Fire

Starred review from September 24, 2001
Danger junkies rejoice! The Perfect Storm
king returns with—no, not a new booklength narrative, but a collection of previously published magazine articles. Junger spent the last few years documenting some of the world's toughest places: Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and the former Yugoslavia, as well as nonmilitary hot spots like American wildfires. His reporting on wartime atrocities for Vanity Fair
is well known, and his wilderness stories for adventure magazines like Outside
and Men's Health
have brought him an enormous extra-book readership. Junger's newest can be considered a sort of early Greatest Hits volume, wherein Junger's disaster-zone reporting will whet the appetites of risk voyeurs everywhere. Consider his interview with Afghan guerrilla leader Ahmad Shah Massoud ("After we'd spent half an hour ducking the shells, the commander said he'd just received word that Taliban troops were preparing to attack the position, and it might be better if we weren't around for it"), or his Kosovo klatch with Serbian paramilitaries ("The men grinned broadly at us. One of them wasn't holding a gun in his hands. He was holding a huge double-bladed ax."). But Junger is more than a dispassionate adventure-monger; he is an observer awed by the courage of "people confronting situations that could easily destroy them." Whether describing the trials of airborne forest firefighters or the occupational hazards of old-fashioned harpoon-and-rope whale hunting, Junger challenges readers to reconsider their fondness for ease: "Life in modern society is designed to eliminate as many unforeseen events as possible, and as inviting as that seems, it leaves us hopelessly underutilized. And that is where the idea of 'adventure' comes in."

September 1, 2001
Recovering from an injury received while climbing and cutting down trees, Junger got the idea to write a book about "men in dangerous jobs." Although he was sidetracked, in part by The Perfect Storm, he has returned to his original concept with Fire. In this collection of articles some published in Vanity Fair gathered from his ten-plus years on the front lines, in the trenches, and wherever else he might get close to danger, Junger seems to be in his element, both physically and in the writing. The true stories range from disastrous fires to disastrous wars, from whaling controversies to land disputes, all told with Junger's unfailing eye for detail, which often lends the pieces a disturbing authenticity. As with The Perfect Storm, Junger makes sure to get the whole story from as many sides as possible; he leaves nothing out, including his own passionate opinion. Recommended for all public library collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/01.] Rachel Collins, "Library Journal"

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2001
The author of " The Perfect Storm "(1997) now offers a collection of 10 previously published magazine articles, which all deal, in one way or another, with people confronting situations that could easily destroy them. Junger believes that people are drawn to those situations out of "an utterly amoral sense of awe," which completely overrides more mundane concerns. Nowhere is this theme more evident than in the fascinating essay "Blowup," an account of a swift, furious wildfire in Colorado that claimed the lives of 14 elite firefighters. Survivor Brian Haugh recalls that as he ran for his life, aware that everyone behind him had already died, he was still mesmerized by the sight of the great wall of fire, its light "a weird blood-red that fascinated him even as he ran." Other topics include the diamond trade in Sierra Leone, war crimes in Kosovo, and a hostage crisis in Kashmir. The publisher's marketing campaign will generate some demand, but the essay format will limit this title's appeal. Still, the topics are compelling, and the writing is fine.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)