Summary Of Jumping Fire By Murry Taylor

In Murry Taylor’s memoir titled Jumping Fire, Taylor takes readers to the Alaskan Wilderness where he and other firefighters parachute from planes to fight forest fires. These individuals are smokejumpers. Written from 1992 to 2000 the story documents a summer firefighting season in a diary style narrative. The author became an active smokejumper in 1965 and upon his retirement in 2000 was the oldest active smokejumper and the oldest to ever do the job. Taylor willingly jumped out of an airplane 355 times, with 200 being actually down to a burning fire. Armed with only the equipment they parachute down with, smokejumpers contain and control massive forest fires, usually by cutting and digging fire line. Yearly, Taylor worked for the

Throughout the short fire season, Taylor was involved with two women and described his feelings and interactions explicitly. “I lay awake a long time holding a sleeping Sally in my arms, feeling her close, feeling her warm breath” (293). While this idea allows the story to describe situations outside of the firefighting setting, they degrade the book. Taylor mistakenly believed that since the book was a memoir he should relay everything that occurred, including his love life. Portions of the book focus on Taylor’s feelings and longing for a woman’s touch. The reader is looking for smoke jumping tales, and is distracted from the heroic, badass stories with pages that would fit better in 50 Shades of

Taylor greatly enjoys being able to live and work in nature, and views it as sublime. “It hovered in the soft morning light like some defiant creature that had crawled out of the bowels of the earth” (290). In the presence of a fire that could easily kill him or others he choose to describe it with vivid language. Taylor values being alone, a common theme seen by Romantics. He is a leader and can work with a team, but enjoys both living and working in solitude. Unfortunately, due to his personality and writing style, Taylor can also be seen as weak. He becomes entranced by women and is very heartbroken and upset, feelings his conveys onto the reader at length. He admits himself, “I guess I let myself get carried away” (424) when referring to a woman who left him. While Taylor was able to use his personality type to write the book with detail and clarity, the style constantly changes from a serious, masculine and dangerous tone to one discussing feelings. The reader can be left confused and somewhat irritated switching between the