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

This unusual account of a storm offers a strange amalgam of the sublime and the silly, the significant and the trivial. In his first book, journalist/dramatist Jiler gives a virtually blow-by-blow account of events that transpired on September 25-26, 1985, when Hurricane Gloria, the worst in half a century, hit the narrow, elongated tract of land off Long Island's southern coast known as Fire Island. The author provides a splendid capsule history of Fire Island, including its development into a summer home for New York City's affluent homosexuals. His profiles of the 10 people, straight and gay, who refused to flee from Gloria to the mainland are also interesting, and he vividly depicts the storm's terrifying, capricious power. Less appealing is the author's tendency to anthropomorphize animals and birds, frequently to laughable extent. Nonetheless, anyone interested in Fire Island will enjoy his lively narrative. Photos not seen by PW . (July)