Customer Reviews

Jumping Fire: A Smokejumper's Memoir of Fighting Wildfire

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Thanks to Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, I have no need to climb Everest. Thanks to Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm, I do not have to go long-line swordfish fishing in the Grand Banks during hurricane season. Now, with equal gratitude to Murry Taylor, I have been purged of any desire to parachute into a destructive wall of raging flame in western Alaska armed with nothing more than rope, shovels and a Pulaski axe. (Actually, Taylor also jumped into fire zones carrying a dog-eared copy of Lonesome Dove and a plastic-bottled fifth of Jack Daniels.) Jumping Fire: A Smokejumper's Memoir of Fighting Wildfire describes the life and work of the most venerable Alaskan smokejumper and the other crew with whom he risked his life regularly in the hot Alaskan summers. It is, on the surface, as gripping a work as the other authors' in its description of the excitement, danger, and backbreakingly hard work of line firefighting. But it also describes the life trajectory of one blue-collar American in the latter half of the twentieth century. Taylor, who comes across as a modest but candid Renaissance man, reflects on why he went to the wilderness and why he stayed. His has been a life alternating between keen loneliness and rollicking battlefield camaraderie. His tone in describing all this is one of equal parts humor, romanticism, melancholy, and a wry realism. At one point, Taylor bestows on another oldtimer colleague the accolade that he was "truer to his core nature than any man I've ever known." That description would just as readily suit the author. Besides being a heckuva writer with a gripping story to tell, Murry Taylor sounds like a man the reader would like to meet.

Got this book a few days ago and literally read most of it in one sitting. Thorough and well written. I didn't really know much about smokejumping and wild firefighting before this other than the news blurbs about the fire season in the West and some TV shows about wild fires. Bought the book because it looked interesting, and it definitely exceeded expectations.

I've always been fascinated by smokejumpers...who they are, what compels them, and whether they are all as crazy as I have thought they must be. It's an incredible true story. It brings to life the adreline rush of jumping and fighting fires, the boredom of the down time, the love of freedom and the trade-offs they make in their lives to follow this passion. It communicates the strong ties to fellow jumpers and the personal loneliness of a chosen lifestyle. Most beautiful of all are the descriptions of the pristine country they protect which most of us will never see. A truly wonderful book.

Taylor writes in a gripping manner that will keep you wanting more. His method of depicting life over a year, detailing the accounts of fallen comrades, the joys of a job well done, and the lost loves all are intwined in fast moving detail. A REAL KEEPER!

Anyone who may feel that way has not read about these men and women who day in and day out perform a job that otherwise would be considered a daredevil act.

Jumping out of planes is too much for most of us; it's one of the safer parts of their job. They never make the same jump twice, they often land in a target area that is basically a vertical shaft between 150 foot trees, in an area some sports utility vehicles could not turn around in, and that's just the start.

The fire can suck them in; they can get hung up in a tree 50, 100, 150 feet in the air and then have to climb down. Or worse many of the tops of these trees are like spikes. Imagine being impaled through the thigh 150 feet in the air, like an olive in a Martini. You need not imagine this or dozens of other terrifying scenarios as the book shares them all with you.

The Author Mr. Taylor is the oldest man to jump fires, a job he has been doing for 26 years. And if you happen to be over 50 years of age, this man is definitely a special role model.

Former Marines who become Jumpers say it is tougher than the boot camp they had as Marines. One of 25 who make the attempt to become a Jumper make the program, and of those not a few decide a year or two is more than enough.

The stamina of these men and women is beyond belief, I would imagine a qualified individual could compare what they do to any professional athlete and my guess is they would be at or near the top. These people are often at brutal back breaking lethal work for days on end.

Mr. Taylor shares amazing stories about amazing people; he is very candid about his personal life and all that his profession precludes. He also shares the banter amongst the crews when they have time to share stories the subjects rather forget. There are dozens and they are laughing out loud hilarious. Imagine jumping crashing through trees and landing on a Moose?

These people take everything very seriously. When one jumper was reminded of the time he crashed right through the roof of an outhouse, he was unbowed. "It was a $20 bet, who could come closest, I won!"

One heck of a book!

When I heard Murry Taylor's NPR interview, I fell in love with his voice and the idea of smokejumping. Mr. Taylor allows us to live vicarioussly through his writing; to see the country side, to feel the excitement, and to share his losses ... as bittersweet as a summer romance.

After listening to smokejumper friends tell their stories over the past 25 years and reading other accounts of aerial firefighting (Young Men and Fire), I thought that I was pretty well acquainted as an arm-chair adventurer with this life style. I had the impression of smokejumpers as testosterone junkies at a summer festival. Jumping Fire smoked that idea and took me to a new level of understanding. Testosterone is an active ingredient in this profession and indeed this book, but Murry Talyor goes way beyond the addictions of humans to literally spine-jarring activities. Taylor is true story-teller. The tempo of Taylor's writing kept me with him all through the accounts of his life as a smokejumper. The reader is taken through every aspect of training, jumping, fire suppression, and technical details without feeling like you've been given a manual. Woven into these details are colorful historical perspectives, humorous anecdotes, and personal insights. Jumping Fire made me laugh out loud, wince with empathetic pain, cry, and shake my head in wonder for the things humans can do.

Taylor writes about the ups and downs of his life as a BLM smokejumper in Alaska during the 1991 fire season. "smokejumpers are always leaving," he writes, as he talks about never knowing where you'll spend the night or what you'll have to eat as you follow fires around the American west and Alaska. Taylor writes of the extreme excitement, anticipation, fear, depression, boredom, and emotional gyrations he and others experience working this dangerous, yet rewarding job. One minute the smokejumpers are screaming about how the job sucks and the next their raving about how it's the best job in the world.

Taylor also lets you peek into his personal affairs as he recounts lost loves and the heartbreak that comes with the job. He finds himself driving across Alaska in pursuit of female companionship like a "moose-eyed" teenager in love, only to be dragged away to the lower 48 on another fire for more time than he'd like, despite the excitement of jumping out of airplanes into the mouth of the dragon.

As unpredictable and dangerous as it can be, Taylor writes of the attraction of the job and of the "Peter Pan Theory" coined by the wife of one of the smokejumpers. Smoke jumpers are like Peter Pan-always flying off in search of adventure, despite the crocodile that constantly pursues them. Testosterone antics and constant teasing is part of the brotherhood of smokejumpers, yet beneath it all is a true respect for one another and friendships that hold together over the ages.

Jumping Fire, nine years or so in the making, is truly a page-turner I couldn't put down. However, there's one short section that doesn't work all that well where Taylor 'time shifts' his paragraphs between daydreaming about making love with his girlfriend and listening to the guys sitting around beneath the wing of a "jump ship" discussing the attributes of women. Aside from that, and never finding out if he actually ever eats the potatoes and onions he carries in his pant-leg pocket, the book is not only captivating, it's well written by a 50-something year old guy, and the oldest smoke jumper, who pokes fun at he coworkers like a Jr. High kid in a locker room-unexpected quality. The serious and emotional side of the author is revealed as if he's your friend sitting around a campfire stringing together tails of adventure and excitement, some of which had me laughing out loud.

A web address in the acknowledgements leads readers to the web site of the slipcover photographer, another smokejumper who has assembled hundreds of wildfire images on his site. What's more, there is a glossary to help readers decipher the specialized vocabulary of smoke jumping.

"Jumping Fire" is a classic piece of work. Murry Taylor tells the story of one fire season out of the 30 years he has been a smokejumper. This book tells what smokejumpers are, what they do, how they do it and how they feel about what they do. Not since reading Larry McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove" have I been as reluctant to finish a book. As a former smokejumper I was able to relieve some of the best years of my life as I read each page. You can smell the smoke, feel the heat, and taste the acrid taste in your mouth as you are in the door at jump altitude above a stand of burning fir or pine. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes adventure, and appreciates the fine character development that makes you feel that you know the individual smokejumpers, that they are friends of yours and you would like to have a beer with them and hear a good jumpstory. "Jumping Fire" is truly a good jump story. Gary Welch, Siskiyou Smokejumper Base, Cave Junction, Oregon, Rookie Class of 1960-"WE HIRED OUT TOUGH"

Murry didn't write the first Smokejumper book, but I think his is the best overall.

The four fire seasons I jumped out of Missoula forty years ago were the most memorable times of my life. Murry has done a great job of bringing the memories back to me.

From the dry- mouthed adrenaline high of standing in the door as the airplane bounced above a smoky mountain ridge to the closeness of bs'ing with the Bros after winning a fight with a tough fire- Murry has it all right. If I have any criticsm at all it is that Murry has done such a good job that anybody reading the book is very close to territory previously reserved for Smokejumpers only.