A flawed family and a selection of their mismatched friends unpack their baggage in an isolated holiday villa: what could possibly go right? Franny puts her energy into shopping and cooking for the tribe, anything to take her mind off what has led to husband, Jim, losing his job. Their late-twenties-going-on-twelve son, Bobby, has brought along his own work and relationship problems in the form of unsuitable girlfriend, Carmen, while eighteen-year-old Sylvia is desperate to reinvent herself before setting off for college. Then there are the lovebirds, Charles and Lawrence: can their marriage survive the challenge of waiting to adopt a baby in the midst of Franny’s attempts to monopolise her oldest friend? And if that isn’t enough to light the blue touchpaper, Sylvia’s handsome Spanish tutor brings that extra spark.
If there’s such a thing as a country-house subgenre, there’s probably – as Charli assures me - a villa-holiday novel format too, but life’s too short to plough through the rental adverts that pop-up when I put those words into my search engine. There was certainly a lot in this novel that reminded me of Deborah Levy’s wonderful Booker-shortlisted, Swimming Home. The truncated timeframe of a week or fortnight’s holiday serves to enliven the pace of a story, and uprooting the characters from the routines of home frees them to act out their foibles. Add to that the pressure of enforced proximity along with the heat, and the emotions bubble to the surface.
But this is no formulaic novel: the characters and their dilemmas are entirely believable and their trials and tribulations explored with humour and warmth, and an admirable turn of phrase:
Waiting for a baby was like waiting for a heart attack – at a certain point, you had to just surrender and make other plans, not knowing if you’d have to cancel. (p134)
When he started talking, she held her finger between the pages, keeping her spot, but as he went on, she turned the book facedown onto her thighs. When Jim thought about the worst moment in his marriage, he thought about watching Franny turn her book over, the straight line of her mouth. (p186)
The various plotlines are wound together beautifully, with no detail redundant to the plot. My only criticism was in relation to Franny’s reluctance to drive the hire car because she’s unaccustomed to a “shift stick” seemingly forgotten when she volunteers to drive to the airport to pick up the rest of the party.
I enjoyed this novel and, because of its relatively happy ending and because it’s a page-turner without dumbing down, it might make for an ideal holiday read. Okay, perhaps not if you’ve booked a Majorcan villa slightly beyond your budget for friends and family or if, like me, are spooked by travel even of the most straightforward kind. After taking part in Charli’s travel horror challenge, I totally identified with Jim in these opening lines:
Leaving always came as a surprise, no matter how long dates had been looming on the calendar. Jim had packed a suitcase the night before, but now, moments before their scheduled departure, he was wavering. Had he packed enough books? (p1)
and my anxiety didn’t abate until we were into the second week of the holiday.
The Vacationers is published in paperback in the UK today by Picador from where I received my review copy.
Can you think of any other examples the holiday-villa novel? What kind of thing do you like to read when you go away?
But this is no formulaic novel: the characters and their dilemmas are entirely believable and their trials and tribulations explored with humour and warmth, and an admirable turn of phrase:
Waiting for a baby was like waiting for a heart attack – at a certain point, you had to just surrender and make other plans, not knowing if you’d have to cancel. (p134)
When he started talking, she held her finger between the pages, keeping her spot, but as he went on, she turned the book facedown onto her thighs. When Jim thought about the worst moment in his marriage, he thought about watching Franny turn her book over, the straight line of her mouth. (p186)
The various plotlines are wound together beautifully, with no detail redundant to the plot. My only criticism was in relation to Franny’s reluctance to drive the hire car because she’s unaccustomed to a “shift stick” seemingly forgotten when she volunteers to drive to the airport to pick up the rest of the party.
I enjoyed this novel and, because of its relatively happy ending and because it’s a page-turner without dumbing down, it might make for an ideal holiday read. Okay, perhaps not if you’ve booked a Majorcan villa slightly beyond your budget for friends and family or if, like me, are spooked by travel even of the most straightforward kind. After taking part in Charli’s travel horror challenge, I totally identified with Jim in these opening lines:
Leaving always came as a surprise, no matter how long dates had been looming on the calendar. Jim had packed a suitcase the night before, but now, moments before their scheduled departure, he was wavering. Had he packed enough books? (p1)
and my anxiety didn’t abate until we were into the second week of the holiday.
The Vacationers is published in paperback in the UK today by Picador from where I received my review copy.
Can you think of any other examples the holiday-villa novel? What kind of thing do you like to read when you go away?
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