Fire Season

Fire Season is an aspirational book: it tells a romantic, if not romanticized, story of being a fire lookout, something most dream of experiencing but few would be able to endure. The prose occasionally shifts from stirring, serene descriptions of the natural existence to a sudden litany of historical facts and figures that jarringly pops the reader out of their sylvan day-dreams. The good parts more than make up for these odd incongruities and leaves you with an almost restorative feeling of having been transported to a place of calm and harmony, a place that can be revisited in times of stress and anxiety.

Philip Connors beautifully relates his experiences in a fire tower for a season, writing about the history of the area, the natural world around him, and of course the fires that pop up around him. Really, though, the book is more about the history of wild areas, in particular the Gila Wilderness, and the United States's changing views on fire and fire management through the years--all shot through with reflections on what it means to spend a few months on one's own in the middle of one of the most beautiful places on earth.