The Glass Inferno [Hardcover]

When Warner Bros and 20th Century Fox decided to make their own high rise disaster pic, one picked "The Tower" and the other "The Glass Inferno"; they realized they each will be making similar movies. So in a rare instance of common sense, the two studio combined resources and churned out "The Towering Inferno". Despite having the movie based on the two novels, the end result resemble more on "The Glass Inferno" rather than "The Tower." In fact, the only thing the movie retain from "The Tower" was the breeches bouy and several characters, some of which have their own counterparts in "The Glass Inferno".

If you have seen "The Towering Inferno", then you will know what the novel is about. Of course, the novel doesn't have the stupid insipid dialogue the movie was saddled with. And "The Glass Infnero" ends on a brighter note that the movie.

As a point of interest, the building is known as the "Glass Tower", 66 stories high and equipped with a scenic elevator and a promenade room. And Jennifer Jones' character, Lisolette Mueller, who "enjoyed" a spectacular death scene in the movie, survived in the novel in her own spectacular way (she climbed down the blown stariwell BY HERSELF without help and with a kid on her back).

Overall, the book is good, espcially how chapters are devoted to the fire itself; describing it as "the beast", and chronicling it from its "birth" with a cotton string as its umbilical cord, and to its death....as if the fire was a living entity in itself.

The Glass Inferno, co-written by Thomas Scortia and Frank Robinson, is one of the two novels (along with The Tower) that became the classic disaster movie "The Towering Inferno" (See what they did there?).

Set in an an unnamed Anycity, USA, the book chronicles the traumatic, destructive events of a single wintry evening. The centerpiece of the story is the Glass House - a beautiful-and-controversial new skyscraper.

The reader is quickly introduced to the story's villain: the fire. From ember to blaze to really, really big blaze to ashes, the fire is daringly personified. The authors even use the fire's perspective to introduce each chapter, going so far as to give it a vicious, animalistic motivation. Especially in the early part of the book, when the fire is 'sneaking' about unnoticed, this literary device adds a lot of tension to otherwise dry introductory material.

The other characters (the human ones) are a mixed lot. Even before the fire eats most of downtown Townsville, the residents and visitors to the Glass House are all having a traumatic evening. A local reporter is doing his damnedest to crucify the tower (appropriately for its bad fire codes...), causing a bit of (necessary, if belated) panic. The hero architect is in a professional battle with his boss, the developer, as well as a personal one with his shrewish wife. A clerk contemplates some larceny, a businessman's affair comes to an end, a con man moves in for the kill, a fireman wrestles with career ennui and a maintenance man does his best to drink himself to death. The Glass House is a very busy (and bleak) building.

To give praise where it is due, Scortia and Robinson do a fantastic job fleshing out the entire cast in very little time... even if it is just to roast that flesh from their bones. The authors don't hesitate to narrow their focus in key places, in order to maximize the sense of horror. The flame's many inevitable victims don't go nicely, and even the survivors spend most of the book vomiting and/or inhaling the charred remains of their neighbors. One death - involving a storeroom of melted plastic Santas - is notably disgusting, and has definitely oozed its way to the top of my 'ways not to go' list.

While The Glass Inferno doesn't surprise with its plot - either overall or in any of the little twists - it does with its surprisingly-detailed (and occasionally progressive) characters and its tactical use of horror. The authors take care to keep the reader involved in the action, by constantly reminding them of what is at stake - both the value of life and the horror of (burning/oozing/falling) death.

Twentieth-Century Fox and Warner Bros. knew what they were doing when they adapted The Glass Inferno into the disaster epic, The Towering Inferno. Scortia and Robinson put together an convincing scenario in which San Francisco's tallest building goes up in flames.

There's no denying that the authors know their stuff. The characters and the action stay crisp and sharp. Even today, such a cautionary novel should give readers pause the next time they venture into the concrete caverns of our modern cities.

Though not as good, The Tower, by Richard Martin Stern, should be read in tandem with The Glass Inferno. The Towering Inferno also draws from it.

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