Summary

As it portrays the arrivals of hundreds and hundreds of faggots at Fire Island, narration celebrates its beauty, its opportunity, and its multiple possibilities of meaning. “If the Outside World is ugly … and doesn’t want us anyway, what’s wrong with making our very own special place …” (222).

Narration also describes the Island’s three main areas – the old money Grove, new money Pines, and the area in between known as The Meat Rack, where there is a lot of promiscuous, anonymous sex.

Fred arrives along with the rest of the crowds, recalling how out of place he felt the first few times he came to Fire Island until he learned how to be friendly, to be promiscuous, and to put aside the feelings of inferiority that he (apparently like all faggots, according to narration) felt upon arrival. Upon this particular arrival, surrounded...