A review by hmatt
Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout by Philip Connors

challenging informative medium-paced

2.75

I found the parts of this book that describe the author's experiences manning a fire lookout quite interesting, and I thought these connected well with some (SOME) of the historical accounts. Unfortunately, a lot of times these accounts devolve into Kerouac (/insert other old white naturalist writer) fanboy narratives. The overly-poetic musings on life felt forced and just don't match the narrative, in my opinion. I also didn't care for the kids-these-days tone the author used when referring to people who, shock horror, deigned to own a cell phone or something equally below him.

I wish the author had stuck more to the narrative memoir, because I enjoyed reading about his experiences and the history of fire management in the United States.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Alcohol and Drug use