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    The Vacationers
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    The Vacationers
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    The Vacationers
    Audiobook6 hours

    The Vacationers

    Written by Emma Straub

    Narrated by Kristen Sieh

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    An irresistible, deftly observed novel about the secrets, joys, and jealousies that rise to the surface over the course of an American family's two-week stay in Mallorca.

    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.

    This is a story of the sides of ourselves that we choose to show and those we try to conceal, of the ways we tear each other down and build each other up again, and the bonds that ultimately hold us together. With wry humor and tremendous heart, Emma Straub delivers a richly satisfying story of a family in the midst of a maelstrom of change, emerging irrevocably altered yet whole.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMay 29, 2014
    ISBN9780698153813
    Unavailable
    The Vacationers
    Author

    Emma Straub

    Emma Straub lives in New York City. She is the author of a short-story collection, Other People We Married. Her first novel, Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures, is published by Picador.

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    Reviews for The Vacationers

    3/5

    499 ratings71 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Screwed up Manhattan family of four goes on summer vacation to a villa in Mallorca, Spain for two weeks. They are joined by the son's way older personal trainer girlfriend and the mom's best friend and his husband. What could possibly go right? Not much for most of the time, but in a sublimely amusing way. Magazine editor Dad, sixty, gets fired for tumbling into an abortive affair with a board member's seductive twentysomething daughter. Mom finds out when he crawls home jobless and in shock. Daughter, headed to freshman year at Brown U. in the fall, has a crush on her Mallorcan Spanish tutor. Son is in debilitating debt due to a dumb business decision and has to humbly beg for a bailout. Everyone in the vacation party resents son's overly critical, super-fit girlfriend. The married male couple are stressed out, awaiting news on the decision of a birth mother in their pursuit of fatherhood. Mallorca casts its spell.Quotes: "It was the classic Euro look - shiny and well-groomed to the point of New Jersey.""Jim didn't know it was possible to see actual wavy lines of anger around someone's head, like a cartoon come to life, but there they were, clear as day."
    • 4/5
      The Vacationers is the perfect beach read for people who like their escapist reading to take them to a villa in Mallorca (Spain) on a family vacation with two generations of family, along with a long-time family friend, all suffering individually and/or as couples from first-world problems. Sun, sexy Europeans, Scrabble, and great meals are all included. Emma Straub, you can take me on vacation again anytime!For full review, visit the Bay State Reader's Advisory blog.
    • 4/5
      I didn't like this book so much at the beginning - all the characters annoyed me. Then, it sort of grew on me, and I really like how Straub balances the characters out. The personalities are full-fleshed and real.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this story of a family vacation packed with the ups and downs of real life and how a family deals with adversity. It was a fun light read. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
    • 2/5
      The Vacationers is a fluff read. It is a mediocre daytime soap opera that should only be read after a long, intense, and interesting book. I clearly didn’t have high hopes for The Vacationers, and rightfully so, but it was what I needed it to be, something short and easy. The focus is on the Post family going to Spain, the son is bringing his girlfriend, and the wife is bringing her best friend and his partner. Jim, the father, is a cheat. He cheated on his wife Franny with a much younger woman and there is tension that is affecting everyone on the trip because of what he did. It’s drama and cheap entertainment, every man is a cheater and/or a piece of shit in The Vacationers, it becomes comical. So read it if you want to do some light, flowy reading, just don’t go in expecting a masterpiece.
    • 3/5
      Dead realistic about the messiness of relationships and children and the staggering investments we put into them, without being depressing. In fact, we are supplied with an 18-year-old character to get depressed for us and yell at all the dishonorable adults (falling hideously short of her Austen/Bronte ideal) that they suck. Interesting scenes and scenarios. Relatable, earnest characters. Kept me reading long into the night. I'll probably have forgotten the whole thing in two weeks, except the part where Franny puts the book down on her thighs, which was the nearest thing to horror--but it was well done.
    • 3/5
      I chose this to read as a diversion during a weekend fast. It was a quick read (I got through in a less than day) and I liked the beginning and end more than the middle. Jim and Franny Post decided to vacation for two weeks in Mallorca as a last family holiday before daughter, Sylvia leaves for college. Their son, Bobby and girlfriend, Carmen are along for the trip as well as Franny's BFF Charles and his husband, Lawrence. The setting, a loaned house of Gemma, a friend of Charles's, is spectacular and so is Mallorca in general. Enter, Joan (pronounced Joe-aahn) to tutor Sylvia in Spanish, while they're on island and the cast is basically complete. What follows is all sorts of revelations about tension between Jim and Franny care of an affair and Jim's unplanned retirement. Sylvia's on a quest to vanquish her virginity due to a hookup between her former BFF and her crush, some tertiary angst over a drunken indescretion at a graduation party much discussed on social media. Bobby is in financial trouble and a dead end relationship with Carmen. Charles and Lawrence are anxious in varying degrees about becoming parents. Of all the characters, I liked Charles and Lawrence best. They weren't perfect but it was nice to see their beginning a family juxtaposed to the weather worn Posts family. The middle of the book felt like it lagged a bit but it's a vacation sort of book so it felt like that kind of lull. I did like the ends for everyone and it didn't bother me that it ended more hopeful than it began. In the end, the Posts left more baggage behind than they took with them so I think it was a good vacation.
    • 4/5
      Delightful. Straub writes about people I know, and does so with grace and love while also exposing all the warts. There is an Austen-feel to her books too. She writes about human relationships and celebrates the bonds of familial love (even when your family drives you crazy), things modern publishers would relegate to "women's literature," while commenting slyly on issues of class, imperialism, societal strictures stemming from age, gender, sexual orientation, beauty, money, ethnicity, and other semi-immutable characteristics. The book is not perfect, many of the characters required a bit more fleshing out for them to seem like more than plot devices, but I left this read refreshed and satisfied and happy. That is a win!
    • 4/5
      I received an Advance Reader's Copy of this book. The Post family is headed on a two week long vacation with friends to Mallorca. This book is all about relationships. Husbands and wives, between siblings, between friends, and new acquaintances. The writing and development of each relationship struck me as honest and extremely plausible. None of the stories was wrapped with a pretty bow, but with the end that the real world would give too. The Setting and writing were a joy, and I now feel like I should go back and read Ms. Straub's backlist. This was a summer read at it's best.
    • 1/5
      uninteresting characters, predictable storylines...disappointing
    • 2/5
      fiction (human comedy of errors). Members of a family friends group vacation in Mallorca. I stopped around page 88--the writing was ok but I couldn't bring myself to care about the characters. Somewhat droll but also somewhat dull.
    • 3/5
      Do books get written to be read on vacations? Possibly. If they are well written, they may even help reduce stress and such and provide hours in a parallel universe, just that much different to make it look more interesting or less challenging.
    • 3/5
      Absolutely delightful read. Would be perfect for a beach/pool read. Who doesn't love a good ole' family vacay full of drama? I'm sure a lot of people will find this book lacking -- no great character depth, no fleshing out of anything, really. But, I think Straub hit the mark with an easy read, beautiful scenery descriptions and delicious drama. Hat-tip to Riverhead Books for timing the release perfectly.
    • 3/5
      I read this book relatively quickly. Didn't particularly like any of the characters, the daughter being too smug, the son an ass, the father just uninteresting. The mother, Fanny, with all her quirkiness was probably my least disliked, though she was privileged and perhaps justifiably so. Couldn't figure out why Joan, the tutor was a dick. Maybe because he was so beautiful. But, I suppose it was left to our imagination. A family in crisis but everything works out in the end.
    • 3/5
      This was my book club's most recent selection and book we discussed on Sunday. A "lighter" read was preferred by our group and this won the vote based on that assumption. It was indeed a lighter read than our previous selections and overall it was thought to be slighter better than your average beach read. Jim and Franny are trying to work things out in their 25+ years marriage and decide to go on a family vacation to Spain. This includes their daughter Sylvia who just graduated from high school and is college bound as well as her much older brother Bobby and his much older girlfriend Carmen. In addition, Franny's longtime best friend Charles and his husband Lawrence join them for their holiday. Franny is bitter that Jim had an affair. Jim is weak and wimpy. Sylvia is lost in her own world of angst but livens up a bit for handsome Juan, her Spanish tutor her mother arranged for the trip. Bobby and Carmen have their own troubles and Carmen feels like the outsider who doesn't fit in with this family. Charles and Lawrence are desperately trying to adopt a baby. Franny lights up like Christmas whenever Charles is around and once the two of them are together anyone else in the room becomes oblivious. Once they all arrive in Spain drama, hysterics and folly result. Despite some good reviews on this book I was surprised I did not enjoy it. I didn't think any of the characters to be likable but Lawrence who seemed to be the only one of the cast who had any sense and sanity. If you like beach reads and the lighter side when it comes to books than this is for you. If like me, you need a bit more substance for a satisfying read then I wouldn't recommend this one. How I acquired this book: Purchased at Barnes & Noble with giftcard from Christmas.Shelf Life: 2 months
    • 4/5
      Just like it's name might imply, this was a great book to read on a vacation! The author does a great job of introducing us to each character, letting us see the world from their vantage points, and sympathizing with each of them even while exasperated by their actions. To me, the most enjoyable thing about the book was the way it ended on a hopeful note without resorting to sugary sweetness and cliche.
    • 3/5
      Audiobook and content review: Kristen Sieh was a decent narrator, differentiating between characters well enough, but the book itself felt a bit like someone found an old diary and pasted it together with a few faked up outside perspectives and tried to make the whole thing come together with a Profound Meaning. Utterly lacking in that department. While it touched on the classism and racism and privilege of the characters at the center of the novel, it never really came to a conclusion that they were, in fact, classist and racist and privileged. If anything, the ending was the opposite. Made me feel like I'd been listening/reading with a hope that went unfulfilled.
    • 3/5
      Dead realistic about the messiness of relationships and children and the staggering investments we put into them, without being depressing. In fact, we are supplied with an 18-year-old character to get depressed for us and yell at all the dishonorable adults (falling hideously short of her Austen/Bronte ideal) that they suck. Interesting scenes and scenarios. Relatable, earnest characters. Kept me reading long into the night. I'll probably have forgotten the whole thing in two weeks, except the part where Franny puts the book down on her thighs, which was the nearest thing to horror--but it was well done.
    • 3/5
      Easy summer read but pretty predictable. Maybe that's part of the definition of summer read? The reader doesn't have to think too hard.
    • 4/5
      This felt like The Book of the Summer to me. Pretty much every source I use for reviews recommended taking it on vacation with me. I didn't actually go away while I read it - but it is still summer and I found it provided an engrossing getaway in itself. This is a little soap opera of a book - a family goes away on vacation and each one has something they are grappling with. Adoption, infidelity, indiscretion to name a few of the things plaguing the different members. I read this book in record time (for me). I found it hard to put down and the plot was really engaging. It is not all happy happy - that is for sure - but there are moments of levity that really help keep this book from being just a sad catalog of the families sins and angst. I'd recommend it to anyone who is looking to lose them self in a book this summer.
    • 4/5
      Great summer read -- quick, satisfying, and fun. Though at first I was not sold on some of the characters (for example, I initially felt like Franny was Hannah Horvath, all grown up), I grew to enjoy them and I ultimately appreciated the care and detail with which Straub constructed both their assets and their flaws.
    • 3/5
      I loved Straub's last novel, Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures , about a film star from the 1950's. She drew me into Laura's world, and I felt like I was watching a TMC movie as I was reading it.I was hoping to be as drawn into this novel, but it didn't happen for me. I loved the setting of Mallorca, and am really interested in taking a trip there. The problem for me was that I didn't really feel invested in the characters' lives. The character I most wanted to know about was Lawrence, and he was really more of an a tangential character.I did like the sibling relationship between Sylvia and Bobby, who have ten years age difference between them, and the scene where they went to a disco was very well done and revealing.Straub also had some wonderful observations, like:"Other people's families were as mysterious as an alien species, full of secret codes and shared histories."And Franny speaking about her friendship with Charles said:"Friendships were tricky things, especially friendships as old as theirs... Love was a given, uncomplicated by sex or vows, but honesty was always waiting there, ready to capsize the steady boat."And thinking about her children:"She'd always thought that siblings were pretty much the same people in differently shaped bodies, just shaken up slightly, so that the molecules arranged themselves, but now she wasn't sure."I think splitting the focus of the story amongst the different characters, instead of focusing on just one like in Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures, may be why it didn't appeal as much to me. I didn't feel like I got a complete picture of anyone. But I am in the minority here; The Vacationers made many Best of Summer lists, including a list of rave reviews found here on Parnassus Books.
    • 2/5
      2 stars for it was OK. A description on the cover calls it a "breezy read" and it was that, but I prefer more substance to my novels. This is a "summer novel" (i.e. forgettable, no real thinking involved) but if you like light reading then you might enjoy it.
    • 3/5
      I picked this up because of all the hype it was getting over at Entertainment Weekly. I had previously enjoyed this author's first novel, Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures which focused on a fictional characters time during the golden age of Hollywood. In her latest effort Straub has chosen to examine family dynamics in the present day. There seems to be a large amount of fiction addressing the fall out of adultery flooding the reading market lately. I have read Big Little Lies, I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You, and now The Vacationers. The central plot of this novel revolves around a family vacation off the coast of Spain on the island of Mallorca. Parents Franny and Jim are trying to recover from the aftermath of Jim's affair with an intern young enough to be his daughter. Along for the ride are Fran's best gay friend Charles and his husband Lawrence who are on the brink of adopting a baby. Also joining them are Jim and Fran's two children, Sylvia who is looking for a last hurrah before starting college and Bobbie who is experiencing financial and emotional difficulties with his decade older girlfriend Carmen. Being crammed into a small house forces long simmering issues to come to a head. I read through this book pretty quickly because I was interested in the story. In the end though I did not find the characters either very likable or memorable. This book almost requires being on a beach in order to fully enjoy it.
    • 3/5
      Franny and Jim Post's thirty five year marriage is on the edge of imploding after Jim admits to having an affair with a twenty three year old intern at work. In a bid to see if her marriage can be saved, Franny plans a two week summer vacation on the island of Mallorca. Joining them are their children, twenty eight year old Bobby and eighteen year old daugher Sylvia. Bobby's older girld friend Carmen and Franny's best friend Charles and his husband Lawrence round out the group.As the two week vacation rolls along the various vacationers will have to deal with aspects of what it means to grow older and to grow up. Past mistakes will finally be confronted and by the end of the trip each person will find themself not returning to their old life, but a new one.
    • 4/5
      The Post family is spending two weeks in Mallorca: parents, daughter, son and his girlfriend, gay best friend and his husband. This novel is told from each character's point of view at various times, so the reader is privy to secrets that are being kept and feelings that are being hidden. Each day unfolds separately in a steady pace to the vacation's end and satisfying resolutions for each character.
    • 5/5
      Yup. Love it. Love Emma Straub (when's her next one coming out?) A New York family vacations on the island of Mallorca. From the beginning you know there are things going on beneath the surface, but Straub parcels them out bit by bit. Families, friendships, relationships are all complicated, and the Posts are no exception. But the love underpinning them shines through in the end. I started to think things were wrapping up a little too neatly, but the final chapter and pages do acknowledge that there are no easy answers.
    • 3/5
      Nothing new here. Move alomg.Movie potential due to the setting.
    • 1/5
      Boring, couldn't care less about characters, shallow.
    • 4/5
      This book was an exceptionally easy read. I became so invested in each character that it was difficult to put it down. Plus it was just a lot of fun. What could possibly go wrong when a family of five adults and a married gay couple vacation together for two weeks in a remote Spanish city in the same house? You have to read it and find out. There were some definite "laugh out loud" moments for me throughout this novel. Emma Straub does a phenomenal job of navigating each character through the twists and turns of life and she does it all in a two week span of time - each chapter correlating to one day of the vacation. This was a book that I hated to see end.