海角大神

The Griswolds have nothing on the Posts in Emma Straub鈥檚 wry new novel, The Vacationers.

The Posts haven鈥檛 had a family vacation in years. The two weeks in Mallorca are supposed to be a celebration of Franny鈥檚 and Jim鈥檚 35th聽wedding anniversary and daughter Sylvia鈥檚 high school graduation. But by the time they get on the plane to Spain, it appears they鈥檙e going to need a vacation from this vacation.

鈥淭here were things that Jim would have taken out of his bags, if it had been possible,鈥� Jim thinks while waiting for the cab to take them to their airport: 鈥渢he last year of his life, and the five before that, when it came to his knees; the way Franny looked at him across the dinner table at night 鈥� the emptiness waiting on the other side of the return flight, the blank days he would have to fill and fill and fill.鈥�

The odds of Franny and Jim making it to 36 don鈥檛 appear promising: Jim had an affair with a 24-year-old intern and has lost both his job as a magazine editor and Franny鈥檚 respect.

Sylvia, who is bound for Brown and hopes to never see anyone from her high school ever again, has been trapped in an apartment in the 鈥渕elting concrete armpit鈥� that is a Manhattan summer with her seething mother and hangdog father.

鈥淲hen people asked what kind of writer her mother was, Sylvia usually said that she was like Joan Didion, only with an appetite, or like Ruth Reichl, but with an attitude problem,鈥� Straub writes. 鈥淪he did not say this to her mother.鈥澛�

Her older brother Bobby is coming along on the trip with Carmen, his universally derided girlfriend, and has packed plenty of his own unfortunate baggage. (Readers may not share the Post family鈥檚 scorn for Carmen, a Latina personal trainer who wears flashy clothes 鈥� at least compared to the curvier Franny.)

Rounding out the holiday-goers are Franny鈥檚 best friend, Charles, and his husband, Lawrence, who are dealing with tensions of their own. Lawrence, especially, is dreading the entire endeavor. 鈥淚t seemed like folly to imagine that one could fill a house (or a tent) with relatives and still expect to have a pleasant vacation,鈥� he thinks. Add other people鈥檚 relatives and the prospects for enjoyment dim further. 鈥淥ther people鈥檚 families were as mysterious as an alien species, full of secret codes and shared histories.鈥�

Franny, a magazine writer who specializes in food and travel, has rented the house from Gemma, a British friend of Charles who is tall, thin, blonde, and posh 鈥渁nd spoke perfect French, which Franny found profoundly show-offy, like doing a triple-axel at the Rockefeller Center skating rink.鈥�

Over the course of two weeks, the seven of them swim in the pool, eat olives and pasta, go on outings to the beach and museums, take tennis lessons badly and Spanish lessons with somewhat more success (Sylvia鈥檚 tutor is a gorgeous young man named Joan), and fight not-so-quietly behind closed doors.

By the end of the two weeks, several characters will have reset the compasses of their lives. On the acid scale, 鈥淭he Vacationers鈥� is more citric than sulfuric in tone. Straub offers a measure of compassion to her flawed, but mostly well-meaning characters.聽鈥淲hat did anyone know about anyone else, including the person they were married to? There were secret parts of every union, locked doors hidden behind dusty heavy drapes,鈥� Franny thinks late in the vacation. 鈥淔ranny thought she must have them, too, somewhere deep inside, drawers of forgotten indiscretions. She certainly hoped so. It wasn鈥檛 any fun to be on the other side, to be the wronged party.鈥�

Yvonne Zipp is the Monitor fiction critic.