In part "Timber" is the simple, virile, roughly tender story of the friendship between … two young loggers—a friendship which survives, though narrowly, the strain of their attraction to the same girl … There is something not much short of Homeric in this chronicle of their hard and dangerous and zestful lives.

But beyond this, "Timber" will be remembered as a remarkable study of the logging industry, set down in full and loving detail as only a logger could have done it. One observes in this connection—and not by any means for the first time—how great an advantage it is to a novelist to know what he is talking about, and to know it from honest first-hand experience….

This is what Roderick Haig-Brown does for the men who get out the giant logs from the steep forests of British Columbia. Like other writers who turn to fiction...