A Forest Burning

Ted Thring is a book reviewer for the Queen’s University radio
station.

This novel opens with a horrifying scene. Sally Groves is the pilot of a
helicopter carrying a group of photographers to cover a forest fire in
Northern Ontario. Suddenly one of the passengers plunges from the
aircraft to his death in the flames. The event is captured on film by
the others and becomes the sensation of the news channels for the next
few days.

What follows is an account of Sally’s life, beginning on a
family-owned island in Long Island Sound, where she gave birth to an
illegitimate son. The son was adopted and brought up by the man who
committed suicide. Sally has never met her son.

The story unfolds partly through an exchange of letters and partly
through a series of flashbacks to her early days. Unfortunately, this
method of narration makes it difficult for the reader to distinguish
between the actions of the numerous characters in the two settings and
to follow what might otherwise be an interesting story.