Product Description

From the murderous mechanics of the diamond trade in Sierra Leone and a deadly canyon fire in Idaho to guerilla warfare in Afghanistan and the forensics of genocide in Kosovo, these reports will take you where you wouldn't dream of going on your own.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1270260 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Journalist and author Sebastian Junger makes a welcome new foray into the world of thriller reportage with Fire, the eagerly anticipated follow-up to his international bestseller The Perfect Storm. Drawn in part, as with his debut title, from an unpublished book on dangerous jobs, Fire burns with the desire to experience adventure, and to push beyond everyday parameters. For some, Junger's quest may resemble "thrill junky" day-trips in other people's nightmares, such as when he visits the hellish conflicts in Kosovo, Sierra Leone, or Afghanistan (in watching the struggles of Ahmad Shah Massoud against the Taliban, he delivers a chilling prequel to world events at the time of the book's publication). However, in a crowded marketplace, his disciplined accounts of the chaotic, volatile brutality of these killing fields ripple with taut expression, nourished by history and personal experience.

The opening account, describing the work of American forest wildfire fighters, presents a vivid if sometimes over-detailed image of a perennial concern, while Junger's trip to the Caribbean to meet a veteran from an ancient whaling community is well-poised, covering similar territory to Tim Severin's In Search of Moby Dick. An account of Western hostages in Kashmir is expertly crafted, but the book's centrepiece, and most developed account, is a long piece of journalism undertaken with Scott Anderson for Harper's Magazine on the partition of Cyprus. Having tossed a coin to decide who went to the Turkish Northern Cyprus and who to the Greek side, the Republic of Cyprus, they observe what has become a bitter, if fairly uneventful, political stalemate. In many ways, Cyprus epitomises a depressing outcome from Junger's travels, which is that opposition and aggression does seem to have an inherent hold on many of the world's communities, and especially their men.

Junger may lack Jon Krakauer's suspenseful control, but he possesses a tentacular grasp of specifics and an acute awareness of the warped dynamics of tragedy for journalists worldwide. While he basically forbears interior exploration on some of the questions thrown up by his adventures--such as the deep-felt, still prevalent need for heroes--his gritty dispatches guarantee compelling reading, and perhaps provoke, rather than supply, a quest for answers. --David Vincent

Sunday Telegraph
'Junger is an excellent story-teller and his strength lies as an observer ... he always manages to convey a powerful sense of immediacy'.

About the Author
Sebastian Junger grew up in New England and has worked as a tree-feller, Bosnian correspondent, journalist and adventurer. His first book, The Perfect Storm, has spent over four years on the bestseller lists and its film adaptation was a huge box-office success. Junger is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, and winner of the National Magazine Award for Reporting. He has also written for magazines including Harper's, the New York Times Magazine, and National Geographic Adventure.

Customer Reviews

Eclectic, Published Articles on Dangerous Situations
Caution: In quotations, this book often contains another four letter word that begins with "f." The purpose seems to be to capture the emotional intensity of those being interviewed. Many of the war essays include gruesome details about inhuman actions. If such things are hard for you to bear, please consider that before deciding to read this book.

This book often shows the skill of a well-disciplined story teller, taking you where you would probably never go on your own. Unfortunately, some essays shower you with more detail than you probably wanted to know. The strength of the book is that you will get a strong visceral sense of what it is like to be in these situations, often from graphic descriptions of injuries. The weakness of the book is that it usually says very little about what the lessons are for each of us. So you will probably find the coverage to be wider than it is deep. In most situations, you will see little more than that bad things happen to people who receive poor communications or poorly follow the good messages they do receive.

The title "Fire" (despite the cover art) should be considered by potential readers to be describing "danger" rather than a book which is The Perfect Storm treatment of smoke jumping (parachuting in to fight a forest or brush fire). If you want a novelization of a recent cataclysmic event, Fire is not the book for you. These are factual essays featuring the observations of those who lived the events.

Journalist Sebastian Junger was drawn to the idea of being a smoke jumper as a young man. Finding out that he could not qualify to become one, Mr. Junger instead learned to climb trees to earn money while developing his writing career. Soon, he found himself drawn to the unexpected potential dangers of that kind of work. Having injured himself due to inattention, he was shaken to realize that he should pursue his thrills vicariously as a writer.

Without a book contract, he began doing on-site research about dangerous occupations. Fortunately, he was granted access to his beloved smoke jumpers and produced two essays about them. "Fire 1992" describes two visits he made to Idaho in that year to observe first a minor and then a major fire. "Blow Up: What Went Wrong at Storm King Mountain 1994" looks at the tragic death of firefighters in Colorado when a "creeper" of a fire suddenly moved forward at 18 miles per hour and wiped out all but three people who were on the slope. Both stories contain many exciting moments, lots of interesting information about fighting fires, and useful perspectives on how to manage a situation with people at risk with unpredictable frequency.

The book then takes an abrupt turn and interviews the "last living harpooner" on Bequia in the West Indies, "The Whale Hunters 1995." Under the whaling conventions, islanders are allowed to kill two humpbacks a year, and usually don't. Mr. Athneal Ollivierre describes what it is like to go out in a small sailing ship with a hand harpoon and kill a full-grown humpback whale. The article also tells a lot about the international politics of protecting versus hunting whales. If you are like me and would like to preserve whales, you will probably find this story more disgusting than interesting. In reality, not much happens during Mr. Junger's visit. The harpooner had earlier retired. No whales were caught in 1994, and none were seen in 1995 prior to this article.

"Escape from Kashmir 1996" then begins a series of articles about bloody actions by guerrilla bands and governments. The exciting part of this story is that one man escapes, and you learn more about how he did it. "Kosovo's Valley of Death 1998" explores atrocities in Prekaz where Serbian police murdered 55 people. "Dispatches from a Dead War 1999" contains articles by both Mr. Scott Anderson (visiting the Turkish part of northern Cyprus) and Mr. Junger (visiting the Greek Cypriot southern part of Cyprus).and brilliantly explores how a Turkish invasion in 1974 has been institutionalized into a permanent source of potential conflict. "Colter's Way 1999" returns to the American West to consider the implications of John Colter's legendary escape from the Blackfeet while naked and barefoot by outrunning his captors. Flourishing in the dangerous frontier, Colter was dead within two years of civilized living. "The Forensics of War 1999" describes the details of pursuing Serbian war criminals, from finding evidence among the corpses to the legal issues involved in establishing guilt. "The Terror of Sierra Leone" looks at how the riches of the diamond trade in Sierra Leone serve to unsettle the peace. "The Lion in Winter 2001" is a compelling portrait of Northern Alliance leader Massoud against the Taliban prior to his assassination two days before the attacks on the United States in September 2001. Excluding the Cloture article, each of these essays is interesting for its perspectives on what causes these unending conflicts, why they are so hard to end, and what might be done differently to bring about peace and reconciliation.

The book's overall theme is the human fascination with danger, even while filled with fear. People want to have those experiences. Journalists want to be there and write about the experiences. And many armchair adventurers want to read about these gritty events, which is why this book sells well.

I came away with great respect for Mr. Junger, after appreciating what he had to go through to locate and write about these stories. His willingness to take on risks for readers is clearly a five-star effort!

Where do dangers bring out the best in you? Where do dangers steal away your potential to be your finest? How can you select your path to be more effective?

How can you help solve the problems of troubled people and nations everywhere?

Eclectic, Published Articles on Dangerous Situations
Cautions:

(1) In quotations, this book often contains another four letter word that begins with "f." The purpose seems to be to capture the emotional intensity of those being interviewed.

(2) Many of the war essays include gruesome details about inhuman actions. If such things are hard for you to bear, please consider that before deciding to read this book.

This book often shows the skill of a well-disciplined story teller, taking you where you would probably never go on your own. Unfortunately, some essays shower you with more detail than you probably wanted to know. The strength of the book is that you will get a strong visceral sense of what it is like to be in these situations, often from graphic descriptions of injuries. The weakness of the book is that it usually says very little about what the lessons are for each of us. So you will probably find the coverage to be wider than it is deep. In most situations, you will see little more than that bad things happen to people who receive poor communications or poorly follow the good messages they do receive.

The title "Fire" (despite the cover art) should be considered by potential readers to be describing "danger" rather than a book which is The Perfect Storm treatment of smoke jumping (parachuting in to fight a forest or brush fire). If you want a novelization of a recent cataclysmic event, Fire is not the book for you. These are factual essays featuring the observations of those who lived the events.

Journalist Sebastian Junger was drawn to the idea of being a smoke jumper as a young man. Finding out that he could not qualify to become one, Mr. Junger instead learned to climb trees to earn money while developing his writing career. Soon, he found himself drawn to the unexpected potential dangers of that kind of work. Having injured himself due to inattention, he was shaken to realize that he should pursue his thrills vicariously as a writer.

Without a book contract, he began doing on-site research about dangerous occupations. Fortunately, he was granted access to his beloved smoke jumpers and produced two essays about them. "Fire 1992" describes two visits he made to Idaho in that year to observe first a minor and then a major fire. "Blow Up: What Went Wrong at Storm King Mountain 1994" looks at the tragic death of firefighters in Colorado when a "creeper" of a fire suddenly moved forward at 18 miles per hour and wiped out all but three people who were on the slope. Both stories contain many exciting moments, lots of interesting information about fighting fires, and useful perspectives on how to manage a situation with people at risk with unpredictable frequency.

The book then takes an abrupt turn and interviews the "last living harpooner" on Bequia in the West Indies, "The Whale Hunters 1995." Under the whaling conventions, islanders are allowed to kill two humpbacks a year, and usually don't. Mr. Athneal Ollivierre describes what it is like to go out in a small sailing ship with a hand harpoon and kill a full-grown humpback whale. The article also tells a lot about the international politics of protecting versus hunting whales. If you are like me and would like to preserve whales, you will probably find this story more disgusting than interesting. In reality, not much happens during Mr. Junger's visit. The harpooner had earlier retired. No whales were caught in 1994, and none were seen in 1995 prior to this article.

"Escape from Kashmir 1996" then begins a series of articles about bloody actions by guerrilla bands and governments. The exciting part of this story is that one man escapes, and you learn more about how he did it. "Kosovo's Valley of Death 1998" explores atrocities in Prekaz where Serbian police murdered 55 people. "Dispatches from a Dead War 1999" contains articles by both Mr. Scott Anderson (visiting the Turkish part of northern Cyprus) and Mr. Junger (visiting the Greek Cypriot southern part of Cyprus).and brilliantly explores how a Turkish invasion in 1974 has been institutionalized into a permanent source of potential conflict. "Colter's Way 1999" returns to the American West to consider the implications of John Colter's legendary escape from the Blackfeet while naked and barefoot by outrunning his captors. Flourishing in the dangerous frontier, Colter was dead within two years of civilized living. "The Forensics of War 1999" describes the details of pursuing Serbian war criminals, from finding evidence among the corpses to the legal issues involved in establishing guilt. "The Terror of Sierra Leone" looks at how the riches of the diamond trade in Sierra Leone serve to unsettle the peace. "The Lion in Winter 2001" is a compelling portrait of Northern Alliance leader Massoud against the Tailbone prior to his assassination two days before the attacks on the United States in September 2001. Excluding the Cloture article, each of these essays is interesting for its perspectives on what causes these unending conflicts, why they are so hard to end, and what might be done differently to bring about peace and reconciliation.

The book's overall theme is the human fascination with danger, even while filled with fear. People want to have those experiences. Journalists want to be there and write about the experiences. And many armchair adventurers want to read about these gritty events, which is why this book sells well.

I came away with great respect for Mr. Junger, after appreciating what he had to go through to locate and write about these stories. His willingness to take on risks for readers is clearly a five-star effort!

Where do dangers bring out the best in you? Where do dangers steal away your potential to be your finest? How can you select your path to be more effective?

How can you help solve the problems of troubled people and nations everywhere?

Eclectic, Published Articles on Dangerous Situations
Cautions:

In quotations, this book often contains another four letter word that begins with "f." The purpose seems to be to capture the emotional intensity of those being interviewed.

Many of the war essays include gruesome details about inhuman actions. If such things are hard for you to bear, please consider that before deciding to read this book.

This book often shows the skill of a well-disciplined story teller, taking you where you would probably never go on your own. Unfortunately, some essays shower you with more detail than you probably wanted to know. The strength of the book is that you will get a strong visceral sense of what it is like to be in these situations, often from graphic descriptions of injuries. The weakness of the book is that it usually says very little about what the lessons are for each of us. So you will probably find the coverage to be wider than it is deep. In most situations, you will see little more than that bad things happen to people who receive poor communications or poorly follow the good messages they do receive.

The title "Fire" (despite the cover art) should be considered by potential readers to be describing "danger" rather than a book which is The Perfect Storm treatment of smoke jumping (parachuting in to fight a forest or brush fire). If you want a novelization of a recent cataclysmic event, Fire is not the book for you. These are factual essays featuring the observations of those who lived the events.

Journalist Sebastian Junger was drawn to the idea of being a smoke jumper as a young man. Finding out that he could not qualify to become one, Mr. Junger instead learned to climb trees to earn money while developing his writing career. Soon, he found himself drawn to the unexpected potential dangers of that kind of work. Having injured himself due to inattention, he was shaken to realize that he should pursue his thrills vicariously as a writer.

Without a book contract, he began doing on-site research about dangerous occupations. Fortunately, he was granted access to his beloved smoke jumpers and produced two essays about them. "Fire 1992" describes two visits he made to Idaho in that year to observe first a minor and then a major fire. "Blow Up: What Went Wrong at Storm King Mountain 1994" looks at the tragic death of firefighters in Colorado when a "creeper" of a fire suddenly moved forward at 18 miles per hour and wiped out all but three people who were on the slope. Both stories contain many exciting moments, lots of interesting information about fighting fires, and useful perspectives on how to manage a situation with people at risk with unpredictable frequency.

The book then takes an abrupt turn and interviews the "last living harpooner" on Bequia in the West Indies, "The Whale Hunters 1995." Under the whaling conventions, islanders are allowed to kill two humpbacks a year, and usually don't. Mr. Athneal Ollivierre describes what it is like to go out in a small sailing ship with a hand harpoon and kill a full-grown humpback whale. The article also tells a lot about the international politics of protecting versus hunting whales. If you are like me and would like to preserve whales, you will probably find this story more disgusting than interesting. In reality, not much happens during Mr. Junger's visit. The harpooner had earlier retired. No whales were caught in 1994, and none were seen in 1995 prior to this article.

"Escape from Kashmir 1996" then begins a series of articles about bloody actions by guerrilla bands and governments. The exciting part of this story is that one man escapes, and you learn more about how he did it. "Kosovo's Valley of Death 1998" explores atrocities in Prekaz where Serbian police murdered 55 people. "Dispatches from a Dead War 1999" contains articles by both Mr. Scott Anderson (visiting the Turkish part of northern Cyprus) and Mr. Junger (visiting the Greek Cypriot southern part of Cyprus).and brilliantly explores how a Turkish invasion in 1974 has been institutionalized into a permanent source of potential conflict. "Colter's Way 1999" returns to the American West to consider the implications of John Colter's legendary escape from the Blackfeet while naked and barefoot by outrunning his captors. Flourishing in the dangerous frontier, Colter was dead within two years of civilized living. "The Forensics of War 1999" describes the details of pursuing Serbian war criminals, from finding evidence among the corpses to the legal issues involved in establishing guilt. "The Terror of Sierra Leone" looks at how the riches of the diamond trade in Sierra Leone serve to unsettle the peace. "The Lion in Winter 2001" is a compelling portrait of Northern Alliance leader Massoud against the Tailbone prior to his assassination two days before the attacks on the United States in September 2001. Excluding the Cloture article, each of these essays is interesting for its perspectives on what causes these unending conflicts, why they are so hard to end, and what might be done differently to bring about peace and reconciliation.

The book's overall theme is the human fascination with danger, even while filled with fear. People want to have those experiences. Journalists want to be there and write about the experiences. And many armchair adventurers want to read about these gritty events, which is why this book sells well.

I came away with great respect for Mr. Junger, after appreciating what he had to go through to locate and write about these stories. His willingness to take on risks for readers is clearly a five-star effort!

Where do dangers bring out the best in you? Where do dangers steal away your potential to be your finest? How can you select your path to be more effective?

How can you help solve the problems of troubled people and nations everywhere?