Wildfire: A Novel
Mary Pauline Lowry, 2014
Skyhorse Publishing
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781629144979
Summary
Julie has an obsession with fire that began after her parents died when she was twelve years old. Her pyromania leads her to take an unlikely job as a forest firefighter on an elite, Type 1 "Hotshot" crew of forest firefighters who travel the American West battling wildfires.
The only woman on the twenty person crew, Julie struggles both to prove her worth and find a place of belonging in the dangerous, insular, and very masculine world of fire (while also fighting against an eating disorder she's had since her teens).
As her season "on the line" progresses so do her relationships with the strange and varied cast of characters that make up her hotshots team—and she learns what it means to put your life on the line for someone else.
Wildfire is a tough, gritty, and fascinating story from an exciting new voice in American fiction. Fans of the movie Backdraft or Cheryl Strayed’s memoir Wild will enjoy this fast paced debut.
Author Bio
• Birth—March 3, 1976
• Where—Austin, Texas, USA
• Education—B.A., Colorado College; M.A., University of Texas
• Currently—lives in Southern California
Mary Pauline Lowry worked for two years as a forest firefighter on the elite Pike Interagency Hotshot Crew based on the Pike National Forest in Colorado. "Hotshots are the best-trained and best-equipped wildland firefighters, sometimes referred to as the Navy SEALs of their profession" (Rolling Stone Magazine).
As a Hotshot, Lowry traveled all over the American West with her crew fighting wildfires ranging in size from single tree lightening strikes to 20,000 acre blazes. Hotshot crews are "hand crews" that do not use water to fight blazes. Instead they dig a firebreak or "fireline" around the fire to deprive it of fuel. With her crew, Lowry hiked or was helicoptered in to fires and dug fireline for 15 hours or more a day. During fire season, she and her crew would work 21 days at a time fighting fire and camping out.
Lowry left the Hotshot crew to attend graduate school, receiving an M.A. in English (concentration Creative Writing) from the University of Texas at Austin. Lowry has since worked in the movement to end violence against women as a counselor at a domestic violence shelter, advocate on the National Domestic Violence Hotline, and public policy analyst at the Texas Council on Family Violence.
Lowry is a native of Austin, TX, currently residing in Orange County, CA. She has written essays for the New York Times Magazine, xoJane and the Huffington Post. Her novel Wildfire (2014) is inspired by her experiences as a wildland firefighter.
Wildfire has been optioned for film by Bill Mechanic and Suzanne Warren. Lowry has written the script and the project is in development. (From the author.)
Visit the author's website.
Book Reviews
Wildfire will haunt readers long after they close the cover of this gripping, action-packed novel. Foreword Reviews
The Hotshots world is exotic and specialized and the entry she offers is stunning and rare. But it is the heart of this book you will most want to know. Here is an original and special voice.
Anthony Swofford, author of Jarhead
Mary Lowry’s Wildfire is one of those unique books that appear from time to time, a sort of Huck Finn meets Moby Dick, that is, if Huck was a spunky young woman and the white whale was a wildfire.
Craig Nova, author of All the Dead Yale Men
Mary Lowry’s Wildfire is absolutely riveting. A vivid, evocative, and emotionally complex journey through a dangerous and beautiful world.
Lou Berney, author of Gutshot Straight and The Road to Bobby Joe and Other Stories
Lowry paints a vivid portrait of life as a hotshot.... In such scenes of true-to-life suspense and well-rendered detail, it's easy to forget this is a novel and not a work of nonfiction. Indeed, the writing is strongest where it reveals the extreme physical endurance of and deep camaraderie that forms in a hotshot crew.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. In Chapter One, we meet Julie at a gas station, asking for directions to the Pike Fire Center. What was your first impression of her? How did Julie’s experience of getting lost and duped foreshadow the challenges on her rocky road to acceptance as a hotshot?
2. Written in the first person, Wildfire is Julie’s story, told from Julie’s perspective. If the novel were written in the third person, would it have made you less sympathetic towards its protagonist? Would it have changed your view of the forbidding hotshots’ world?
3. What was your emotional reaction to Julie’s memories of playing with fire at age twelve, after her parents’ death?
4. When did you realize the severity of Julie’s eating disorder? How did being afflicted with bulimia shape Julie as a character? How did it affect your feelings about her?
5. Wildfire centers on Julie’s quest for belonging. Why do you think this young woman, raised by her prim grandmother, feels "at home" on the tough male-dominated turf of wildland firefighters?
6. Do you think Julie signed on to be a hotshot simply as an act of rebellion against Frosty? Or was her motivation driven by something deeper and more complicated?
7. How would you react if your daughter, granddaughter, or niece decided to become a forest firefighter?
8. Discuss Julie’s conflicted relationship with her grandmother. Did you view Frosty as a resentful or a reluctant guardian? What was your initial reaction to Julie’s bitter recollection of Frosty comparing her to her father? How did differences in personality and temperament widen the gulf between Julie and her grandmother?
9. Throughout Wildfire, Julie battles to not only prove her strength and stamina as a rookie, but also to overcome being dismissed purely on the basis of her gender. Are men who routinely brave grave dangers on the job—whether fighting fires, crime, or enemies in combat—justified for putting more pressure on female colleagues to prove their worth?
10. In the course of the novel, another woman takes up residence at the Pike Fire Center. Discuss Julie’s reaction to sharing her female-minority status with Bliss.
11. How did winning the nut roll eating contest mark a significant turning point in Julie’s development?
12. Discuss Julie’s relationship with Sam compared to Julie’s relationship with Archie. Did you see both men as father figures for Julie? Were you surprised when one of those relationships took a romantic turn?
13. Julie feels an intimate bond with Archie after witnessing him narrowly escaping being crushed to death by a falling tree. Have you ever experienced a life-threatening disaster with an acquaintance or stranger? If so, did the experience bring you closer together?
14. Loss is a major theme in the novel. What most struck or impressed you about how Julie handled the tragic loss of Archie?
15. Wildfire captures the unique camaraderie within a hotshot crew. Do you agree with Sam’s assessment that friendship beats romantic love?
16. Wildfire has been optioned for a major motion picture, currently in development, with a script written by Mary Pauline Lowry. If you could cast the movie, who would you choose to play Julie?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)