Title: Cascade of Flames
Author: Mary Ellen Goulet
Publisher: Outskirts Press, Denver, CO
Published 2011
ISBN: 9781432762582
Reviewed by Christine Hunt

Genre: Nonfiction
Subgenre: History/U.S./Upper Midwest; Nature/Natural Disasters
Rating: 3 out of 5

There is much to appreciate about this book which recounts an horrific event in South Dakota’s history — the July 2007 firestorm that danced, bullied, and ravaged its way through some of the most beautiful forests of western South Dakota. The author’s passion for her subject is evident, but more important is her compassion for those affected by the blaze.

Each chapter is devoted to one of the dozens of individuals involved, most in fighting the fire but also those required to flee it. Each story begins with the activities of July 7 and follows the chapter’s subject through the next three to five days, in the process revealing fire-fighting techniques and how to deal with a disaster of this kind.  Thirty individuals, couples, or teams have their stories relayed, each in a separate chapter, in a straightforward telling of their actions and activities, interspersed in a majority of the chapters with a recounting of thoughts and events in that individual’s own words. Here and there the reader can begin to see how the stories weave together – and that, to me, was the shortcoming of this work.

The further I read the more I longed to see the wide sweep of events laid out in chronological order, to enable me to get a better understanding of the geographic area, to meet the individuals one-by-one then see them weave in and out of each other’s lives as they dealt with the anticipation and fear, then the pulsating reality and activity, the remorse over their devastating losses, and finally the struggles to rebuild and go on with life. Since each story was presented independent of the others, I missed the connections those individuals shared, missed any steadily mounting emotions brought on by the crisis. Beginning the story all over again at the top of each new chapter I was not enabled to emotionally connect and, regretfully, began to lose interest as the same events occurred over and over and over again.

I want to say nothing that diminishes the hardships encountered through this tragic event; they are many, and the author relates them within each chapter in a clear, progressive fashion that allows the reader to hear the crackle and feel the heat of those deadly flames. I only wish that the story had a more chronological presentation so that I could better understand not only the fire’s geographic progression but I could have become emotionally connected to the individuals and, thereby, seen and felt the devastation through their eyes rather than simply reading about it.

Disclosure: This book was provided free-of-cost with the understanding a review would be given.