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Fire Season
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Review
'Philip Connors spends his summers alone...It is a self-inflicted loneliness but, of course, everything is blissful. He is poetic and dreamy. He inflates his visions of that single mountaintop spot with an inspired and emotive lyricism....And with this book, Connors may receive deserved recognition.' --Traveller Magazine, Freddie Reynolds
'I loved Fire Season. It's a brilliant book; wry and wise and here and there shocking; its lyricism tempered by wit, and its anger by praise.' --Robert Macfarlane, author of The Wild Places
`languid, thoughtful...beautifully lyrical' 4 star review --Metro
`full of revealing vignettes and is refreshingly candid...Fire Season proves more than a simple poetic memoir. Connors skilfully marshals his deep knowledge of the environment and we learn about the changes in the approach to wildfire and challenges to fire prevention dogma...It is a pleasure to read such an informative and lyrical account of one man's time alone in the woods. Over the past century 90 per cent of lookout towers have been decommissioned. Fire Season is a timely epistle to a dying art.' --Seven, Sunday Telegraph
`a truly remarkable book...I devoured the advance copy a couple of months ago, lured by the examples of the author's descriptive prose that littered the cover...The book's premise is so intriguing, and it's such a fascinating read that I think would appeal to such a broad range of readers that I'm going to dispense telling you about Mr Connors and this cut-off portion of the world....Connors is extremely gifted at describing the majesty of the landscape and his relationship with it....between its covers are crammed elements of nature writing, travel writing, memoir and some philosophical contemplation of the art of being alone...Above all this book is an inspirational description of one man's determination to get away from life's stresses and strains and connect with himself and the world each and every summer. Not to mention a testament to the unfathomable with my standard approach of flitting from title to title and instead spend the entire column patience of the wife who allows him to do so.' --Bath Life
`This wonderful book is a collection of his thoughts and observations...Connors ably relates the drama of fires and storms, the animals and the grandeur of nature, with a poet's eye.' --Catholic Herald
'Philip Connors' Fire Season suggests our attitude to fire is changing. Part memoir, part eco-tract, it treats fire not as something we should tame, but as an almost mystical force we should respect... Connors' words are frequently poetic.' --Big Issue, Brendan O'Neill
'Connors' lyrical account of his time in the wilderness is a true modern classic of adventure, environment, philosophy and observation...the tinder-dry landscape of New Mexico has proved fertile ground for a new and impressive literary voice.' --Lancashire Evening Post
'Fire Season makes the landscape spring to life.' --Time Out, Edoardo Albert
'After the noisy bustle of New York, he relishes the peace and communion with nature in its wildest state...This wonderfully readable, poetic meditation on the restorative quality of being quietly alone with nature and your own thoughts in a frantic age has, like its author, a lot of soul.' --Daily Mail, John Harding
'Connors' accounts of science's evolving approach to combating forest fires provide some of the book's best passages...' --Literary Review, Stephen Amidon
'He writes beautifully about the forest, both its wildlife and its history, about its wildlife and its history, about himself and about fire (which he finds slightly alarmingly exciting.)...a rich and rewarding read...One of the things that makes it rewarding is his underlying meditation on solitude. He experiences himself as having access to an extreme degree of solitude - and he is thoughtful and moving about what and why he needs this for a sense of personal fulfilment, while generously admitting than not everyone does.' --The Spectator, Sara Maitland
'His job is to watch for fires, but the bittersweet seduction of solitude has provided the space and inspiration of this beautiful book...The result is infinitely harmonious, like that perfect chat with a soulmate, by a campfire, under the stars.'
--Book of the Month, BBC Wildlife Magazine
`Connors' thoughts are the perfect combination of the mundane and the sublime...There is much to admire and remember in this book.'
--TLS Jonathan Ellis
`The most interesting parts in the book are his reflections on our place in nature and the benefits if simply being one one's own.' --Phil Bloomfield, Oxford Times
'I loved Fire Season. It's a brilliant book; wry and wise and here and there shocking; its lyricism tempered by wit, and its anger by praise.' --Robert Macfarlane, author of The Wild Places
`languid, thoughtful...beautifully lyrical' 4 star review --Metro
`full of revealing vignettes and is refreshingly candid...Fire Season proves more than a simple poetic memoir. Connors skilfully marshals his deep knowledge of the environment and we learn about the changes in the approach to wildfire and challenges to fire prevention dogma...It is a pleasure to read such an informative and lyrical account of one man's time alone in the woods. Over the past century 90 per cent of lookout towers have been decommissioned. Fire Season is a timely epistle to a dying art.' --Seven, Sunday Telegraph
`a truly remarkable book...I devoured the advance copy a couple of months ago, lured by the examples of the author's descriptive prose that littered the cover...The book's premise is so intriguing, and it's such a fascinating read that I think would appeal to such a broad range of readers that I'm going to dispense telling you about Mr Connors and this cut-off portion of the world....Connors is extremely gifted at describing the majesty of the landscape and his relationship with it....between its covers are crammed elements of nature writing, travel writing, memoir and some philosophical contemplation of the art of being alone...Above all this book is an inspirational description of one man's determination to get away from life's stresses and strains and connect with himself and the world each and every summer. Not to mention a testament to the unfathomable with my standard approach of flitting from title to title and instead spend the entire column patience of the wife who allows him to do so.' --Bath Life
`This wonderful book is a collection of his thoughts and observations...Connors ably relates the drama of fires and storms, the animals and the grandeur of nature, with a poet's eye.' --Catholic Herald
'Philip Connors' Fire Season suggests our attitude to fire is changing. Part memoir, part eco-tract, it treats fire not as something we should tame, but as an almost mystical force we should respect... Connors' words are frequently poetic.' --Big Issue, Brendan O'Neill
'Connors' lyrical account of his time in the wilderness is a true modern classic of adventure, environment, philosophy and observation...the tinder-dry landscape of New Mexico has proved fertile ground for a new and impressive literary voice.' --Lancashire Evening Post
'Fire Season makes the landscape spring to life.' --Time Out, Edoardo Albert
'After the noisy bustle of New York, he relishes the peace and communion with nature in its wildest state...This wonderfully readable, poetic meditation on the restorative quality of being quietly alone with nature and your own thoughts in a frantic age has, like its author, a lot of soul.' --Daily Mail, John Harding
'Connors' accounts of science's evolving approach to combating forest fires provide some of the book's best passages...' --Literary Review, Stephen Amidon
'He writes beautifully about the forest, both its wildlife and its history, about its wildlife and its history, about himself and about fire (which he finds slightly alarmingly exciting.)...a rich and rewarding read...One of the things that makes it rewarding is his underlying meditation on solitude. He experiences himself as having access to an extreme degree of solitude - and he is thoughtful and moving about what and why he needs this for a sense of personal fulfilment, while generously admitting than not everyone does.' --The Spectator, Sara Maitland
'His job is to watch for fires, but the bittersweet seduction of solitude has provided the space and inspiration of this beautiful book...The result is infinitely harmonious, like that perfect chat with a soulmate, by a campfire, under the stars.'
--Book of the Month, BBC Wildlife Magazine
`Connors' thoughts are the perfect combination of the mundane and the sublime...There is much to admire and remember in this book.'
--TLS Jonathan Ellis
`The most interesting parts in the book are his reflections on our place in nature and the benefits if simply being one one's own.' --Phil Bloomfield, Oxford Times
Product Description
An unforgettable memoir of solitude, wilderness and wildfires
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
I had reservations about ordering/reading this, largely because I have vivid memories of Kerouac's mesmerising 'Dharma Bums', a luminous account of a summer season as a mountain lookout, but also because I'm wary of a book which namechecks both Kerouac and the masterly Roger Deakin, as this raises almost unrealistic expectations in my mind.
However, I'm delighted (and relieved) to be able to report that this is largely engrossing: at times a poetic and meditative rhapsody on the ancient magic of remote wilderness, at others a detailed history and analysis of society's complicated and damaging relationship to, and management of, wild places. Connors eye for detailed landscapes: mountains, forests, individual trees, and the plant, animal and insect wildlife which shelter there, paints memorable pictures. His accounts of weather,thunderstorms, night skies, and sleeping outdoors are conveyed in a spare and effective style.
My only reservations are the unnecessary inclusion of some discriminatory comment from a customer during his 'other life' as a barman in winter about 'Ay-rabbs', and the use of the term 'homeboy queers' in his account of his time in New York. I found the shift in tone quite jarring here. It also has to be said that the quality of Connors prose sometimes is more earthbound than he'd like, and that his focus at close quarters lacks definition, or raises expectation, then fails to deliver (his account of a river fishing trip concludes too early).
However, this shouldn't detract from the fact that this is a well-written and evocative account of a Summer straddled on a mountain peak, cleverly interwoven with the politics and history of the area, long hikes along the mountain ridges, accompanied by his dog Alice, and some vivid character sketches of some of the walkers who call at his lookout. If you enjoyed reading Kerouac's account, or Deakin's magical journeys, then you'll certainly appreciate what Connors achieves here, which is clearly high praise in anybody's book. Strongly recommended to all who hear the siren song of wilderness and the great outdoors.
However, I'm delighted (and relieved) to be able to report that this is largely engrossing: at times a poetic and meditative rhapsody on the ancient magic of remote wilderness, at others a detailed history and analysis of society's complicated and damaging relationship to, and management of, wild places. Connors eye for detailed landscapes: mountains, forests, individual trees, and the plant, animal and insect wildlife which shelter there, paints memorable pictures. His accounts of weather,thunderstorms, night skies, and sleeping outdoors are conveyed in a spare and effective style.
My only reservations are the unnecessary inclusion of some discriminatory comment from a customer during his 'other life' as a barman in winter about 'Ay-rabbs', and the use of the term 'homeboy queers' in his account of his time in New York. I found the shift in tone quite jarring here. It also has to be said that the quality of Connors prose sometimes is more earthbound than he'd like, and that his focus at close quarters lacks definition, or raises expectation, then fails to deliver (his account of a river fishing trip concludes too early).
However, this shouldn't detract from the fact that this is a well-written and evocative account of a Summer straddled on a mountain peak, cleverly interwoven with the politics and history of the area, long hikes along the mountain ridges, accompanied by his dog Alice, and some vivid character sketches of some of the walkers who call at his lookout. If you enjoyed reading Kerouac's account, or Deakin's magical journeys, then you'll certainly appreciate what Connors achieves here, which is clearly high praise in anybody's book. Strongly recommended to all who hear the siren song of wilderness and the great outdoors.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Judging purely by the subject matter I thought this book had the potential to be many things - from eloquent study of solitude to boring self-indulgent journal. As it turns out it is neither. In fact it is a collection of thoughts and experiences loosely bound together around a summer spent in a fire lookout tower in the Gila region of the Southern USA. While he spends (and appreciates) his time alone, the regular radio exchanges, hikers, and visitors interspersed with the author's fortnightly trips back to urban life and human company make it far from the idealised solitude that you might expect.
Philip Connors has a very accessible and candid writing style and there were passages that I found enlightening or educational. I love the outdoors and gladly exchange urban comforts for wild vistas but I have seldom wished to do so alone. Connors' exploration of his own need for escape is quite moving though his occasional thoughts on his brother's suicide felt like they could have played a more central part. Occasionally his passion for the details of his environment and his predecessors and fellow lookouts did get the better of me and made me trudge a little... But mostly this is a book to gently ponder and making time for that is one of the central messages of this work.
Once in a while he tackles a more contentious or emotional subject - such as deaths of smokejumpers, ambiguous environmental policy or his experiences in NYC in the aftermath of the WTC attack. All of these are handled well. However, that only left me feeling that if he had decided to write about one subject rather than streaming his consciousness through the fire season we might have had a more memorable book as a result.
Philip Connors has a very accessible and candid writing style and there were passages that I found enlightening or educational. I love the outdoors and gladly exchange urban comforts for wild vistas but I have seldom wished to do so alone. Connors' exploration of his own need for escape is quite moving though his occasional thoughts on his brother's suicide felt like they could have played a more central part. Occasionally his passion for the details of his environment and his predecessors and fellow lookouts did get the better of me and made me trudge a little... But mostly this is a book to gently ponder and making time for that is one of the central messages of this work.
Once in a while he tackles a more contentious or emotional subject - such as deaths of smokejumpers, ambiguous environmental policy or his experiences in NYC in the aftermath of the WTC attack. All of these are handled well. However, that only left me feeling that if he had decided to write about one subject rather than streaming his consciousness through the fire season we might have had a more memorable book as a result.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
One season with musings on a whole century of the struggle to save America' s wild places
2 Aug 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
This short but interesting book covers one season of being a forest fire lookout in the Gila Wilderness Area in south-west New Mexico. The author uses the book to discuss a number of issues around the history of forest fires in the US and the changing view of forest fire as land managers come to realise that fire is an important factor in the ecology of these wilderness areas. Fire, Connors, tells us is no longer controlled at all costs and some are allowed to burn. The vegetation of these forests has, in fact, been shaped by these fires which create a healthy mosaic of different habitats ranging from grassy meadows to ancient Ponderosa pine forests.
Connors also passes on his views on many of the issues affecting the rural areas of the United States such as farm subsidies, using public land for grazing cattle, human interactions with predators such as the Grizzly Bear and the Mexican Wolf and the other authors who have shared his experience in the wilderness. He also touches on his own life whether it is his experience of 9/11 or his marriage but on the whole this book is an argument that we all need wilderness and that we interfere too much with that wilderness. We try to recast the wilderness for our needs and in doing so destroy its essence. If you enjoy books about the experience of the wild and the issues behind wilderness conservation then this book is one I would recommend.
Connors also passes on his views on many of the issues affecting the rural areas of the United States such as farm subsidies, using public land for grazing cattle, human interactions with predators such as the Grizzly Bear and the Mexican Wolf and the other authors who have shared his experience in the wilderness. He also touches on his own life whether it is his experience of 9/11 or his marriage but on the whole this book is an argument that we all need wilderness and that we interfere too much with that wilderness. We try to recast the wilderness for our needs and in doing so destroy its essence. If you enjoy books about the experience of the wild and the issues behind wilderness conservation then this book is one I would recommend.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
"Most days I can see a hundred miles in all directions"
Philip Connors is a man who has followed his dream and is able to keep living it for a part of every year. Read more
Published 8 days ago by elsie purdon
Fire Season Review
I found this book interesting in the fact that I never realised how beneficial to the land and forest management wild fires are, and was surprised to learn that fires are often... Read more
Published 4 months ago by sb
Lovely lyrical writing
If you've ever longed to escape your nine-to-five life for an adventure in the great outdoors, you'll love this beautifully written book. Read more
Published 4 months ago by M. Harrison
Literary landscape...
Being a landscape painter, I looked forward to reading this book hoping for a literary version of a painting and, in part, I wasn't disappointed. Read more
Published 5 months ago by G. E. Harrison
A curio
Connors does a great job here of pulling interesting stories from great stretches of seeming eventlessness. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Mr. S. D. Mcginty
A mixed bag but still enjoyable
I was expecting a reveiw of nature in the wilderness of America, and this book certainly did provide some wonderfully vivid descriptions. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Scott A. Mckenzie
Charming and poetic account of American Wilderness
Fire Season is the tale of one man and his dog who spend the summer watching over great swathes of American wilderness (The Gila) looking for 'smokes'. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Sinbad
armchair wilderness
Days spent doing little more than staring at a vast landscape looking for fires are rendered engaging by Connors' ability to closely observe the natural world and his slow gentle... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Mr. A. K. N. Bernhardt
The Loner
I seem to have a fascination with reading about lifestyles that are totally not me. Perhaps it's part of exploring who 'me' is. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Hilary French
Brilliant
This book is good for the soul and makes you think about what you can do and be, pick it up today
Published 6 months ago by Jackson Bateup
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