Fire Island

by Burt Hirschfeld

Fire Island - where the wealthy, the sun worshippers, the hippies and the lonely housewives all flock in the summer. Where six friends share a summer house. Six people at their most vulnerable with ambitions they can't hope to fulfil and hungers they can't satisfy.

Genres: Fiction, New York

509 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1970

Reviews

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I should focus more on the work of Burt Hirschfeld. The guy certainly deserves it. His novels are always a treat. Take his first megahit...

http://sleaze-factor.blogspot.ca/2017...

[Luciano · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my all time favorite book. I've read it probably six or seven times. The story is told over a succession of 20 summers. What I have always loved about this story is that Hirschfeld creates and manages the lives of a number of great characters and orchestrates their interactions with each other in such a realistic, stark, believeable way.

Through each summer you see the dynamic change between people and watch how their lives unfold, with everything revolving around the summers they spend on Fire Island.

This book is very hard to find, but it's a gem and one I highly recommend.

[Kyle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Homophobic heterosexual hogwash. Women walk up to men, unzip their pants and give them blow jobs constantly. Sex scenes go on and on and use words like manhood, member and pulsating. It was amusing at first how bad it was, then it just became torture to get through after a while. Hirschfeld is a total hack. The best thing I can say about it is it's a period piece.

[Farrah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I snuck this book off my mother's bedroom bookshelf when I was 9 or 10. I couldn't tell you a thing about the plot...but I do remember I learned a lot about life in this book.

[Kurt Reichenbaugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fast moving vacation read of a book. Provides a glimpse into the empty lives of a set of characters in 1952 and 1968. Lots of sex and abandon, some drug use and current slang, references to New York settings and mores. I picked up this book and its sequel CINDY ON FIRE for a buck. Many similar themes found in Mailer or Updike novels, but more entertaining than those writers.

[Erwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A blast from the past as this was my second time reading "Fire Island". I thought it would make a great beach read but it drags on a little at times. Published in 1970 this is now an interesting 'time capsule' of relationships and the sexes. The book is loaded with sex but it seems almost tame to todays standards. A group of people meet and share a house on Fire Island in New York. All have 'day jobs in NYC. The story follows them all through the next two decades as they learn about life, themselves and relationships.
Hirschfeld throws in some asides about the current events of the times which just adds to the 'time capsule' affect of the story.

[Reevrb · Rating 3 out of 5]

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