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One Foot in the Black

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Written by Our Reviewer
Thursday, 23 October 2008
What It Takes to Fight Wildfires Book Review by Stuart Nachbar Kurt Kamm’s One Foot in the Black is a novel of firefighting with very realistic details of the training and hazards of fighting wildfires. I only knew of wildfires from television, so I appreciated learning about the people who fight them. One Foot in the Black My prior frame of reference to this story was Backdraft, the 1991 movie starring Kurt Russell, William Baldwin and Robert DeNiro. Gregory Widen, the writer of the screenplay for Backdraft, worked as a fireman for three years; he had witnessed the death of a friend in a backdraft. While the storyline was based upon an arson investigation, Backdraft was as much about gritty city politics as it was about firefighting. One Foot in the Black has adventure and an investigation, but it doesn’t come until close to the end of the story, and it has nothing to do with politics. I learned more about the character of firefighters in One Foot in the Black than I did about adventure, but that was fine. I could not imagine that someone who fights wildfires for a living, and put his life into situations far beyond his control, would not be a unique character. Before I started One Foot in the Black I would have believed that such a person would be like a soldier; he’d put the mission before his life. However, he is fighting an enemy that is not human; it is nature turned into a destructive force. That battle might play different tricks on the mind than a military skirmish. Greg Kowalski, Kamm’s main character, and the son of a fireman, did not originally plan on being a firefighter himself. He was presented with a seasonal opportunity by his father’s boss, which was a bus ticket to escape from his father’s abuse. While his father had enjoyed the camaraderie that goes along with being part of a fire company, he doesn’t seem to enjoy the work and takes his frustrations out on his family, except for Greg, whom he merely ignores. He takes his son on a father-son outing then abandons him in a hotel to pursue extramarital companionship, then later when Greg is of high school age, he is conspicuously absent during his son’s hockey championship games. Throughout this novel, Kowalski develops into a skilled firefighter and a reliable teammate, but he never loses his frustrations as a man, especially in his relationships with women. Without remorse he leaves a high school girlfriend behind to go to California to take a seasonal job then he has an unpleasant sexual encounter with a woman he meets on the bus westward. He ends that encounter with the same anger and frustration as his father has with his mother. Later, he shows distrust for a California equestrienne who actually cares for him and tries to show friendship. Kowalski is most comfortable being with the guys, part of the team. He admires Tom Bratton, who leads the company, but he does not want to become a leader himself. He works with family men, but he does not want to become a father; he does not even like when the fathers on his team talk about their families. He’s more comfortable being part of the group, sharing practical jokes and just doing the job. He approaches the job with emotional detachment—just as he perceives his father did—until Bratton dies. In conclusion, I liked One Foot in the Black. It educated me about some very brave people, but also showed their flaws quite nicely. Contact Stuart Nachbar at http://www.EducatedQuest.com , a blog on education politics, policy and technology or read about his first book, The Sex Ed Chronicle, a novel on education and politics in 1980 New Jersey, at http://www.SexEdChronicles.com .
Last Updated ( Thursday, 23 October 2008 )