| Hollywood’s recent slate of “eat the rich” satires—“The White Lotus,” “The Menu,” and more—share a sandy backdrop with “Member / Guest,” David Gilbert’s 2012 short story in The New Yorker. At an exclusive beach club in the Hamptons, a fourteen-year-old named Beckett spends an August afternoon socializing with and avoiding a trio of frenemies, acting both snooty and self-conscious in the manner of her milieu. Her encounters that day include Natalie, a “sexual oracle” who derives her expertise from having older siblings and attending boarding school; Mrs. Lynton, who visits the Hamptons each summer to criticize the “tacky crowds”; and Beckett’s own parents, who bicker about whether she should spend vacations travelling internationally or at tennis camp. Finely attuned to the anxieties of her summer social scene (bodies, bathing suits, boys), the adolescent protagonist chafes at the high-end world around her, without fully surrendering her desire to belong. Briefly escaping her peers, Beckett finds herself in conversation with the middle-aged employee who monitors the entrance. There’s a sweet but cringey comedy in her efforts to make a good impression; she may not realize how much she sounds like the adults. This club, one of them remarked earlier, is “a hurricane away from being washed into the sea.” | 
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