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Title: Not a Perfect Storm
Review: I confess that I went into this book a tad cynical. I felt that anyone writing about smoke jumpers has to contend with Norman Maclean's unforgettable YOUNG MEN AND FIRE, but I had enjoyed-if that is the right word- PERFECT STORM so much that I assumed that if anyone could match Maclean's mixture of technical detail, energy, and lyricism it would be Junger. Well, he can't, or if he can he hasn't here. One gathers that just about everything in this collection was written for various magazines, and it is perhaps a pity that Junger didn't heavily edit the essays, revise them, focus on one or two topics and really make a book. Not that these pieces are particularly bad, I read 'em, but I doubt if I will remember them much past next month.
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