The Vacationers

The Vacationers by Emma Straub
292 pages. Published 2014
Amazon: 3 Stars
Me: 4 Stars


Seven people, four of them related, take a two week vacation together, and no one really likes each other.  Everyone was dreading the trip. How bad can it be?

The characters:
Jim: He's the father. He's also recently lost his job, and slept with a young assistant at his prior company.
Franny: Jim's wife; the mother; the martyr. She organized this vacation, and wants to make it work.
Sylvia: The daughter of Jim and Franny. She's 18, and going to leave for college shortly after this vacation. She doesn't really want too be around her family (but what 18 year old does?), and her goal is to lose her virginity this trip.
Bobby: Jim and Franny's daughter. He's 28, and works for a gym. Lives far away from his parents, and they kind of think of him as not starting his life yet.
Carmen: Bobby's girlfriend. Personal trainer. No one really likes her.
Charles: Franny's very best friend. Their relationship is a little intimidating for outsiders. He's married to Lawrence.
Lawrence: Charles' husband. Doesn't want to be with another family. Really wants to adopt a baby.

Everyone is staying at Charles' friends' house in Mallorca, part of the Balearic islands (these islands are just off the coast of Spain in case you don't know your geography like me). The seven main characters tell the story from their varying points of view. At first, everyone is miserable and trying to make the best of this tropical vacation.

I've read many books with characters I don't like, and with the female leads being a martyr, but still likable in some way.  Franny, is different. Emma Straub does a great job of describing her as a martyr, but it isn't in her descriptions from other characters so much as Franny's own inner dialogue.  She thinks things like, "women always have to plan the meals because the men would never think to do it." And, she is just so needy and insecure. I mean, her husband did cheat on her. She is trying to figure out who she wants to be, and if she even wants to stay in this marriage of 35 years. She's the planner and the coordinator of meals and trying to get everyone to hang out together and get along.

Carmen, seems the opposite. She doesn't want to hang out with everyone, and seems to make a point of avoiding conversations and everyone else. Lawrence, he doesn't want to hang out either, but he does. He tries to make the most of their time, and fit in some work.

At the beginning of the story each character is living his or her own life independently.  Straub creates a common setting that brings the characters together in the end.  The character development is really what makes this story.  The plot isn't one where the reader needs to know what happens next in the story, but, more, wants to know what a particular character will do next, or what character the reader will come across next.

I love stories that have in-depth character development; they are my favorite kind. That's why I gave this book 4 stars.  It wasn't a compelling story line, like the Lifegaurd by James Patterson, but I wanted to know more about the characters and what they were going to do next.

You can purchase this book from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or your local bookstore.