Fire

By: George R. Stewart

Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor

Spitcat, a raging forest fire in the Sierra Nevada of California, had a lifespan of merely eleven days, "yet its effects could be reckoned ahead in centuries." So writes George R. Stewart in this engrossing novel of a fire started by lightning in the dry heat of September, and fanned out of control by unexpected winds. The book begins with the origins of the fire - smoldering quietly at first, unnoticed, then suddenly bursting into a terrifying inferno, devouring trees and animals over acre after acre and leaving nothing but desolation in its wake.

Firefighters and lookouts, forest rangers and smokejumpers - as well as animals in the forest, many of them the bewildered victims of the blaze, and all the varied tress and bushes there - are characters of this realistic story.

©1948 George R. Stewart (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Even better than storm

Stewart does so many inventive things with the scenery, making trees, fire, animals into characters. It can be dryly cerebral at points, but worth it.

Great story with pulp aspects

Researching during World War II, George R. Stewart created a story about what fighting fires was like through much of the 20th century. The book was good overall, although some aspects of the book distracted from the story.

The author excelled in description about fire and ecology as it was understood in the early 20th century, the story of the forest, how fires were fought, how men can be their worst enemy, the brotherhood of firefighters, and old forester vs new forester. Where the author failed was in conversations...I found these to be awkward, either from old-fashioned attitudes or language, or because the conversations were simply written awkwardly. Thankfully, these were not the bulk of the book. If I were using this book in an English literature class, there is a great deal of material to show old attitudes toward women in a man's world, race relations (in a white man's world), patriarchy, old racial stereotypes and language.

An aspect of his writing that you will either love or hate...he writes narratively, focusing on ecology, on the interactions between events and organisms and man. For me, this is part of what makes his books worth reading. Donald M. Scott (biographer) called it Stewart's "holistic ecological approach."

If you like his book "Earth Abides" you will probably find something to like in this book as well, although it is not nearly as profound as that book. I pair this book with "Young Men and Fire" by Norman Maclean, another book about the men who fight fires in the mountains.