Maclean (A River Runs Through It and Other Stories; CH, Sep'76), actually visited the fire as it burned in 1949. His fascination with the tragedy led to his inquiry into the disaster that left only three survivors. Debate persisted over the actions of the crew foreman, one of the survivors. Maclean used eyewitness accounts and the research of fire scientists to reconstruct the fatal events of the Mann Gulch fire. He produced this very readable book, complete with remarkable detail, photos, and detailed map outlining circumstances of the fateful day. The engrossing text can be read easily in a weekend, and requires no prior technical knowledge to be useful. Recommended to undergraduates, graduates, and faculty studying western American history, forest policy or history, and forest fire control. M. G. Messina; Texas A & M University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
In 1949, less than a decade after the first firefighter parachuted to a blaze, a blowup--which is to a forest fire "something like a hurricane to an ocean storm"--claimed the lives of 13 smoke jumpers in Mann Gulch, Montana. The author of the revered A River Runs through It happened to be nearby, and images of the devastation germinated in his imagination, bearing fruit in this work. Unfinished at his death in 1990, the book pursues several narratives: the tale of the fated smoke jumpers, the scientific search for the cause of blowups, and Maclean's search for the story (an act of religious faith) that will imbue the catastrophe with significance. He avers that stories "do not have to be made up--that is all-important to us" and affirms a nondenominational faith "that in this cockeyed world there are shapes and designs, if only we have some curiosity, training, and compassion and take care not to lie or be sentimental." Although Maclean's depictions of the principals may be a bit reverential, his evocations of forest fires and smoke-jumping are unparalleled, his philosophical overtones are hard won, and he is almost audibly in the reader's presence--as a storyteller should be. (Reviewed July 1992)0226500616Roland Wulbert
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
On Aug. 5, 1949, 16 Forest Service smoke jumpers landed at a fire in remote Mann Gulch, Mont. Within an hour, 13 were dead or irrevocably burned, caught in a ``blowup''--a rare explosion of wind and flame. The late Maclean, author of the acclaimed A River Runs Through It , grew up in western Montana and worked for the Forest Service in his youth. He visited the site of the blowup; for the next quarter century, the tragedy haunted him. In 1976 he began a serious study of the fire, one that occupied the last 14 years of his life. He enlisted the aid of fire experts, survivors, friends in the Forest Service and reams of official documents. The result is an engrossing account of human fallibility and natural violence. The tragedy was a watershed in Forest Service training--knowledge and techniques have since been improving--and this work will interest Maclean's many admirers. Photos not seen by PW. 30,000 first printing. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
The print edition of this title, which tells the true story of the tragic Man Gulch (Montana) Fire of 1949 in which 13 U.S. Forest Service Smokejumpers were killed, won the National Book Critics Circler Award when it was first published in 1992. Author Maclean (A River Runs Through It) was well acquainted with the forests of Montana and made several fascinating discoveries about the tragedy some 45 years after it took place. Here, his journalist son, John, reads his late father's work. While his deep and resonant voice is generally clear, he occasionally swallows his words, and his pacing and rhythm can be disjointed. Still, because this is an audio exclusive, public libraries may wish to consider. [Audio clip available through www.highbridgeaudio.com.-Ed.]-Michael T. Fein, Central Virginia Community Coll. Lib., Lynchburg (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The terrifying story of the worst disaster in the history of the US Forest Service's elite Smokejumpers outfit, by the author of the classic A River Runs Through It (1976). Maclean, who died in 1990 at age 88, began his research for this book--unfinished at his death--in 1976. He brought to it his early experience as a logger and firefighter, and his exceptional literary skills. The first half, which crackles with tension, recounts that awful day, August 3, 1959, when 15 Smokejumpers parachuted into Mann Gulch in Montana to combat a small forest fire. Within two hours, 12 men had died (to this day, the only fire fatalities in the history of the Forest Service), suffocated or incinerated when the conflagration underwent a ``blowout'' into a flaming wall of death. In the second half, Maclean becomes the protagonist, as he and two survivors return to the gulch in an attempt to piece together exactly what happened, and to determine whether a secondary ``escape fire'' lit by the crew foreman to save his men had instead snuffed them out. Here, skeletal, mystical prose holds its own: ``As you fail, you sink back in the region of strange gases and red and blue darts where there is no oxygen and here you die in your lungs; then you sink in prayer into the main fire that consumes....'' The history of parachuting, facts about fires--lightning fires, crown fires, blowups--even the death of Maclean's wife add overtones and undertones to the tale. But the basic song remains a dirge, and also a paean to manhood, bravery, and the mysteries of the spirit. Maclean calls his book ``among other things...an exercise for old age.'' It is also an exercise in age-old wisdom--the lesson that suffering is the surest path to truth--exhaustively researched and lovingly expressed. (Thirteen halftones, two maps--not seen.)
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