Fighting Fire

by Caroline Paul

Overview

Caroline Paul's compelling memoir, Fighting Fire, offers a rare look at the inner world of the San Francisco fire department and how, in the midst of the most life-threatening occupation, she found her life purpose.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780982279731
Publisher:	Skywriter Books
Publication date:	10/01/2011
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	226
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.55(d)

Editorial Reviews

This memoir of one of the first women to penetrate the all-male bastion of the San Francisco Fire Department offers the story of one womanþs education in political consciousness and personal discovery. It also provides valuable insights into the life and day-to-day dangers facing a metropolitan firefighter. Stanford University graduate and aspiring filmmaker Paul cannot account for her desire to become a firefighter. Her motivations are deeply seated in some primordial fascination with one of natureþs most mysterious elements as well as with a strong desire to prove that she could do something virtually everyone believed she couldnþt. Emerging from a genteel, upper-middle-class family, steeped in the '80s lifestyle of healthy habits, committed to trendy social causes, and gorgeous (her identical twin lands a part as a Baywatch þBabeþ), Paul is an unlikely candidate for one of the most physically and mentally demanding professions in the world. Nevertheless, she works her way through the training and probationary period, past male chauvinist resistance, and finally earns her stripes as a reliable member of an engine crew and then as an heroic part of a rescue squad. Along the way, she earns a graduate degree in film, has at least one or two serious relationships, and still finds time to campaign against the illegal imprisonment of her brother, who has been incarcerated for his militant animal rights activities. The narrative is repetitive and sometimes slowed by sophomoric sociological and psychological observations and a plethora of inexcusable grammatical errors. It is also marred by a herky-jerky sentence style that extends to an episodic, anecdotalstructure. But the memoir eventually rises above such flaws to offer an outstanding account of one womanþs struggle to prove her personal worth and courage and to make her place in a world previously reserved exclusively for men. (First serial to Reader's Digest; Book-of-the-Month Club/Quality Paperback Book Club featured alternate selection; author tour)

Kirkus Reviews

A rare glimpse through female eyes into the testosterone-laden world of the firehouse...Fighting Fire offers perhaps the most compelling explanation yet as to why some people actually enjoy the window-shattering, blood-boiling, bone-melting heat of a roaring blaze.” —Entertainment Weekly

“A compelling behind-the-scenes story...immediate and real.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“This is the story of her nine years (so far) combating flames— and sexism. A truly hot read!” —Mademoiselle

From the Publisher