Emma Straub

The book begins on the eve of Alice’s 40th birthday. Her life is basically good: she has a good enough job, she has a faithful best friend she’s known for years, an apartment in New York City, her independence, and a relationship that isn’t great, but not unbearable. The only negative piece of her life is that her father, who raised her by himself and with whom she is very close, is hospitalized and very ill. However, the night after her birthday, she awakes and it is 1996 and she is show more 16 years old. More importantly, her father is healthy and thriving. Though this book could possibly be classified as science-fiction/speculative fiction, I think it’s more about the evolution of relationships over time, specifically about Alice and her father. Also, it poses the question we’ve all asked ourselves: if you could go back in time, where would you go? Would you decide to change your past?

While reading, I was thinking, in the back of my mind, about how many stars I would give this book after I finished it. I was on the fence, thinking of giving it 4.5 stars, and either rounding up or down, depending on how I felt about it overall. What pushed it from 4.5 to 5 was the ending. It was poignant and satisfying and just done so very well. This book also made me think about what makes a book “perfect”. I think a perfect book is a rare bird. Almost all books have their faults. However, I think a book succeeds when you finish it and you just have to sit there for a while and process what you just read, and feel that satisfaction and gratitude that this book exists, that it’s a well told story, and the feeling that you have when you know you will re-read this book sometime in the future. Quietly remarkable.

One more thing: how old was that cat?! show less

Families are the people who bring out the best and worst in you. They are the ones you cannot wait to see but also cannot wait to leave. Similarly, family vacations are something to be anticipated and dreaded. Any vacation is always worth some excitement, but even the happiest of families become somewhat fraught with tension after a period of time together. So, when The Vacationers opens up with the Post family in the throes of preparing for their two-week Mallorca vacation, one knows that show more the next two weeks are going to be anything but idyllic.

However, the troubles during the trip lie not in spending time together but rather the issues they brought with them onto the island. Old jealousies arise between spouses and best friends. Sibling rivalry heats up even after years apart. Lingering doubts about compromises and other promises become prominent. Then there are the issues behind Jim’s sudden retirement. Without the distractions of everyday life, all of the little ills and hurts that the Posts ignore throughout the year suddenly come to the fore and require action that no one is quite willing to take.

Ms. Straub presents the highs and lows of families and vacations with uncanny accuracy. While the setting may be more luxurious than what most readers may experience, all readers will recognize the functional dysfunction of the Post family. Everything is there within the microcosm of the Posts: the desire for children to find their own place outside of their parents’ shadow competing with the children’s need for parental approval no matter what their age, the jealousy that comes from a best friend who is not a spouse, the hurts and harm one selfish action can have on the family proper, and more. She also showcases the love that binds them and keeps them together. Ms. Straub reminds readers that in even the most fractured relationships, love still finds a way to take its place alongside the hurt feelings.

Yet, at no point in time does Ms. Straub ever present family relationships as easy and foregone conclusions. Everyone on the Post family trip must work towards maintaining their relationship’s happiness. Some are willing to try more than others, and some make the decision to try not at all. In this way, what occurs during the vacation is very natural and normal and quite atypical for a novel. There is a universal quality to the narrative that belies the fictional elements of the story. While a reader does not necessarily become an unobserved member of the Post family, it is all too easy for readers to substitute their own family members into the narrative, making it less fictional and a bit more uncomfortably true to life.

When not discussing the Post family issues, Ms. Straub brings to life in exacting detail the beauty of Mallorca. The house in which the Posts stay is exquisitely described, as are each excursion around the island. The food Franny serves makes a reader’s mouth water, while everything from the breeze to the heat of the sun to the sound of the pool makes a reader desperately crave his or her own Mallorca vacation. It is a truly idyllic backdrop against which the Posts’ issues are that much more mundane.

The Vacationers is all about the trials and tribulations faced by families the world over. It is about the difficulties of marriage and whether couples are willing to stick it out through the tough times. It is about the changing nature of relationships and the willingness of each partner to compromise to make the other happy. Ms. Straub perfectly captures the frustrations and joys that come with being part of a family. show less

My first Emma Straub experience and it was a good one. This review needs to be broken into two parts: the book and the writing.

Part One: All Adults Here.

There are no giants in this book and no villains. Nothing will stand out as an ah-ha moment, and you won't be haunted because of shock value after reading it. There is an abundance of truth and openness about how the family is generationally dysfunctional in ways, perfect in others, closeted and open simultaneously, and just as crazy, show more unpredictable, and loyal as yours.

There is a lot of head nodding, mm-hmm moments where you will recognize yourself, your siblings, or even your parent in one or another character. You will see that what you thought was uniquely off about your own family isn't. And that what you thought was remarkably special to your relationship is also noteworthy in others.

In other words, All Adults Here will help you open your eyes to family, its imperfections, and its constraints. You will watch Cecilia be sent to live with her grandmother at age 13 because she did the right thing but was bullied because of it; it was easier on her parents to remove her than deal with it. You will see Astrid, the matriarch, find love in the arms of a woman after being a widow for decades. As the firstborn, Elliot will finally be able to express the pressures of the same. Porter, the unwed, pregnant by choice from a sperm bank, still having an affair with her high-school sweetheart middle child, sees she is loved by her mother and both her older and younger brothers. And Nicholas, oh, precious, last born, never at fault, Nickey shows his downfalls and fears just like his siblings.

Set in small town USA, the townspeople are just as nosy and awful and loving and loyal and plagued with turmoil as in any other town; we all hate to love where we are from and couldn't imagine wanting to be from anywhere else if we were being honest. You will fall in love with some of the ancillary characters, root for Robin to find herself, and hope that Sidney falls off the float.

That is All Adults Here. I love this book. It is a book about nothing and everything and is an important book to read if you belong to a family.

Part Two: Emma Straub.

What an insightful writer Ms. Straub is. She captures the tiniest of nuances in grand ways without making a spectacle. In one stroke she can paralyze you by seeing your deepest secrets and open your mind while allowing you to feel okay about all of it. She is a rare writer that requires you must read every. single. word. Because if you don't, you might have missed something. Scratch that; you will miss something.

Take your time, read every word, and think about it. Put it into the context of your own life and come out the other side knowing you are not alone with how upside down according to the perfection on social media your life is. You are okay.

Thank you, Emma Straub, for writing truth. show less

All Adults Here is a character driven novel about Astrid and her three grown children. When Astrid witnesses her frenemy Barbara get hit and killed by a school bus, she starts to reevaluate her own life choices. She wonders if it’s too late to right some of the parenting mistakes she makes when her kids were young. At the same time, her teenage granddaughter comes to live with her, giving her a chance to do things right on the first try.

Her oldest son is a tightly wound, somewhat bitter show more man. Her daughter is single and pregnant by choice and her youngest son is bohemian who is also a bit of a stoner. It’s his daughter that comes to live with Astrid.

Emma Straub writes fantastic characters. She’s able to make their inner monologues both introspective and full of wry humor. Astrid was my favorite. She had the greatest lines. Here’s one I really liked:

“She herself [Astrid] was an only child, and she found old people with siblings somewhat ridiculous, as if they were eighty-year-olds who still wore water wings in swimming pools. Siblings were for the very young and needy. She had given her children siblings to occupy each other in childhood.”

This book addresses so many facets of life, it would make a great book club selection. It’s got LGBT issues, single motherhood, adultery, bullying, death and divorce. It sounds like a lot but I didn’t think it was overloaded. Straub did a wonderful job weaving everything together in an organic way. Although the characters in All Adults Here deal with some serious problems, it never gets too heavy. You won’t feel depressed after reading it and that’s important in these times.

I’ve loved the books I’ve previously read by Emma Sraub and All Adults Here did not disappoint. Highly recommended. show less