Chronicles the lifestyles of the rich and famous along Long Island's exclusive seaside resort, revealing how the region's celebrities relate to their own properties The Hamptons, that famous string of beachside hamlets in New York State, are not just a quiet vacation spot for New England blue bloods like the duPonts and Vanderbilts. According to Steven Gaines, the author of a spate of "untold" and "true" biographies of such glitterati as Calvin Klein, they're also--surprise!--a sandbox of scandal. And who exactly has been stirring things up? Gaines centers the book on an eccentric cast of characters in Hamptons history: semicloseted gay men of fabulous wealth and Ralph Lauren taste, half-cracked Mayflower descendants going to seed, and those "Philistines," the nouveau riche, blemishing the scenery with their terrible taste. "The establishment can hold off the newcomers for only so long," explains the author. "There are always more of Them than Us." Heavily researched, the book is painstakingly detailed and unapologetically voyeuristic, full of "nine-ounce chilled Baccarat crystal stem glasses," "Chippendale sofas upholstered in Scalamandré silks," "Gucci loafers," and "fourteen-karat-gold wallpaper." It's a Champagne truffle: sinful, enticing, and pure froth at its center. --Maria Dolan Gaines (Obsession: The Life and Times of Calvin Klein, LJ 3/15/94) has produced a fascinating description of the eccentricities of the wealthy homeowners and renters of the exclusive summer homes in the Hamptons. Filled with delicious details and bizarre situations, this is the ultimate gossip book. Highlights include accounts of a man arrested for putting pumpkins outside his store, a real estate magnate whose whole life turned out to be a lie, and a scandalous nude bathing pool. Gaines meticulously explicates the players and the contexts of the feuds and political battles that thrived in the rarefied air of the wealthy, making this a book that can be enjoyed without knowledge of the environment or the social pedigrees of those involved. Recommended for public libraries. [For another view of the Hamptons, see Peter Fearon's Hamptons Babylon, reviewed above.?Ed.]?Alison Hopkins, Queens Borough P.L., Jamaica, N. -?Alison Hopkins, Queens Borough P.L., Jamaica, NY Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. Gaines has written a page-turner, and the Hamptons have a historian and folklorist who fits them like a glove. Gaines turns from his usual ho-hum celebrity bios (Obsession: The Lives and Times of Calvin Klein, 1994, etc.) to the rich and dishy cultural history of the Hamptons from the time when Georgikas Pond, one of the most expensive pieces of real estate in the world, was the fishing ground of a lone Indian named Jeorgkee. He traces unending Hamptons litigation and squabbling from Goody Garlick in 1658 up to Martha Stewart (Goody Garlick was tried for witchcraft, and Martha has an ongoing feud with her neighbor, real-estate mogul Harry Macklowe). In a series of nonfiction novellas, Gaines tells stories of huge egos in small villages: millionaire broker Allan Schneider, who brought big-city real-estate savvy to the Hamptons; Evan Frankel, called the Squire of East Hampton, who thumbed his nose at old money by building a synagogue at the entrance to the village. While others might fight over lovers or money, in the Hamptons it's property all the way: who owns it, where it's located, and who gets to control the overpriced and frequently hideous housing built on it. Most interesting, Gaines recounts the history of The Creeks, the largest estate in East Hampton, from its creation by artists Arthur and Adele Herter to its recent reconstruction by paranoid billionaire Ron Perelman. In between, The Creeks belonged to eccentric artist Alfonso Ossorio and his deceptively quiet lover Ted Dragon, who befriended Jackson Pollock and who made The Creeks into a piece of neo-expressionist art. Gaines does a deft job rescuing their story from oblivionand writes about all the oddities of Hamptons life with contagious zest. With the dropping of names from Wyandanch to Spielberg, Book Hampton should have trouble keeping it in stock. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.