Read for: Audio Book Challenge
Synopsis: "An irresistible, deftly observed novel about the secrets, joys, and jealousies that rise to the surface over the course of an American family’s two-week stay in Mallorca.
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.
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 story of a family in the midst of a maelstrom of change, emerging irrevocably altered yet whole."
My Review: Straub's books only recently came to my attention as great summer books, so I thought I would give this one a shot. I listened to the audiobook version and it was the perfect length. I found it very relatable and interesting, especially coming back from my own family vacation. I love how the family dynamics were shown, it wasn't pretty but it was more real than most I have read in the past. It was fun watching the ups and downs as the family reacquainted themselves with each other, it is all love and happy at the beginning but the longer family is together the more ugly truths come out and are forced to be acknowledged and resolved.
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.
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 story of a family in the midst of a maelstrom of change, emerging irrevocably altered yet whole."
My Review: Straub's books only recently came to my attention as great summer books, so I thought I would give this one a shot. I listened to the audiobook version and it was the perfect length. I found it very relatable and interesting, especially coming back from my own family vacation. I love how the family dynamics were shown, it wasn't pretty but it was more real than most I have read in the past. It was fun watching the ups and downs as the family reacquainted themselves with each other, it is all love and happy at the beginning but the longer family is together the more ugly truths come out and are forced to be acknowledged and resolved.
My Rating: This isn't a book I would normally pick up but I did because Emma will be attending a book function I will also be attending tomorrow. I rather enjoyed this book and liked the fact that it wasn't all happy and lovey but at the same time the discord didn't feel made up or forced, it was very much so how close friends and family interact. I give it a rating of Three Paws and a Stump Wag.
Sounds fun. And like a good beach read.
ReplyDeleteIt was a good little beach read, it wasn't long either, just what you need for a lazy day by the pool or at the beach.
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