Fires

by Rick Bass, LeVar Burton (Narrator)

In this mediative tale, a runner spends a summer training in a remote mountain town. This story appears in the collection For a Little While by Rick Bass.

Genres: Short Stories, Audiobook, Fiction

Podcast

About the author

Rick Bass was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and grew up in Houston, the son of a geologist. He studied petroleum geology at Utah State University and while working as a petroleum geologist in Jackson, Mississippi, began writing short stories on his lunch breaks. In 1987, he moved with his wife, the artist Elizabeth Hughes Bass, to Montana’s remote Yaak Valley and became an active environmentalist, working to protect his adopted home from the destructive encroachment of roads and logging. He serves on the board of both the Yaak Valley Forest Council and Round River Conservation Studies and continues to live with his family on a ranch in Montana, actively engaged in saving the American wilderness.

Bass received the PEN/Nelson Algren Award in 1988 for his first short story, “The Watch,” and won the James Jones Fellowship Award for his novel Where the Sea Used To Be. His novel The Hermit’s Story was a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year in 2000. The Lives of Rocks was a finalist for the Story Prize and was chosen as a Best Book of the Year in 2006 by the Rocky Mountain News. Bass’s stories have also been awarded the Pushcart Prize and the O. Henry Award and have been collected in The Best American Short Stories.

Reviews

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as much a narrative than a string of moments—the prose is lonely, meditative, shared with great clarity and no elaboration. About how we run, the young unnamed blurs of fear, reason, and stamina that bring us to run, and the rings of fiery grass that surround our slowing, speeding jackhammer lives. A lot to glean. Loved this one.

[RosieLee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful short story. Thank you LeVar Burton for including this story in your podcast and thereby introducing me to Rick Bass. I felt compelled to write a review because I don't understand why this story has such low ratings!
In my reading, the fires are a metaphor for the protagonist and the runner's passion for each other. The slow suspenseful build to the passionate ending in the last moment can only be done by a very experienced and talented writer. I really enjoyed how the protagonist kept pulling himself back from his feelings. I also appreciate the sparse writing that explains life in the mountains, but if read again, is deep in significance and meaning. I feel that every single word in this story was intended to be there and not a single word more.

[Amy Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really odd story. I loved the setting descriptions and details, and found the general plot device (a runner in Montana for the summer to train at high altitude) at least mildly intriguing, but the ending just confused me. I have no idea why she did what she did, and these days, it absolutely would start a raging fire that did a heckuva lot of damage, so I'm not particularly sympathetic, either. Maybe if I listen to it again, I can make more sense of it? Up until that point, it was a nice, meditative listen.

[Meredith · Rating 2 out of 5]

The narrator recounts the summer that a marathon runner came to his remote Montana valley to train at high altitude.

Considering how recent wildfires accidentally started by people with no sinister intentions through carelessness/stupidity caused millions of dollars in damage and resulted in the deaths of innocent people, I found the arson perpetrated solely for the thrill at the end of the story quite shocking.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

LeVar Burton's performance is good, but that's all that is really notable.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty decent.
Worth a read just for the nostalgia and reflection this story produces.

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely summer love story that’s a little different.

[Felecia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bass has a very evocative style that pulls you into the story with the characters. There is something about the setting, the situation.

[Tim W.]

Read to me by the Levar Burton Podcast

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dang it I so wanted them together
Listened to on Libby app

[Frieda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a soft and gentle tale, of being comfortable with someone without other stuff getting in the way.

[Alexis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Upon first read/listen, I did not enjoy this. I'm not sure why. It is a very simple story with the setting and almost a character in the story being nature itself. Perhaps after the pandemic, some life changes, and a summer of wildfire smoke, I am better able to appreciate this story. I think LeVar Burton describes it well as a quiet story.