Young Men and Fire

This was a really interesting book. I'd never heard of the Mann Gulch fire and was horrified at this event but grateful for the lessons learned. Fascinating listen on CD, but I found his word pictures and colorful metaphysical descriptions mind-numbing. Without those or with less of them seemingly everywhere, I'd have rated the book 4 or 5 stars.

A powerful, emotional and compelling story, this book probably deserves better than the two stars I am giving it. Frankly, I was not so engaged with it as I had hoped to be - and found it quite a slog to get to the end. The writing tends toward the poetical in many places - which I appreciate - whil......more

4.5 rounded up......more

History has a hard job. Such books have to focus on how the event happened. The reader sees in the loose accumulation of facts the vague certainty of what is to come. Everyone on the scene is heartbreakingly oblivious. Before we open Norman Maclean’s remarkable Young Men and Fire we know that on Aug......more

This is an excellent account of the horriffic fire in Montana in 1949. The author is a smoke jumper and investigates the fire, what the men did right, and what the men did wrong. It is a real page turner. I highly recommend this book.......more

I LOVE THIS BOOK! I read it almost annually. My husband was a fire fighter for the Forest Service, but not a smokejumper, which is why we originally purchased the book. However, I fell in love with this tale that covers a tragedy in almost classic epic style, combined with the mystery story of the sc......more