'Cockeyed Guide to the Hamptons' Launches

Water Mill resident Reynolds Dodson has spent nearly 15 years writing “The View East” weekly column for The Southampton Press. Using his sharp wit and sense of humor, his writings frequently include his highly personal and often colorful take on all things Hamptons.

On Friday, Mr. Dodson will celebrate the launch of his latest book, “A Cockeyed Guide to the Hamptons”—a collection of essays published in The Press, and some he said he wrote “just for laughs”—at the Southampton Inn.

“The usual scene of the crime for something like this,” he laughed in a recent interview.

The decision to pen “A Cockeyed Guide” came after Mr. Dodson went back and reviewed several of his own columns, he explained during a recent interview.

“I said to myself, well, let’s see what they look like. The vast majority were rather dated, but the ones that made me laugh and came off as fresh. Those were the ones I thought would be suitable for the book,” he said.

From 100 essays he initially considered, Mr. Dodson whittled down his selections and carefully read over each. In some instances, he said he might rewrite a few parts or create segues which would help contribute to the overall flow of the book.

“At times that part was challenging. There were times when my ADD definitely kicked in,” he joked.

“A Cockeyed Guide to the Hamptons,” which Mr. Dodson has self-published (and made available through Amazon.com), offers its readers an inside look—albeit a relatively skewed one, the author admits—at several aspects of East End lifestyle: the roller-coaster highs and lows of the local real estate market, cluster housing, the rampant deer population, issues with bike lanes, the influx of city folk come summer and nearly everything in between.

“What’s nice about this book is that even if you aren’t from the East End, it’s entertaining to read. It gives you an idea of how wonderfully strange life can be here. And if you’re from the East End, well, it’s like therapy, I know where you’re coming from,” he said.

Also within the book’s 195 pages, readers will find quirky illustrations by Laura Hartman Maestro. Mr. Dodson said he knew that there was a certain look and feel he wanted to accompany his essays and he explored a few different avenues before settling on works by his friend, Ms. Maestro. Initially, Ms. Maestro told the author that she had one ironclad rule: she did not work with friends.

“So, I put up an ad for illustrators on Craigslist,” he said. “And I was getting back a lot of drek or I would receive these crazy Marvel comic strip-style drawings from someone in Cambodia or India or something. And all of that is great, but I wanted the drawings to be simple and clean, compelling and evocative of The Hamptons ... It helps if they’re drawn by someone who knows the way of the world out here.”

Eventually, Ms. Maestro gave in and supplied Mr. Dodson with a small drawing reminiscent of a pedestrian crossing sign—except her pedestrian was depicted running for its life. The illustration is attached to the essay “Summer Driving Rules.”

“I knew right then and there she would be perfect for this because I could not stop laughing,” Mr. Dodson said.

Wedged somewhere between an essay titled “Power Brokering in the Hamptons” (Mr. Dodson’s imagined version of a star-studded meeting of local celebrities and others at Bobby Van’s in Bridgehampton) and “Speonk: A Gothic Tale” (an essay which he willingly admits may make some people cringe), is one illustration the author said was particularly popular.

“A lot of people who have seen the book say, ‘I love the drawing of the irresponsible deer at 3 a.m.’ and Laura really outdid herself there,” he said.

The illustration is prefaced by two essays which explore Mr. Dodson’s opinion on how to best enforce deer birth control, “The Deer Problem: Solution No. 1” and “The Deer Problem: Solution No. 2,” and depicts a buck cradling a salt lick in his hooves, condoms hanging from his antlers.

In the end, he admitted that some essays may be controversial, but it’s more about revealing some layers of truth, even if they do push some buttons.

“If I’ve offended some people, I’m doing something right,” he said. “If there wasn’t any truth to any of it, well, it wouldn’t be funny.”

Mr. Dodson will read from “A Cockeyed Guide to the Hamptons” on Friday, February 18, at 5:30 p.m. at the Southampton Inn. The book is available at amazon.com or createspace.com/3475384. Additional information about the author, as well as his blog, is available at reynoldsdodson.com.