THE EXHIBITIONIST, by Charlotte Mendelson“I prefer stories about squalor,” J.D. Esmé would have gone nuts for “The Exhibitionist,” the fifth novel by the English writer Charlotte Mendelson, which was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2022. Set in sophisticated if not exactly moneyed quarters of London, with excursions to Edinburgh, it’s a model of tightly controlled domestic chaos. Google the word “exhibitionist” and you will surface some unsavory porn sites. There’s a big party planned, with a “full Mediterrfusion tasting menu” and early foreboding that it will not go well.

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Persons: Charlotte Mendelson “, ”, Salinger’s Esmé, Esmé, Charlotte Mendelson, it’s, Ray Hanrahan, Ray, Al Locations: London, Edinburgh