Travel the world in three novels

Reprinted from auburnpub.com

Travel the World in Fiction

One of the more interesting things about reading fiction is that it can take to places all over the world without ever leaving your home. This month’s Book Report shares some novels set in places we may never get to see in person.

We start closer to home on a cruise ship going from Miami to the Bahamas in Emma Straub’s novel American Fantasy. Annie is a 50 years old newly divorced empty nester who agreed to go on a cruise with her sister Katherine. 

Katherine is a super fan of Boy Talk, a popular 90’s boy band who do a fan cruise every year. Annie liked the band but wasn’t really excited about going on a cruise with middle-aged women like herself who are obsessed with a boy band whose members are also fifty years old.

When Katherine breaks her leg and can’t go on the cruise, Annie ends up with a new roommate who shows her ropes. One problem is that everyone on the ship warns her about her roommate.

Slowly, Annie begins to enjoy herself and even makes a connection with one of the members of the band. The story is told through the eyes of Annie, Sarah, one of the cruise employees, and Kevin, one of the band members.

Anyone who was a fan of 90’s groups like New Kids on the Block and NSYNC will enjoy this charming story. Annie is very relatable and the relationship among the members of the band is fascinating. Grab a fruity drink as you read American Fantasy and you’ll feel like you are on the ship.

Andrew Sean Greer’s new novel Villa Coco has an autobiographical tint to it. A young archivist travels to Tuscany in Italy to take on the task of organizing and archiving an elderly woman’s art and home collection.

The job is a little more than archiving- he is expected to be an all-around assistant to the Baronessa, including caring for her garden and dogs, shopping, taking dictation, and chasing away wild animals. 

The Baronessa is an intriguing character who renames everyone in her orbit, including our protagonist whom she calls Giovedi (Thursday) in a nod to ‘Gal Friday’. She is demanding and feisty, and clearly has some sort of agenda for hiring this young American man. She disapproves of his clothes so she takes him to a thrift shop and purchases a friend’s donated  wardrobe.

Giovedi is lonely and gets involved romantically with a married man, which complicates matters for all. He meets many of the Baronessa’s friends and compatriots, and works to try and figure out exactly why he was hired for this job as he is drawn further and further into the Baronessa’s world.

Greer does a marvelous job putting the reader right in the middle of Tuscany at this village and in Venice as he travels with the Baronessa and finally discovers what is going on and where his future lies. Villa Coco is humorous and beautiful, and the writing draws you into this intriguing world.

Jenny Colgan writes a series of novels set in on the island of Mure in Scotland, and her latest is Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages. The novels opens as thirty year old Essie is let go from her job through downsizing. She is devastated because it means that she will have to leave bustling Edinburgh and her boyfriend (who has a great job in finance) and move back home with her mom Janey.

Janey lives in a lovely seaside cottage and loves her job and her daughter, although she and Essie have rarely seen eye to eye. It seems to Janey that in Essie’s eyes, she can’t do anything right.

Like many beautiful areas, older properties are being bought by large companies and turned into Airbnb rentals and vacation homes for wealthy people, changing the fabric of the communities. 

The cottage next Janey’s has been bought by a local man, and Essie sees an opportunity to use her organizational and marketing skills to help him renovate and prepare to flip the cottage and make some needed money for herself.

Recently divorced, Janey has been disappointed with her foray into the online dating scene. When she meets a local architect, her love life just may take a turn for the better. 

Jenny Colgan’s books are always delightful and she excels at creating small communities filled with people you’d want to meet in real life. It’s a joy to get lost in Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages.

American Fantasy by Emma Straub- A-

Published by Riverhead Books

Hardcover, $30, 286 pages

Villa Coco by Andrew Less Greer- A-

Published by Doubleday

Hardcover, $30, 288 pages

Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages by Jenny Colgan- A-

Published by Avon

Trade paperback, $18,99, 352 pages

Short & Sweet Review- The Vacationers by Emma Straub

The Vacationers by Emma Straub
Published by Riverhead Books ISBN 978-1-59463-157-3
Hardcover, $26.95, 304 pages

Genre: Fiction

The Plot: The Post family heads off for a two week vacation to beautiful Mallorca, but things are not all rosy. Jim lost his job at a magazine because he had an affair with a young woman at work. Franny, his wife of 35 years, is furious at him, but at least she has her best friend, Charles, (who with his husband Lawrence are trying to adopt a baby) along to cheer her up and take her side.

Daughter Sylvia is headed off to college and hopes to lose her virginity on this trip. Son Bobby is also there, along with his older girlfriend Carmen. His real estate business in Florida has taken a hit during the bad economy and he needs to borrow money from his parents.

The Sweet & Short Review: I loved Straub's last novel, Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures , about a film star from the 1950's. She drew me into Laura's world, and I felt like I was watching a TMC movie as I was reading it.

I was hoping to be as drawn into this novel, but it didn't happen for me. I loved the setting of Mallorca, and am really interested in taking a trip there. The problem for me was that I didn't really feel invested in the characters' lives. The character I most wanted to know about was Lawrence, and he was really more of an a tangential character.

I did like the sibling relationship between Sylvia and Bobby, who have ten years age difference between them, and the scene where they went to a disco was very well done and revealing.

Straub also had some wonderful observations, like:

"Other people's families were as mysterious as an alien species, full of secret codes and shared histories."

And Franny speaking about her friendship with Charles said:

"Friendships were tricky things, especially friendships as old as theirs... Love was a given, uncomplicated by sex or vows, but honesty was always waiting there, ready to capsize the steady boat."

And thinking about her children:

"She'd always thought that siblings were pretty much the same people in differently shaped bodies, just shaken up slightly, so that the molecules arranged themselves, but now she wasn't sure."

I think splitting the focus of the story amongst the different characters, instead of focusing on just one like in Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures, may be why it didn't appeal as much to me. I didn't feel like I got a complete picture of anyone. But I am in the minority here; The Vacationers made many Best of Summer lists, including a list of rave reviews found here on Parnassus Books.

rating 3.5 of 5

Three new fiction books make gripping, serious fall reading : Diane Larue

My monthly Book Report column
Three new fiction books make gripping, serious fall reading : Diane Larue