On Fire

Brown excels at writing "you are there" nonfiction. Narrator Sala reads as though he's telling the listener his story. Seldom is a non-firefighter able to hear about extricating a person crushed in a trailer truck or fighting a fire in a fireproof building with such precision and emotion. This is a very macho book, and Sala delivers the required machismo, especially when he tells of beating a mouse to death. The listener is present during each vignette--either cheering the hero on or wishing to discourage his sometimes senseless display of the "mastery of man." ON FIRE is a perfect audiobook, a firefighters' WORKING. S.G.B. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

January 3, 1994
This memorable collection of short essays, some of them merely fragments, is the first venture into nonfiction by fireman turned novelist Brown ( Dirty Work ). After 17 years as a firefighter in Oxford, Miss., home of the state university and William Faulkner, Brown devoted himself to full-time writing, which had been an avocation for 10 years. Most of his observations here are about fighting fires, the camaraderie among those who perform this service, the tragedies and the miracles they encounter. But there are other pieces, some humorous, others poignant, on Brown's family, on hunting and fishing, on his pets and his attempts to raise rabbits for the market. 25,000 first printing; $25,000 ad/ promo; author tour.