Not your typical poolside read.
by Kaylen Ralph
The Vacationers, Emma Straub’s latest novel from Riverhead Books, is a beach read you can enjoy while sitting in your doctor’s office waiting room.
By that, I mean that even if there’s not an island paradise glimmering on the horizon of your summer break, this is a novel that transcends what a “beach read” has to be. And by that, I mean that it’s perhaps one of the only books set on an idyllic island that might make you content to spend your vacation time home alone.
The Post family is falling apart, and what better way is there for a family to internally combust (both individually and as a unit) than while marooned on an island together? Jim, the Post family patriarch, has recently lost his job at Gallant Magazine. Because he’s lost his job for sleeping with an intern, he’s also completely fallen from the good graces of his wife, Franny. Franny is dealing with the realization that she’s soon to be left an empty nester with a man she despises once her youngest daughter, Sylvia, goes off to college in the fall. For Sylvia, a two-week vacation with her distant older brother, Bobby is all that stands between her and the completely new life she imagines for herself once she hits the Ivy League. Bobby is just trying to enjoy two weeks of vacation, postponing acknowledgement of his massive debt and crumbling relationship.
Set on the idyllic island of Mallorca, The Vacationers could also be called The Family. Despite the fully formed and unique characters that make up the Post clan (Straub excels at creating people that are relatable without making them stock characters, pandering to our desire for fictional mirrors), their family could be anyone’s.
This is a book about making decisions, how there’s always residual effect when you act “alone” within a unit. No (wo)man is an island, no decision is made within an vacuum, whether you share a roof or not. This idea is exacerbated for the Post family under the bright Mallorcan sun. The hurt and healing that the Post family experiences is something that will resonate with anyone who’s ever taken their family bond for granted or attempted to sidestep the handling of those “unmentionable” issues (sex, death, money, right?)
Over countless dinners of tapas you can practically taste through the page, the Post family vacation becomes the ultimate reckoning. When there’s no one left to turn to you, how do you stomach the courage to just go home?
Kaylen Ralph is The Riveter‘s co-founder and co-editor.
