Helpful Score: 1
Started out not caring for the characters, but then after knowing their backgrounds I really liked them. Turned out to be a good read.
I'm about 3/4 or more of the way through this book, and I'm reviewing it now because I may not finish. Nothing happens in this story. It is literally a description of the worlds most boring family vacation ever. Would not recommend.
or 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: Oover 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 tale of a family in the midst of a maelstrom of change, emerging irrevocably altered yet whole.
My take: The story built slowly. I thought this was going to be a light easy breezy beach read, but it had some parts that were darker than that. Each character was at some sort of crossroads in their life and had to work through their issues to make a decision and get through to the other side. Ultimately I liked the ending. Ironically, the character I liked the most was Carmen, the son's girlfriend, that all the other characters in the book disliked. She seemed the most genuinely nice.
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 tale of a family in the midst of a maelstrom of change, emerging irrevocably altered yet whole.
My take: The story built slowly. I thought this was going to be a light easy breezy beach read, but it had some parts that were darker than that. Each character was at some sort of crossroads in their life and had to work through their issues to make a decision and get through to the other side. Ultimately I liked the ending. Ironically, the character I liked the most was Carmen, the son's girlfriend, that all the other characters in the book disliked. She seemed the most genuinely nice.
This book was surprisingly original and very well written. It tells of a dysfunctional family from New York on vacation for two weeks in Mallorca, Spain. Franny is trying to recover from her husband Jim's infidelity, which caused him to be fired from his job at Gallant Magazine at age 60. Their 16 year old daughter Sylvia is with them, as well as their ne'er do well son Bobby, and his cougar girl friend Carmen whom no one likes. Charles and Lawrence, their gay son and his husband, round out the group. How the family adjusts to being together for the first time in many years, is fascinating and interesting. The glimpses into Mallorcan cuisine are exceptionally descriptive, as Franny is a food writer for magazines and also lives through cooking.
A perfect book to read when you want something mostly lighthearted, with a few darker parts. I read it quickly and it kept me interested in all the characters in the book, who all had faults, but were quite sympathetic also.
This was a wonderful story about family and friends taking a vacation to Mallorca together. It is happy, sad, humorous, poignant and ultimately hopeful and good. An excellent portrayal of the human condition we all struggle with....
