I CAN SPOT IT a mile away out here," says Vivian, who has spent her summers in the Hamptons for decades. "I noticed the grift when I was a kid working in Westhampton. These kids come in from the city, drink a lot, befriend someone, and stay for the night-then a week." She saw it again this summer at a pop-up in East Hampton: The woman was "acting a little strange, chatting everyone up." Soon enough, they were talking about Vivian's house. Then came the ask: Just a night, won't be a bother.
Vivian isn't the only one who can recognize the type which is maybe why it seems like everyone in the Hamptons is reading The Guest, Emma Cline’s new novel about a young woman named Alex who drifts from house to house, party to party, after being kicked out by her boyfriend, Simon, a bland business type in his 50s who can’t so much as tolerate it when Alex corrects his swim stroke. The book has been a weekly best seller at BookHampton in East Hampton for the past month and a half. You can see its electric-green cover resting beside $200 Sunflow beach chairs. People scour the pages to catch a glimpse of a version of their neighbors, their wealth, and maybe themselves.
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