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Dark Wind: A True Account of Hurricane Gloria's Assault on Fire Island (1993)

by John Jiler

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1511,361,013 (3.25)2
"September 25, 1985. The worst storm in half a century is headed toward the United States, her point of landfall - Fire Island, a thirty-mile-long sandbar hugging the shore of Long Island. As Hurricane Gloria approached, the East Coast was evacuated for hundreds of miles north and south. But on Fire Island itself, ten people refused to leave." "In this remarkable work of nonfiction, John Jiler tells the story of those people. A gay man with AIDS stayed because he had nothing left to lose, and at the height of the storm stood on a dune and watched, unafraid. One pair of friends tried to endure the storm with deep, meditative prayer; another trio, with a wild, chattering cocktail party. Also on the island lay the Sunken Forest, an ancient woods teeming with birds, plant, and animal life that was no less profoundly threatened by the power of Gloria." "In this literary tour de force, Jiler combines the results of in-depth interviews with the survivors with detailed knowledge of the unique social and natural history of Fire Island to produce a panoramic account of nature in its inexplicable, sublime fury."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved… (more)
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John Jiler's literary Dark Wind, ostensibly an account of Hurricane Gloria's landfall across Fire Island in September 1985, is actually more a series of elegant in-depth character studies of the ten people who stayed to face the brunt of the storm rather than evacuate. The approaching storm, however, provides a perfect backdrop for Jiler intriguing construct, and along the way he delves into the history and sociology of the diverse nature of Fire Island. The author's attempts to weave in some nature writing though have mixed results: his descriptions of the local birds fit reasonably well into the narrative, but the rather odd meandering wildlife tale of the buck and doe seems wildly misplaced. ( )
  ghr4 | Nov 3, 2017 |
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For Daisy and Milton, true islanders.
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Hot air rises. Cold air rushes in to replace it, and that rush is the wind.
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"September 25, 1985. The worst storm in half a century is headed toward the United States, her point of landfall - Fire Island, a thirty-mile-long sandbar hugging the shore of Long Island. As Hurricane Gloria approached, the East Coast was evacuated for hundreds of miles north and south. But on Fire Island itself, ten people refused to leave." "In this remarkable work of nonfiction, John Jiler tells the story of those people. A gay man with AIDS stayed because he had nothing left to lose, and at the height of the storm stood on a dune and watched, unafraid. One pair of friends tried to endure the storm with deep, meditative prayer; another trio, with a wild, chattering cocktail party. Also on the island lay the Sunken Forest, an ancient woods teeming with birds, plant, and animal life that was no less profoundly threatened by the power of Gloria." "In this literary tour de force, Jiler combines the results of in-depth interviews with the survivors with detailed knowledge of the unique social and natural history of Fire Island to produce a panoramic account of nature in its inexplicable, sublime fury."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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