Book Reviews,  Creative Non-Fiction

Fire by Sebastian Junger *** (of 4)

This is a series of reports from the late 90s, magazine articles originally, about dangerous jobs and dangerous people: smokejumpers, jihadists in Afghanistan, blood thirsty rebels in Ivory Coast, massacres in Kosovo. Junger displays two traits that have become his hallmark. One is his fascination with danger that he brings to life because of his fearlessness as a reporter. The second is his extraordinary attributes as a writer. A series of articles that could have become monotonous instead were riveting in every aspect by their understated sense of place and time. There isn’t an extra word in his text, nor ever an exclamation mark, yet his impact arrives like a boxer’s punch. February 2008.