The Vacationers by Emma Straub

The Vacationers

by Emma Straub

For the Posts, a two-week trip to the island of Mallorca with their extended family and friends is a celebration: it's Franny and Jim's thirty-fifth anniversary, and their daughter has graduated from high school. The sunlit island also promises an escape from the tensions simmering at home. But all does not go according to plan: secrets come to light, old and new humiliations are experienced, childhood rivalries resurface, and ancient wounds are exacerbated.

Reviewed by Sam@WLABB on

4 of 5 stars

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The Posts are one of THOSE families: they live in a mansion near central park, their daughter will be attending an ivy league college in the fall, they know wealthy people with houses in the mountains on small mediterranean islands -- they have an image to maintain. In the Vacationers, we follow the Post family through 14 days of their lives as they vacation on the island of Mallorca under the guise of Franny and Jim celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary and their daughter, Sylvia's, high school graduation. In reality, each member of the family is struggling with some sort of conflict. Will the family implode or will they heal during their vacation?

I really liked this book. It was a nice change of pace for me. I have been reading a lot of books written in first person with multiple POVs, but this book is written in third person. I enjoyed the narrators voice and the layout of the story. The story is broken down by day, corresponding to the day of their vacation. The story is written in the present, but past events are revealed as different characters are focused on each day. I liked how past indiscretions, mistakes and regrets are revealed little by little and not all at once. I also really liked the multi-generational cast. They all had some sort of issues or hang-ups and although, some may seem more major than the others, they were a huge concern for that character and justly so for the age of the character. I have to commend the descriptions as well. I had so many beautiful images of the food, the beaches, the mountains, the house. I was really able to put myself on vacation with them.

A very pleasant read, and I will not lie, I got a little misty at the end, which show, that I had something invested in this family and their future.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 24 October, 2014: Finished reading
  • 24 October, 2014: Reviewed