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readwithrichard's review against another edition
4.0
I first went to Fire Island in the late 2010s when I was around 30, and it felt like I had escaped heteronormative life when I arrived on that first visit. I’ve gone 3 or 4 times now and have been fascinated with the island ever since.
Parlett’s book is a fascinating history and includes a lot of really interesting facts and stories. I’m glad the book was candid about the island’s prevailing whiteness, and about its fixation on bodily perfection. It’s not fair to paint an entire group of people with broad brushstrokes, and I think Parlett narrowly avoids doing so by acknowledging that people of all body types, races and ages have found refuge on Fire Island, even if the general milieu of the island wasn’t as welcoming.
Two more observations:
While I certainly empathized with and/or enjoyed some of the sections about Parlett’s own life, I felt they were somewhat separate from the rest of the book. I wished the content of the book remained in the same tone, mostly separate from the author. Separately, he could write a memoir — his observations of his own life were interesting enough…I just thought they were their own thing.
And here’s another final thought. This was one of the rare books that I actually thought could have been longer. I wished there was more history about very early days of the island. For example, Parlett mentions it had been populated by Native Americans, but we don’t learn anything further. And I wanted a little more detail about the island in its earliest days — whatever could be excavated from the archives. The rest of the chronicles of the late 19th and 20th century are rich and interesting, but each chapter could have been a bit longer and more detailed. There seemed to be no lack of subjects to explore.
All in all, this is definitely a worthy book to read, especially for those who are regular visitors to Fire Island, and I’m so glad that the author has written this history, and also grateful for the fantastic reading list in the postscript.
Parlett’s book is a fascinating history and includes a lot of really interesting facts and stories. I’m glad the book was candid about the island’s prevailing whiteness, and about its fixation on bodily perfection. It’s not fair to paint an entire group of people with broad brushstrokes, and I think Parlett narrowly avoids doing so by acknowledging that people of all body types, races and ages have found refuge on Fire Island, even if the general milieu of the island wasn’t as welcoming.
Two more observations:
While I certainly empathized with and/or enjoyed some of the sections about Parlett’s own life, I felt they were somewhat separate from the rest of the book. I wished the content of the book remained in the same tone, mostly separate from the author. Separately, he could write a memoir — his observations of his own life were interesting enough…I just thought they were their own thing.
And here’s another final thought. This was one of the rare books that I actually thought could have been longer. I wished there was more history about very early days of the island. For example, Parlett mentions it had been populated by Native Americans, but we don’t learn anything further. And I wanted a little more detail about the island in its earliest days — whatever could be excavated from the archives. The rest of the chronicles of the late 19th and 20th century are rich and interesting, but each chapter could have been a bit longer and more detailed. There seemed to be no lack of subjects to explore.
All in all, this is definitely a worthy book to read, especially for those who are regular visitors to Fire Island, and I’m so glad that the author has written this history, and also grateful for the fantastic reading list in the postscript.
will_meringue's review against another edition
4.0
An emotive and sweeping account of Fire Island's history, with a particular focus on its literary and activist figures. I found it quite light-touch in places, and would have loved to read more, but I gleaned enough to move forward and read more about the areas that most interested me. I thought its most powerful reminder is that community is not inevitable and apathy and agnosticism about your relation to other queer people is so much easier than the real work of community. It's all out there for you, baby. But you have to participate. You're the party. You're the protest. You're the island.