You know the summertime dilemma: Sometimes you’re in the mood to wiggle your toes into the sand and enjoy a fun story – nothing too dark and heavy — but you’re not willing to waste your time on a book that’s so silly you’ll just want to fling it into the ocean later. Is it too much to ask for a beach read to deliver multi-dimensional characters, a zippy plot, snappy dialogue you can’t help but read aloud to the person in the lounge chair next to you, and solid writing?
Nope. Not every summer reading pleasure has to be a guilty one. Case in point – Emma Straub’s The Vacationers.
What it’s about: A Manhattan family and a few of their friends decide to ditch the tensions of their everyday lives for a two-week stay on the island of Mallorca. The story has everything a great summer read requires (I feel like Stefon on Saturday Night Live, “This club has everything…”): secret rendezvous, simmering hostilities, and a boatload of baggage; a teen coming of age and adults coming to grips with aging; surprises, disappointments, breakups, and make-ups. Nothing goes quite as planned, which is always fun (on other people’s vacations).
Speaking of other people’s vacations . . . When I met Straub a few months ago — along with her husband and their adorable son in his tiny hipster-baby hat — I knew I’d found an author who wouldn’t be afraid to get a little goofy with us. And thus we present this spin on the old question, “If you could invite any authors, living or dead, to a dinner party, who would they be?”
With thanks to Emma Straub for taking the shame out of beach reading this summer,
– Mary Laura Philpott
Editor of Musing
Emma Straub’s Imaginary Island Getaway
If you could take up to 10 other authors, living or dead, on vacation with you, who’d be invited, and why?
ES: I’m having so much fun already. I think I’d take Elizabeth Gilbert, not only because she’s very game and friendly and seems like she could talk to a brick wall for 10 hours, but also because I know she travels like crazy and could probably tell me which indigenous plants were delicious. I’d take Jane Austen, because I think she’d be an excellent gossip as soon as anyone left the room. I’d take the Mitford sisters, all of them, even Unity. How about Colson Whitehead? He could teach us all how to play poker! That would be very handy. I feel like I should maybe have more dead people.
Where would you go?
ES: I’m picturing a large villa near a beach. Perhaps on an island. There are probably palm trees.
Awesome. How long would you stay?
ES: Oh, at least a month.
Who’s probably going to bring the biggest suitcase?
ES: Me, I’m afraid. One of my biggest problems is packing clothes that I won’t wear. I just spent four months in Nashville (as you know!), and when I packed up to return to New York, I was horrified to see how many pairs of shoes I’d brought and not worn.
Who’s in charge of the map?
ES: Elizabeth Gilbert, for sure. Even if she gets us all lost, who cares? I could listen to her TED talk all day, so I’d just close my eyes and go along for the ride.
What’s for dinner the first night? Is someone cooking? Or is this an evening out?
ES: I follow Colson’s wife on Instagram, and he seems to be an excellent chef, so I’m putting him on dinner duty. The Mitfords would obviously be total disasters in the kitchen. Jane Austen could probably make a meringue of some kind.
Oh, you know she’d bring some fancy confection. OK, what activities are planned for daytime?
ES: Well, the aforementioned poker. I bet Jane would know some killer card games too. I’m really most interested in eating and napping, though. Swimming in a pool. That’s my biggest activity.
Let’s say the vacation house has one really great bedroom — huge windows, whirlpool tub, etc. — who gets it?
ES: The Mitfords, bless them, would most likely assume it was theirs, and I wouldn’t want to argue.
And who gets the crummy little room at the back of the house with the broken closet door and the rickety twin beds?
ES: Me. Those other people are famous and important and I would be psyched to have the broken closet door. My husband might object, but hey, what can you do?
Last question: You have to share a bathroom with one of your fellow vacationers. Who will it be?
ES: I can imagine Liz Gilbert taking a long bath every night, so maybe Jane? I pick Jane.
I totally want to stow away on this imaginary vacation. Thank you!
ES: Thank you. This is so much fun.
Emma Straub joins Parnassus Books on Thursday, June 26, at 6:30 PM for a signing and discussion of The Vacationers. This event is free and open to the public.
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Pack your beach bag:
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The Vacationers (Hardcover)$26.95
ISBN-13: 9781594631573
Availability: Coming Soon – Available for Pre-Order Now Published: Riverhead Hardcover, 5/2014 |
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Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures (Paperback)$16.00
ISBN-13: 9781594631825
Availability: On Our Shelves Now Published: Riverhead Trade, 7/2013 |
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Other People We Married (Paperback)$15.00
ISBN-13: 9781594486067
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days Published: Riverhead Trade, 2/2012 |
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Beautiful Ruins (Paperback)$15.99
ISBN-13: 9780061928178
Availability: On Our Shelves Now Published: Harper Perennial, 4/2013 |
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The Beach (Paperback)$16.00
ISBN-13: 9781573226523
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days Published: Riverhead Trade, 2/1998 |
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A Year in Provence (Paperback)$14.95
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Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days Published: Vintage, 6/1991 |
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My Life in France (Paperback)$16.00
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Fodor’s Spain 2014 (Paperback)$25.99
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The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky, and Death (Hardcover)$24.95
ISBN-13: 9780385537056
Availability: On Our Shelves Now Published: Doubleday, 5/2014 |
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Zone One (Paperback)$15.00
ISBN-13: 9780307455178
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days Published: Anchor, 7/2012
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ISBN-13: 9780143038412
Availability: On Our Shelves Now Published: Penguin Books, 2/2007
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Sense and Sensibility: 200th Anniversary Edition (Mass Market Paperback)$4.95
ISBN-13: 9780451531018
Availability: On Our Shelves Now Published: Signet Classics, 7/2008 |
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The Pursuit of Love (Paperback)$14.95
ISBN-13: 9780307740816
Availability: On Our Shelves Now Published: Vintage, 8/2010 |
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Love in a Cold Climate (Paperback)$14.95
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Musing 