Miami Beach exposé by Steven Gaines sizzles

Steven Gaines has done it again. Ten years after his best-selling “Philistines at the Hedgerow: Passion and Property in the Hamptons,” the Wainscott-based author has turned his sharp wit and eagle-eyed gaze southward to Miami Beach for the entertaining and eviscerating romp “Fool’s Paradise: Players, Poseurs and the Culture of Excess in South Beach.”

The book—which is more of a fun telling of interesting stories about South Beach’s unique inhabitants than a hard-hitting exposé—chronicles the rise and fall of Miami Beach over the years. In “Fool’s Paradise,” Mr. Gaines writes with perceptive glee about the goings-on of socialites, nightlife impresarios, models, the filthy rich and even landmark buildings.

Known for his keen observations and witty descriptions of life for the rich, famous and entitled, Mr. Gaines—who previously chronicled life on the rarefied East End in “Philistines”—is sure to have a hit on his hands once again with his newest work focusing on what passes for society in the land of spray tans and plastic surgeries.

But even though both the East End and Miami Beach are enclaves of the super-wealthy, that’s where the comparison ends, according to Mr. Gaines.

“Miami Beach is the anti-Hamptons. There is a total lack of sophistication, a total lack of class,” he said during a telephone interview last week. “How can it be any different when the biggest of only three museums there is about erotic art? ... There are more tattoo parlors than libraries and more spray tanning places than schools there.”

The author, who spent about six months living full-time in Miami Beach while researching his book, explained that the region is different from any other place in America.

“There’s a whole other standard of life down there. Everybody has plastic surgery, even 75-year-old women have pert breasts,” he said, adding that the superficial is of utmost import to the denizens of Miami Beach. “Everybody looks perfect in a strange way ... And the real South Beach Diet is two tablets of ecstasy and a bottle of Champagne.”

Mr. Gaines said he originally intended to write about Miami Beach immediately after he finished his book about the Hamptons, but got sidetracked with a few other projects including “The Sky’s the Limit: Passion and Property in Manhattan,” his take on the New York City real estate market.

Miami Beach represented the ultimate in glamour for him as a child, the author said last week. “I grew up in Brooklyn, above my grandmother’s bra and girdle store in Bensonhurst,” he explained. Reminiscing about his younger days, Mr. Gaines talked about the allure of the southern tip of mainland Florida.

“It was magic. It took my breath away,” he said. “I would stick my head in my grandparents’ suitcases when they would get back so I could breathe the air ... Well, it was actually coconut lotion, but to me, it was Florida.”

The lay of the land—from 1950s family vacation mecca to a deviant playground for the rich and famous—has certainly changed in Miami Beach, as has Mr. Gaines’s attitude about it. “I became disabused of the notion I would retire there once I realized that it’s become such a naughty place with so many corrupt people and things,” he said.

According to Rick Horgan, vice president and executive editor at Crown/Random House, which published “Fool’s Paradise,” the author’s observations about the places of which he writes are dead-on.

“His recent books have all had a very strong sense of place, becoming the kind of window onto what it is really like to live among a certain tribe and live by their rules,” he wrote in an e-mail. “It’s a place full of hungry people voraciously consuming experiences, and sometimes burning out from all the consumption.”

But how does the author, who some are wary of for writing “about the rich behaving badly,” manage to get his information for book after book? The answer: a lot of hard work and endless hours of meetings, according to Mr. Gaines.

“You meet literally hundreds and hundreds of people, you get up in the morning and have appointment after appointment to get deeper into the inner circle,” he said, adding that he didn’t go to the beach once during his six months of research.

Some members of the local media inevitably try to put up roadblocks to his research, though in the long run most people end up talking to him anyway. “Some people would worry that we were going to make fun of rich people, but I’m an old hand at this and I know how to get through doors,” he explained.

It is exactly Mr. Gaines’s doggedness in research, coupled with his ability to tell it like it is that makes his work so compelling, according to friend and author Michael Shnayerson.

“I’m just two chapters into ‘Fool’s Paradise’ and already it’s clear that he’s done as brilliant a job deconstructing Miami Beach as he did with the Hamptons. It’s not just great stories and that charming voice, but really solid reporting, too,” he wrote in an e-mail last week. “What’s so remarkable about him as a writer is that he gets that voice onto the page with such seeming ease.”

As for Mr. Gaines’ personal take on the Miami Beach scene, he said it is a place built for entertainment. And, like his book, “it’s a place to have a mindless good time ... This book is a lot of good time, it’s fun, funny and fast-paced just like Miami Beach,” he said.

Next up for Mr. Gaines is perhaps a memoir based on his life on the East End, where he now lives full time, though he was quick to deflect talk about visions of his own grandeur.

“Being a writer out here does have it’s advantages. I can get into restaurants, but that’s about it,” he said, adding that in the grand scheme of things he’s a relatively little fish in the big pond of celebrity. “I couldn’t get arrested west of the Shinnecock Canal.”

Stephen Gaines will discuss “Fool’s Paradise: Players, Poseurs, and the Culture of Excess in South Beach” at BookHampton in East Hampton on Saturday, February 14, at 5 p.m. For more information or to order a signed copy, e-mail info@bookhampton.com or call 324-4939.