The Vacationers

by Emma Straub

For the Posts, a two-week trip to the Balearic island of Mallorca with their extended family and friends is a celebration: Franny and Jim are observing their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary, and their daughter, Sylvia, has graduated from high school. The sunlit island, its mountains and beaches, its tapas and tennis courts, also promise an escape from the tensions simmering at home in Manhattan.

But all does not go according to plan: over the course of the vacation, secrets come to light, old and new humiliations are experienced, childhood rivalries resurface, and ancient wounds are exacerbated.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Book Club, Audiobook, Chick Lit, Adult Fiction, Beach Reads

293 pages, Paperback

First published May 29, 2014

About the author

Emma Straub is the New York Times‒bestselling author of the novels All Adults Here, Modern Lovers, The Vacationers, Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures, and the short story collection Other People We Married. Straub's work has been published in twenty countries, and she and her husband own Books Are Magic, an independent bookstore in Brooklyn, New York.

Reviews

[Michael Jensen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I confess to being utterly baffled by this book. I'm not referring to the book itself, which had a minimal plot that was very easy to follow. I'm referring to the critical reaction to The Vacationers. It had glowing reviews and seemed to be on every summer reading list. After reading it, I can only shake my head in wonder and ask why. Mass hallucination? Bribery? All the critics were friends of the writer? I don't know what else would explain this book being anointed this summer's must read.

The writing was perfectly fine, if nothing special, but the story itself was so ... meh. The plot was boring with the various storylines being mostly very well-trod ground done better by other books. Husband has cheated on wife who has kind of let herself go. In turn, she behaves like a shrew. He feels bad and waits around to see if she'll forgive him. Younger daughter is a surly virgin who hates everyone and thinks she'll be ugly forever. Older son is a screw up living with an older woman he doesn't love so he cheats on her in order to end the relationship.

The book's only novel characters are Charles and Lawrence, an older married gay couple who want to adopt a baby. But they get the least amount of pages and even then the focus is on their having a kid. That would be fine, but its hardly explored, nor is the idea of what marriage means to gay men, how it affects them and their families, how same-sex marriage might change heterosexual marriage, etc. Those would be interesting topics to explore, but instead Straub treats Charles like a heterosexual woman desperate to have a baby. Yawn. Carmen is also somewhat interesting, but also gets short shrift.

I get that The Vacationers is about family dysfunction, loving your family anyway, etc, but most of the characters are so unpleasant and/or cliche, and their stories so uninteresting, that I didn't care what happened by the end. If they were my family, I certainly wouldn't want to spend any time with them. As a reader, I'm baffled why critics think I'd want to spend time with these boring, unpleasant people. I guess the other summer books must have been really bad.

[Meghan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I kept reading in the hopes that someone would drown.

Or maybe at the end of the book the plane would crash and the whole detestable, wealthy, privileged family would die on their way home from Mallorca, where their dream vacation in a giant private house near the ocean had been marred by secrets coming to light and infidelity.

Really, the only character I liked here was Carmen, the personal trainer girlfriend of the older son, who commits the unpardonable sin of being ten years older than him, wearing tight clothes, and working out a lot. NO ONE IN THE FAMILY EVER GETS OVER THE AGE DIFFERENCE, EVEN AFTER TEN YEARS, AND THEY ALL HATE HER FOR IT. And yet we are supposed to sympathize with the mom, for how her son has failed to fulfill his destiny. The author seems to like these family characters. They are finely drawn, and yet I found them totally unsympathetic. I liked the descriptions of the food and setting, but it was unbearable.

[jennyreadit · Rating 1 out of 5]

I do not know why I kept reading this book. It's basically a book about a family on vacation in Mallorca...Some of the members have cheated outside their respective relationships at one time or another and all the resentment/secrets finally come to light.. and not even in any exciting events. They just talk about it.That's. it. On and on and on. Mostly whining.
Nothing really "happens" in this book..it's like attending one big boring family reunion where you get seated beside your seventh cousin twice removed and all they do is drone on about a two week vacation( and it feels like it takes them two weeks to describe it.)
Someone had to have been paid a great deal to write the glowing "professional" reviews I read of this book. I should have read the Goodreads reviews first!
The storyline is slow, the characters are unlikeable and the only excitement that really happens is the 18year old daughter losing her virginity to a 20 year old Mallorcan.
Bleh.

[Corey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A beautifully written boring story

[Jess · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was about as satisfying as eating a 12 pack of sugarless cinnamon gum for Sunday dinner.

This is the tale of Franny: a short, fat, petty shrew of a woman who goes on vacation with her gay (of course!) best friend and his partner; her philandering husband Jim; her spoiled, useless children; and Carmen, poor, poor Carmen. Franny is using their 2 weeks in Mallorca to decide whether or not to stay in her marriage to her cheating, unemployed, albeit tall, husband.

Franny toys with the idea of taking on a lover of her own, an old famous Mallorcan tennis pro with a sexy times accent, but unfortunately knocks herself out during a practice volley with him (?), giving herself a big bump on her noggin. Meanwhile, Jim proves his love and repentance by stalking Franny around the island via the borrowed motorbike of a stranger in black leather he meets on the plane over. Even though Jim can't stop fantasizing about his 23 year-old intern lover with the long blonde hair and supple waist for a single living minute, he really is very, very sorry and desperately wants his fat wife back.

Lesser plots ensue- Franny and Jim's asshole son leaves behind the family scrabble marathon and his super-fit girlfriend Carmen one rainy night to get a blow job from a random ugly british chick in a Palermo disco bathroom. Franny's teenage daughter pouts in the bedroom the entire vacay cause her hot spanish tutor accidentally saw her in a towel. Frannie's gay best friend's partner skulks around the house trying to avoid her nasty ass so he can get some f*cking work done and also adopt a little boy with a perfectly nice name that they are still hell-bent on changing. Poor, poor pink-velour-sweatsuit-wearing Carmen does a lot of jumping jacks and drinks disgusting health tonics but is 1000 times nicer than anyone else in the house so gets to escape the vacation a few days early. And Franny hates on her benefactress Gemma, the generous owner of the beautiful vacation home with the pool by the ocean they've been staying at, because Gemma is tall and blonde and has nice olive oil in the pantry?

In the end, Franny decides to stay with her deadbeat husband who she will undoubtedly never, ever, ever let live it down. And also maybe lend her asshole son $150k he owes to the Russian fitness drink mob back in Miami? Hmmm, ok, that was fun.

[Jenny Roche · Rating 1 out of 5]

I guess I'm going to miss saying "god I hate this book" every 10 minutes. I can't stand it anymore. I just realized I have two chapters left and it hasn't stopped sucking once. Throwing in the towel.

[Maxwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick summer read following vapid, detestable characters who try to escape their problems but ultimately have to face them while on family vacation. Basically exactly what you expect it to be. It delivers on drama and wraps up nicely. Perfect for making you feel a little bit better about yourself too.

[Kelly (and the Book Boar) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/

3.5 Stars

“Secrets are no fun for anyone. Keep that in mind.”

When my husband asked what I was reading about over the weekend, the answer was simple: Nothing. He followed up that response with, “uh oh so it’s a 1 Star book then?” I surprised him by saying no and here I am giving The Vacationers a solid 3.5. I still stand by this being about “nothing” when compared to most other books I read, but I remember a certain television show which I still watch whenever presented the opportunity that was about nothing as well . . . . .



I’m trying to figure out how this one even got on my TBR. Did the Goodreads spam generator pop-up put this on the feed awhile back???? I can’t think of what else would have made me put my name on the library wait list aside from those subliminal messages. Whatever the reason, I somehow ended up with The Vacationers on the first weekend where it was in the 60s rather than during the summer when I probably should have read it due to the fact that I spend my free time ingesting baseball field dirt rather than soaking up the sun at a place like Mallorca . . . . .



Even though the timing was off, I somehow still enjoyed this book (from looking at the 3.14 general GR rating I probably read it wrong). As I said, nothing awesomely dramatic or monumental happens in this story, but I still couldn’t put it down. What we have is the Post family’s vacation . . . .



Jim has been fired from his longtime magazine job for banging a co-worker. His wife Franny is left dealing with her feelings regarding this betrayal (and also non-refundable tickets). Daughter Sylvia is counting down the minutes until she escapes to college (especially since she’s become a social pariah with her former friends due to a drunken make-out session with nearly every boy in school). Son Bobby has some financial woes he’d like to discuss with the parents (if the parents can stop judging his significantly older personal trainer girlfriend long enough to listen). And poor Lawrence and Charles are trying to figure out if adopting a baby is the right thing to do when it seems dysfunction is inevitable at some point in time.

So there you have it. A book that takes place over the course of two weeks that is simply a snapshot of the goings on during that time period. This is most definitely not a book that will change your life and the characters are all pretty much unlikeable too. If you know me, that might explain why this worked for me when it failed for so many others . . . .



*shrug*

[Linda Wells · Rating 4 out of 5]

A New York City family of four and three friends take a dream vacation to the beautiful island of Mallorca. Franny, the "mother in chief" arranges a house swap, and they all settle into a fabulous villa, complete with swimming pool, gourmet kitchen, and scenic vistas. Plus, the beach is only ten minutes away.

From the middle aged couple with marital problems, to their virginal eighteen year old daughter and her twenty-eight year old brother with his cougar "fitness trainer" girlfriend, the fun begins. Tensions mount between the middle aged couple due to his casual, impulsive affair with an office intern that not only ruined his marriage, but cost him his job. Their teenage daughter has her own problems because she got drunk at a party and has to try to live with the embarrassment of her actions, all recorded for posterity on social media. She goes to extremes to try to forget what she's done, and with the help of a handsome Spanish tutor, she accomplishes her goals.

The two week vacation gives characters plenty of time to explore the island and their relationships, all trying hard to face their struggles and reconcile their problems. The author does a great job with her descriptive details of delicious cuisine and lovely scenery, which makes this a great summer read.

[Oriana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well this was just an absolute delight.

I will admit that I was hesitant; although I had high hopes, I didn't love Emma's previous book, Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures, so I didn't expect to be reading her again any time soon. But my own vacation snuck up on me, and suddenly I was staring down three long flights and nine days at the beach, with not a thing on my shelves that I was thrilled about. A quick last-minute dash to the Strand turned up a proof of this, and here we are.

And my goodness, what a perfect choice this turned out to be! Reading a novel of a dysfunctional family vacation in the midst of my own semi-functional family vacation? Just brilliant synchronicity.

I'm hesitant to do any synopsis-izing, since this is so far from publication still. But here's a quickie rundown of the book's characters, which I'll hide behind a spoiler tag just to be safe. We have Jim and Franny Post, writers married several decades, whose lives has just been rocked by the revelation of Jim's infidelity with a (very young) intern, which also resulted in his being fired from the magazine he has worked at all his life. Then there's their 18yo daughter Sylvie, leaving for college in a few weeks, whose only goal for the summer is to lose her virginity; this plotline will of course dovetail with that of her gorgeous twenty-something Mallorcan Spanish tutor. Then we have her older brother Bobby, a real estate agent who lives in Miami with his much older girlfriend Carmen, whom the whole Post family hates. Finally there's Franny's lifelong best friend Charles and his husband Lawrence, who have been trying for years to adopt a baby. Charles and Jim have never gotten along well, to put it gently.

This is, of course, a character drama, and Emma draws her characters just gorgeously—as another reviewer noted, it's clear how much she loves them all. The novel is also paced beautifully, doling out little reveals about each person bit by bit, like lushly designed wind-up toys, which after a while you can just set in place and watch them go. That's not to say that the book is predictable, just eminently, sighingly believable.

I loved many, many other things about this book—the food, the weather, the atmosphere, the dialogue, the sexy moments, the characters' wonderful little quirks. (I'd love to quote you some specifics, but immediately handed the book over to my mom upon turning the last page.) But one of the things I loved the most is that all the braided plotlines were resolved in really satisfying ways, and it felt like everyone absolutely got what they deserved—both good and bad. That was really a relief for me; maybe I've gone soft, but I'm sick to death of reading about crummy characters who win, or wonderful characters who get fucked (in the bad way).

Anyway, wonderful wonderful. Read this right away when it comes out! Especially if you're on your way to the tropics with your own family. All unhappy families are unhappy in their own ways, right?

[Kristina Coop-a-Loop · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Vacationers by Emma Straub is a book that was hyped last year as the perfect beach read. I don’t read books based on seasons, but I guess if the definition of a “beach read” is a novel filled with shallow characters, clichéd situations, and the faintest hint of racism, then The Vacationers is the perfect beach read. Note: the plot in this book is extremely predictable and there are no “ah-ha!” moments, but I discuss pretty much everything. So if this is going to bother you, stop reading.

The Post family is going on vacation to Mallorca, an island off the coast of Spain. It’s Franny and Jim’s 35th wedding anniversary, their youngest daughter is going off to college and their oldest son, Bobby, is flying in from Miami with Carmen, his older Cuban girlfriend. Staying with them for two weeks at the house on Mallorca is also Charles, Franny’s best friend, and his husband, Lawrence. It promises to be a good time, but everyone is harboring resentments—and they all come to light during the vacation.

I’m reading the glowing reviews on the back of this book and rolling my eyes. Of course, you have to allow for differences in taste, but I’m disappointed in Maria Semple, the author of the brilliant Where’d You Go, Bernadette who says this book will “leave you smiling for days.” No, it’s had me writing a nasty review in my head for days, even before I was half-way thru it. This is the whitest book about the whitest people I have ever read. They are all wealthy New Yorkers (specifically, Manhattan, HQ for rich, white, whiny people), with the (temporary) exception of Bobby, who now lives in Miami. They are also members of the Artistic Snob Elite: Franny is a freelance food writer; Jim is a retired editor of Gallant, one of those “sophisticated” men’s magazines (with the stupidest name for a magazine ever); Charles is a painter; and Lawrence is a Hollywood accountant—he keeps track of movie budgets. Not technically an artsy career, but close enough. Bobby, to the disappointment of his parents, sells real estate. He’s also some kind of half-assed personal trainer at a gym and also sells protein powder at the same gym. The family Post doesn’t know that yet, but soon they will, further adding to their disappointment. None of the Post family members is likeable. Not only are they not likeable, their unlikeable personalities aren’t even interesting—they are so pedestrian and clichéd in their horribleness. They’re snobby, shallow, whiny, ignorant and ridiculous. I’d like to think the author is spoofing her own kind (wealthy Manhattanites) but I don’t think she is. I think Emma Straub’s portrayal of the Posts is sincere and authentic. Too bad, because they’re terrible.

The driving plot of this novel is everyone’s relationship or personal problems and how they are dealt with during this two-week vacation. None of their problems are all that original or interesting. First up, Jim and Franny. Jim is sixty years old and now retired. He didn’t want to be retired, but he slept with his editorial assistant, a twenty-three year old woman named Madison and apparently Gallant board members frown on that, so Jim had to go. This to me is the dumbest (and most clichéd) marriage complication—older man sleeps with his attractive younger colleague. It’s also so easy—no need to dig into their relationship and create two complex characters, nope, just give the man a wandering dick. The response by the magazine is also slightly hysterical. Apparently everyone freaked out (and lawyers were involved) not just because he slept with this woman, but also because of her age; twenty-three is just too close to 18! He’s practically a pedophile! Really? So now Jim’s moping around the house because (as the author told me several times) he’s done, professionally. Again…really? He’s a writer and editor, not a senator running for re-election. Sleeping with your editorial assistant (or secretary, or administrative assistant) seems like a fairly common incident—I mean, isn’t it a rite of passage? So, that’s Jim—cheater. But once you meet his bossy, annoying, childish wife Franny you think, yeah, I’d cheat on her too. She’s fucking awful. She doesn’t have any problems she’s working through—she’s just trying to decide if she should leave her cheating husband. What’s interesting is she never wonders if he cheated because there’s something wrong with the marriage. But she should question herself because she’s been emotionally cheating on Jim for years with her gay boyfriend, Charles. Both Jim and Lawrence (Charles’s husband) note how close they are and how everyone else ceases to exist when those two are together. At one point she calls him “my love.” Their relationship is sickeningly sweet and cloying and if I were either husband, I would be concerned. Franny seems to save all of her kindness (what she has of that quality) for Charles. Charles isn’t quite as rude to Lawrence, but he does ignore him quite a bit in the book.

Charles and Lawrence, as the token gay couple (which I’m guessing is an absolute must in a novel about wealthy white spoiled New Yorkers), aren’t as odious as the Posts. I don’t care for Charles, but possibly I could like Lawrence if he had a personality. Mostly he spends his time wishing for a baby, hoping the adoption agency calls with news about a baby, and fantasizing about all the neat things he and the baby and Charles will do together. Yah! But the whole gay-couple-adopting-a-baby situation is not original and it’s not interesting. I don’t care if they get the baby or not, or if Charles will be happy being a daddy.

Sylvia and Bobby, the Post children, are hideous. At first I kinda liked Sylvia because she’s portrayed as a bookworm, brainy, and somewhat socially inept. But as the novel progresses, Straub’s further attempts to convince the reader that Sylvia isn’t a party girl, has never been to a night club and doesn’t wear expensive clothes annoys me because it doesn’t ring true. She grew up with a certain amount of wealth and privilege so she can’t be that damn unsophisticated. She also desperately wants to lose her virginity and is determined to do it while on vacation. What finally turns me off from liking Sylvia is her shallowness and rude behavior. She’s a spoiled, immature brat. Her older brother (by ten years) is just as bad. Bobby apparently still uses Daddy’s credit card (that’s how he paid for his gym membership) and has no focus or ambition. Carmen reveals that when she met him, she had to teach him how to balance his checkbook (wtf!) and clean the toilet (he grew up with a maid so he probably thought the toilet cleaned itself). He is the most revolting of the Post family (although Franny is a close second). He’s 28 years old going on five. Straub constantly describes him as having soft brown eyes, beautiful long curly hair…um, yeah. He sounds like a freaking toddler—and he behaves like one too. I don’t understand the relationship between him and Carmen. I don’t see any real affection between them. At some point the author gives you a peek inside Carmen’s head and why she was drawn to him, but I never get any sense the relationship is genuine. Bobby is never outright rude to her (at least, not until the end of the novel) but he’s not overly kind either. Carmen is treated poorly by the whole family. They all dislike her because she is older than he is and doesn’t have fresh, young ovaries. Because you first see her through Franny’s eyes (before you really grow to detest Franny), you are prepared to dislike her as well. But then you see how she behaves in the novel and there’s nothing wrong with her. She’s pleasant. She helps with the cooking and cleaning up (none of the Post children help. Ever. At all. With anything). She doesn’t argue with anyone or try to turn Bobby against his parents or behave in any way that makes me thinks she deserves the scorn of the family. They are all relatively pleasant to her face, but are not so pleasant when she’s not around. When Carmen finally realizes what an asshole Bobby is and she leaves, everyone is happy. Supposedly they dislike her because of the age difference, but it’s clear that they think she is lower-class (even non-introspective Franny at one point wonders if she’s a snob but then dismisses that notion because she was raised by a truck driver and stay-at-home mother—an upbringing I find very difficult to believe) and dislike her profession as a personal trainer. In fact, there’s so much animosity towards personal trainers that I think it reflects the attitude of the author. It’s portrayed as being shallow (both being a trainer and using a trainer) but it seems clear the author is somewhat clueless about it. I am a member of an excellent gym that’s attached to a medical school. I’ve used the trainers there—it’s not about making your muscles impressive; it’s about building strength and having cardiovascular fitness and being healthy. No one has ever tried to sell me a protein shake. Straub seems to be confusing (or mixing) the idea of a body builder with the idea of a fitness trainer and using her characters to voice her dislike. It’s annoying.

This novel takes place on Mallorca (or Majorca), a Spanish island. Other than Franny’s rapturous food descriptions (way too many descriptions of shopping for, cooking and eating food), the local culture lends no color to the story. What we know is, the people are brown. Brown-ish. The other two characters who appear in the novel are Mallorcans, Joan and Antoni. Antoni is a once-famous tennis player who runs a tennis training facility on the island. Franny seeks him out, spends three hundred euros (which is almost $350 American) for an hour of tennis lessons, and can’t stop eyeing him up because he’s so good-looking. Joan (Spanish pronunciation with a long aaaaahn) is the Spanish language tutor Franny hired so Sylvia could keep up with her Spanish skills. (Which is odd—they are on a Spanish-speaking island. Wouldn’t speaking with Mallorcans be the best lesson?) (Ah, but then the author wouldn’t be able to introduce the handsome Joan to Sylvia.) Joan has no personality or storyline. He is there merely to de-virginize Sylvia. That’s all. He, like Antoni, is a cardboard character introduced purely for the purposes of entertaining the Posts. This is the faint whiff of racism I smell. The Mallorcans themselves are barely mentioned, and the brown people in the book who have speaking parts are outright disliked (Carmen) or provide entertainment (Antoni and Joan). Joan is polite to the family and pleasant to Sylvia. On what is their last outing together, he takes her to a secluded, beautiful beach to have a picnic (and fix her terrible condition of virginity). On the way, Sylvia is very rude about his musical tastes: “This sounds like a lullaby by a guy in a tiny jacket playing in the corner of a Mexican restaurant.” When Joan points out that it is his national, Mallorcan music, she insults him further by saying it “sucks” and that it’s “like seeing your grandfather naked.” When he tells he has pride in his country and its languages (he even brings up Franco and the Spanish Civil War) and basically tells her she is being a stupid American, Sylvia pulls the childish “whatever” and is sullen. She does apologize, but it’s clear from her thoughts that she doesn’t know why (or care) about what got him upset. Her only concern is that he probably won’t kiss her again. Yup. He isn’t supposed to have thoughts or feelings—he’s there only to satisfy her desires.

This book ends with everyone being happy and getting what they want. Jim begs forgiveness from Franny and she graciously bestows it; Jim pledges (to himself) to do whatever she wants for the rest of their lives—because nothing says love like being a subservient lackey to your bossy, horrible wife. Charles and Lawrence get their (brown) baby and Charles says, yes, he can’t wait to be a daddy! Bobby, after moping about for a while when Carmen (smartly) leaves him, decides, yes, he needs to grow up and get some gumption. How will this happen? Why, by moving back home with mommy and daddy, of course! Sylvia is happily despoiled by Joan. Of course, she isn’t so pleased that they don’t have a romantic, teary-eyed, “love-you-forever” moment. Basically, he blows her off and comes by just before they leave so he can collect his tutoring check from Franny (Franny pays for everything so I wonder if Jim is even allowed a checking account or his own credit card). This moment (page 284-287) is odd because even though he did tutor Sylvia, she doesn’t think he should take the check and asks him that. He responds with: “You’re right—I should charge extra.” That’s an interesting line because it shows that he knows he fulfilled the role he was really being paid for (romancing Sylvia) and he is aware that he was being objectified by the women all along (he says Franny’s name a lot because he knows Franny likes how her name sounds when he says it). Sylvia is irritated that he is not acting out his part of distressed lover, but is willing to let that go as long as she gets a picture with him—proof that she had a hot Spanish lover. After all, she decides, she’d gotten exactly what she wanted (287).

This is not a pleasurable read. The writing is only so-so, nothing great, even though there are a few parts that had me snorting with laughter. The plot is filled with clichéd situations, the Post family is shallow, unlikeable, and annoying and the only intriguing characters (Joan and Carmen) are underdeveloped. Because the Posts (and by extension the gay couple) are so entitled and their behavior at times downright despicable, I cannot decide if the author is very clever and wants you to not like anyone (except maybe Carmen and Joan?) or if she is also entitled and oblivious to how awful her characters are? It’s puzzling. Either way, the book is not worth the hype heaped on it last summer. I heard it reviewed on NPR and the woman had a book-reviewer-orgasm on the radio she liked it so much. I don’t know what she was reading because this book didn’t turn me on—not even a little.

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes I read great reviews of a book I just read and wonder if I read the same book. I felt that way with The Interestings, and today I feel the same about The Vacationers. I liked it. It was a nice airplane read. But it's not a "YOU GUYS THIS BOOK!" book like some of the reviews. Then again, I paid for my own copy.

We follow the middle aged, upper-middle class Jim and Franny Post, their son Bobby and girlfriend Carmen, their daughter Sylvia, and Franny's best friend Charles and his husband Lawrence on a two-week vacation to a house in Mallorca.

And naturally everyone's either reeling from A Big Thing that just happened or is on the precipice of A Big Thing that's about to happen. Jim was fired from his longtime job for having an affair with an intern, which threw Franny for a loop. Sylvia hates her (charmed, charmed, charmed) life and is going to college in the fall. Lawrence and Charles are on the shortlist to adopt a baby, a change that Lawrence very much wants and Charles very much doesn't care about. (Those two were very Cyrus Beene and James Novak from Scandal to me.) Carmen wants a commitment, and Bobby doesn't want to commit to anything. Ever.

There are some really fantastic scenes, and Straub gives her characters opportunities to naturally divide into smaller sub-groups and talk with each other.

SPOILERS...

The way the characters were written, I didn't want Jim, Franny, Bobby, OR Charles to get a happy ending. Franny was unlikable from page one. Yes, you've gained weight. Yes, you're middle-aged. Deal. The way she and Charles acted together to the exclusion of their loved ones was unreal. After all of their shared history, it took Franny's interview with the tennis pro to make Jim want to stay married? Is Bobby really going to get to walk away from his financial troubles and his sub-par life (that he chose for himself)? And of COURSE Charles gets on-board with the adoption.

They were all must plain mean to and about Carmen, which turned me off to the family altogether.

I like happy endings, but I'd have been fine with a few of these characters having to lie in the bed that they made.

[Ron Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emma Straub’s “The Vacationers” is so much fun that I’d be willing to housesit her cat. A romantic comedy that evokes the classics, the story opens at the start of the Post family’s much-anticipated two-week trip to Spain. “The Posts hadn’t vacationed in years,” Straub tells us, “not like this.” Franny Post, the all-controlling wife and mother, “the maypole around which the rest of the world had to dance and twirl,” has spent months planning every detail, which, of course, guarantees a tour of frustration. “The Posts were masters of self-delusion,” and it doesn’t help that everyone going along is harboring some unspeakable secret: Franny’s 60-year-old husband didn’t retire; he was fired for having sex with an intern — just what you want to learn before a European getaway to celebrate your 35th wedding anniversary. Meanwhile, Franny’s hot-shot son is up to his pecs in unsold muscle powder and debt. And her usually sensible daughter has drawn up a list of Things to Do Before College that concludes with “Lose virginity.”

As soon as the Posts cross the Atlantic, Straub squeezes them into awkward situations designed to reveal more than your old high school bathing suit. Franny has invited along her oldest friend, a gay man and his husband, who quietly resents the way Franny makes him feel invisible. And Franny’s son has brought along his much-too-old girlfriend, a fitness fanatic who looks down on the flabby Posts just as much as they look down on her. When a hunky Spanish tutor enters the mix, Straub has all the ingredients for a delicious comedy of hurt feelings and leaping hearts.

Set down on the idyllic island of Majorca in the Mediterranean Sea, the Posts confront that universal complaint of vacationing families everywhere: There is nothing to do but get on one another’s nerves. Still, that’s plenty of activity for Straub to spin one beguiling scene after another, exposing spots of annoyance slathered with sunscreen. Much of the comedy springs from the tension between being required to have the best time in the world and wanting to stab someone with an ice pick.

It’s not easy to keep a whole novel lazily floating around the pool like this, but Straub manages it by shifting from one character to another, conveying each guest’s private thoughts — and, fortunately, these guests tend to think in an uninterrupted series of wry truisms. “What were parents anyway,” Franny’s daughter asks, “except two people who had once thought they were the smartest people in the world?” Contemplating her adulterous husband, Franny admits, “Like most things, sex got better with age until one hit a certain plateau, and then it was like breakfast, unlikely to change unless one ran out of milk and was forced to improvise.”

Before this summer vacation is over, hearts will break, fists will fly, and too much olive oil will flow. But for all the Posts’ irritation with one another on sunny Majorca, in the end, it’s not the heat, it’s the humility. Straub knows that “families were nothing more than hope cast out in a wide net, everyone wanting only the best.” In these pages — so funny, so wise and, yes, even so sweet — she’s created the best feel-good story of the summer.

This review was originally published in The Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/enterta...

[Chelsea (chelseadolling reads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another solid read from Emma Straub! I think I liked this one about the same as Modern Lovers, so I'm split on my rankings of her books so far. I've got two 5 stars (This Time Tomorrow and All Adults Here) and two 3 stars (Modern Lovers and the Vacationers). I have one more of her novels on its way to me (a historical!) and I'm really curious to see how that one ends up working for me. Either way, I've definitely found a new auto-buy author and I'm really excited about it!

CW: cheating, slut shaming, body shaming

[Jess the Shelf-Declared Bibliophile · Rating 2 out of 5]

Blah. BLAH BLAH BLAH. I thought about quitting this a few times, but for some reason I persevered through since it wasn't completely atrocious. The entire book read so pretentious, and not one of the characters were likeable. The author seemed to try to shoot for a happy-ish ending but it still fell pretty flat.

[Julie Ehlers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Initally The Vacationers seemed like the perfect novel for a midsummer heat wave: A family trip to Mallorca. A gorgeous vacation home with a pool. A sixtyish straight married couple; their college-bound 18-year-old daughter; their 28-year-old son and his 40-year-old girlfriend whom no one likes; the wife's best friend and his husband. Everyone keeping some kind of secret from everyone else. I love this kind of small setting, where everything is about the interactions among the characters. I settled in and waited for things to get complicated.

Things did indeed get complicated, and I was having a good time, enjoying the decent writing, the gentle plotting, and the occasional humor, but at a certain point things started to feel canned. The Vacationers is like one of those tasteful independent films that could just as easily have been a mainstream film if only it had more famous actors in it. No one here has any emotions or plans that aren't entirely expected. There aren't any of those odd moments where people's true selves come through and you learn to see human nature in a slightly different way. No, everyone in here acts and speaks in ways you've already seen a hundred times before. Why do they want the things they want and do the things they do? Often, there is no explanation. They're just doing what people in tasteful independent films always seem to do. There are even lots of forced cinematic moments: One character accidentally sees another character coming out of the bathroom in a skimpy towel, resulting in awkward sexual tension. A character gets dramatically punched in the face for no real reason. A stumbled-upon outdoor wedding causes an epiphany about love. A long-awaited kiss leads someone to actually wolf-whistle. Everything was so impossibly pat that I thought there would have to be a last-minute twist to turn everything on its head. Spoiler alert: There wasn't.

By the end I was so tired of all this silliness that I couldn't help rolling my eyes repeatedly. Why would I care about these smug wealthy white Manhattanites and their minuscule problems? Well, I might have cared if they seemed like real people instead of stock characters. In the end, I guess The Vacationers ended up being exactly what I expected. It's just that for a few minutes at the start, I'd allowed myself to hope for something more. In that way, I suppose it wasn't all that different from being on an actual vacation: The Mallorca of your anticipation is, sadly, never exactly the Mallorca you get.

[Britany · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

I love novels that feature a glimpse into a complicated (READ: normal) family. This fit the bill exactly. Franny & Jim post take their family and friends to a house in Mallorca Spain. Franny is slightly eccentric and artsy, Jim recently lost his job at a highly regarded magazine- Gallant. Their kids join- Sylvia who is about to go to college and Bobby who brings his much older girlfriend. Then we have one final couple- Charles and Lawrence.

Each chapter was a new day on their two week vacation Many different perspectives and thoughts going on here. Each person has secrets and tension and it erupts slowly over the course of time. What I really loved was how normal this all was. Who hasn't been on vacation with a large group of people and had everything go well? A dreamy setting helps with meals described that made my mouth water. This novel ends almost as it started-- just heading home. Straub does a really nice job of capturing motives and nuances of these characters, she made the mundane interesting and I am here for it. May end up rounding up to a solid 4 after some pondering.

[Remy Kothe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very thin, even for a summer read. Thin on plot, thin on characters...too cliche. The book read almost like a story pitch for a movie. I had expected it to be a little more fun. Ah well...

[☮Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book over the course of 24 hours. I feel like I have been on this beautiful vacation and back again, with an engaging family and their two friends. I simply adored this book. First off, what a wonderful vacation spot, Mallorca Spain. I found this lovely island on the map, and just as I suspected it is the actual home of Rafa Nadal, who I'm sure was the inspiration for the tennis star mentioned in the book, by a different name. Secondly, the characters were well drawn and loveable, mostly--and even the not so loveable had their bright moments too. And then, there is Straub's writing, so natural and unassuming. Even the few parts that got romantic and steamy were extremely well done and not sappy in the least. That's very high praise from someone like me who dislikes romance books with a passion! A great summertime read, I couldn't be more pleased to have won this from librarythings.com.

[Cathleen · Rating 1 out of 5]

The kindest thing I can say is that I am not the audience for this book.

[Mary Ronan Drew · Rating 2 out of 5]

By the author of the disappointing Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures. I was skeptical about the book because of my experience with Emma Straub's earlier novel. And rightly so.

I borrowed this because 1. hope springs eternal, and 2. (blushes) there were more people on the library waiting list for this book than any of the other books I had been investigating, 32. When will I ever learn?

The people are unlikeable - I think (they are poorly portrayed), the plot is almost non-existent, there is no local color although the story is set in Majorca, and the prose is pedestrian.

However . . . I have learned that /when/ I read a book can have a great deal of influence on how much I like it. I read this after three very readable novels. One of them is 640 pages long, the previous library borrower was a smoker, and still I couldn't put it down. So almost anything short of Pride and Prejudice was going to disappoint when I picked this up.

[r.b. · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite thing about this novel is the love Emma Straub has for her characters. It emanates from every page like a balmy Mallorcan breeze and before you know it, you love the Posts and friends, finding it sad to say goodbye when The Vacationers ends.

[Vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. Appropriately I was reading this book while on vacation so it was the perfect backdrop for my holiday reading, this didn't require gamuts of concentration so if your after a light holiday read this is the perfect pick. The story revolves around a family trying to reconnect with each other, each one of them heading into different directions in their day to day lives they have somewhat detached from each other and each have their own secrets, while on vacation to Mallorca these secrets start to spill out and this follows how they deal with each other during these revelations, which make for some fun and interesting interactions, it's a breezy fun read and makes you want to hop on a plane and go on vacation, somewhere where the water is warm and the skies are always blue.

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I chose this book from the library shelves because of the cover and the title - I was going on vacation and wanted some lightness to add variety to the books I was bringing otherwise. This one is so light it could almost float away! It is the story of a dysfunctional (but rich) family on a vacation in beautiful, idyllic Mallorca. Right before leaving, the patriarch has revealed his affair with an intern at his magazine, which has led to his premature "retirement."

I feel like Emma Straub created some interesting characters (Carmen, Sylvia, Lawrence) but then didn't know what to do with them, so they floated in the background until convenient and more of the story focuses on the matriarch Franny, who I found unlikeable and possibly understandably cheated on. Oh yeah I said it.

Here are a few directions I think would have made the book more interesting. Some are a bit spoilery if you haven't read it.

-Have the wife NOT forgive the husband. Because that might be more interesting.
-Franny's children are awful and bratty and what if this is her fault? Why does she not get more bothered by them? So many moments and possibilities for conflict are ignored.
-Carmen is dismissed because she is so much older and not as sophisticated as the son, but she is a fierce physical trainer who probably deserves to get swept off her feet by a rich/dangerous Spanish man/woman.
-Sylvia started off a bit nerdy and awkward and this could have played for more humor. Instead she gets her wish... so we all saw it coming.

[Nadine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Is it possible to have a family full of drama bring no drama to a book at all???? I had been waiting on this book for nearly 6 weeks. Supposedly it's the "hot" book this summer. Yet after reading it, I can say that I honestly have NO idea why. Why are people reading this book? I'd rather do laundry. The only thing that kept me going was the positive reviews.... I kept hoping something riveting would happen.Just the opposite. It lacked everything. There was not a single likable character, There was NO climax (despite the characters' having their own). I have no idea what the point of telling the Posts vacation story is. They are miserable folks, spoiled by entitlement, and couldn't be more cliche if they tried. Meh

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars: Emma Straub is in the peer group of Maggie Shipstead and Meg Wolitzer: an outstanding peer group who can illuminate family dynamics that are dysfunctional and hilariously funny. In this novel, Staub writes of the Posts: a family of four heading for a vacation to a small Balearic island. The chapters are broken up by days, so the reader can experience the vacation along with the Posts. Straub is able to provide each character’s prospective as each event occurs. It’s an enjoyable read. It’s fiction, but it could be any one of our families and friends. It’s a perfect beach read, or a read when you want to be entertained with a chuckle.

[Larry H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Other than holidays and weddings, there's nothing quite like a vacation with family and friends to hit all the right buttons on the dysfunction scale. No matter how idyllic, relaxing, and/or fun the plans seem like they'll be, some type of crisis, tension, or anguish (if not all three) is sure to arise, and turn everything at least slightly topsy-turvy.

And so it goes in Emma Straub's newest novel, the fun, breezy, The Vacationers. New Yorkers Franny and Jim Post have planned a two-week vacation to the Spanish island of Mallorca. This is a much-needed vacation—although they're getting ready to mark their 35th anniversary, tensions and recriminations have been bubbling up at home since Jim's long-time job at a men's magazine ended.

Coming along for the journey to this island paradise are the couple's daughter, Sylvia, who will start college in the fall, but is plagued by the betrayal of friends and social media's fixation on her misguided exploits at a party; their son, Bobby, a Miami real estate agent, and his older girlfriend, Carmen, a personal trainer, both of whom are arriving with luggage and baggage; and Franny's best friend, Charles, and his husband, Lawrence, who are dealing with anxieties of their own.

During the two-week period, the extended Post clan will sunbathe, swim, eat themselves into oblivion a time or two, visit a few tourist spots, and confront a host of issues—from infidelity, insecurity, uncertainty about the future, lust, betrayal, anger, and deception. (Just to name a few.) But while that laundry list may make The Vacationers sound like a heavy, melodramatic book, it's truly anything but. In Straub's capable hands, the plot flows like the waters of the Mediterranean, and the characters, while flawed, hook you quickly.

This is a book about the balance between keeping up appearances and letting it all hang out, dealing with the truth or continuing to live in denial, and fighting for what you want (as well as what you don't). There isn't necessarily anything unique about the plot, but it's still fun and interesting, and a really quick read.

Truth be told, The Vacationers couldn't be any more appropriate of a title for a book that will be perfect to read on the beach, on an airplane, by the pool, or wherever your vacation takes you.

[ꕥ Ange_Lives_To_Read ꕥ · Rating 3 out of 5]

The summer vacation - two weeks in a beautiful rented home in Mallorca - has been long planned, but recent developments have changed the tone of the trip and given everyone something to think about. New Yorkers Frannie and Jim are struggling with the aftermath of infidelity, and need to figure out if they can save their marriage. Their daughter Sylvia has just broken up with her boyfriend, with whom she had hoped to lose her virginity before heading off to college. Their son needs to decide if he wants to stay with his floundering real-estate career and his much older girlfriend in Miami. And their gay friends, Lawrence and Charles, are waiting to hear from the adoption agency if they have been approved by the birth mother who chose them as potential parents.

The narrative is straightforward (Day 1, Day 2) and nothing really earth shattering happens. This was a pleasant if unambitious novel that was fine to pass time in the car. If you think it might be fun to hang out on an island with a nice family for two weeks and see what they get up to, this book will work for you.

[Dianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

More wry and observant than fluffy, a vacation read with a little bit of a bite. Jim and Franny Post from Manhattan take a family vacation to Mallorca to celebrate their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary - although at the moment, they aren't exactly speaking. Accompanying them are their angsty but droll teen-aged daughter and shiftless grown son, the son's older girlfriend who no one likes, and Franny's gay best friend and his husband. Everyone has a secret or a "situation," and the story is told from each point of view as the two-week vacation rolls by. Nice local color, yummy food porn and decent writing - I was pleasantly surprised. A few of the characters aren't very likable, but they're all interesting.

A 3 or 3.5.

[Margaret · Rating 2 out of 5]

Vacationers is no vacation at all. Unless your idea of vacation is waiting for the cheater to get decked, the annoying mother to get her due, or the sulking virgin to find her Romeo. I usually don't review a book before my book club has talked about it but our gathering is 2 weeks out and I want to get this book behind me.

I just can't do books where I don't like the characters. This family was believable, their predicaments realistic and their faults quite human. But they aren't fun to be around. And they are NOT fun to be on vacation with, especially on my summer vacation. I was rooting for no one. (Actually I was rooting for the virgin to get her sandy, beach romp.)

I hated the relationship between Mama Post and her longtime friend Charles. Gay or not, the way she hung on and kissed on Charles disturbed me and showed big disrespect to her husband. Can you tell I forgot most of their names? Time to forget them altogether. Next book please.