The Vactioners by Emma Straub– Audio Version
Book Blurb:
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.
My Review: 3 stars
The Vacationers was sitting on my TBR for some time but after getting only fair reviews, I’d been holding out. That changed when I needed a shorter audio book for a road trip and I’m quite glad I did.
The narrator was well spoken, smooth and was able to easily meld into the varying character’s voices. Usually, I’ll only listen to memoirs on audio but this one surprised me with it omniscient POV. Not all books work with this voice, but Straub did a great job executing it within this work.
The story is nothing new, a family and some extras go on vacation where a lot of broken parts are either getting fixed or they’re not. There are pieces of deceit, love, friendship, adultery, family, travel and trust that make up the cast of characters, that I eventually came to care about.
Quotes I liked:
So much of being a good friend was knowing when to keep your mouth shut.”
“Maybe that was the key to all good relationships, having oceans of time apart.”
“…the major accomplishment of her life was producing two children who seemed to like each other even when no one else was looking.”
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