'Fire Season' examines ins, outs of business

"FIRE SEASON: Field Notes From a Wilderness Lookout," by Philip Connors, Ecco/HarperCollins, $24.99, 256 pages (nf)

Philip Connors' account of life as a fire lookout is just what you might expect from a man who left his job as an editor at the Wall Street Journal on the bustling streets of Manhattan for almost complete isolation in wilderness: the book is a dichotomy of poetry and prose, narrative and facts, philosophy and humor.

Tying in the experiences of famous fire lookouts of history, Connors' work is an informative documentation of the ins and outs of his profession. He starts the morning by reporting his station, scans the horizon for spindles of smoke while typewriting, naming landmarks or simply watching the sky fade from blue to pink, and then spends the evening fly fishing and hiking with his dog Alice. And when fires do arise, Connors engagingly explains his deductive logic in locating the flames, treating the fire and deciding the best escape route, should the fire get out of control.

"Fire Season" brings to light the American anthropological view of fire and forest, and is an argument for allowing controlled wildfires, rather than constantly combating an inevitable and natural cycle.

Whereas Thoreau's "Walden" is a "counter-cultural sermon" and Edward Abbey's "Desert Solitaire" is a "narrative thrust," as Connors puts it, his own book about nature strays from the typical nature book formula.

In every instance where Connors delves into deep introspection aroused from spending five months in a 7-foot by 7-foot tower 10,000 feet above sea level in remote New Mexico, he caps off his sentiments with an abrupt, self-aware comment to lighten the mood.

Anytime he wanders into the realm of elite nature man with no need for society, he circles back to reality by mentioning a love of sports on television and dinner at a nice restaurant.

Connors' reasoning behind his insatiable thirst for solitude and scenic views also serves as a mantra for his book. "It's more a matter of achieve some measure of balance, some substantial contact with that part of ourselves that relishes a campfire under a sky berserk with stars, 40 miles from the nearest social worker, completely reliant on our own dexterity."

At some time or another, such a rudimentary setting seems like utopia for every human downtrodden by media and technology overload of the modern day. But for those lacking the freedom, gumption or plain will power to taste such a romantic life for themselves, simply reading Connors' account sure is fun.

IF YOU GO ...

What: Philip Connors book signing

When: Saturday, April 9, 6 p.m.

Where: Sam Weller's Books, 254 S. Main St., Salt Lake City

Web: www.samwellers.com

Brooke Brown is a writer with a love of fashion, cooking and music. Her fashion advice appears on Deseret News every Monday. She also blogs daily at www.keepfashion.wordpress.com. Her email is brooke.k.brown@gmail.com.