Vacationland

True Stories from Painful Beaches

By: John Hodgman

Narrated by: John Hodgman

Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

John Hodgman - New York Times best-selling author, semifamous personality, deranged millionaire, increasingly elderly husband, father, and human of Earth - has written a memoir about his cursed travels through two wildernesses: from the woods of his home in Massachusetts, birthplace of rage, to his exile on the coast of Maine, so-called Vacationland, home to the most painful beaches on Earth.

Vacationland is also about Hodgman's wandering in the metaphoric wilderness of his 40s, those years when dudes especially must painfully stop pretending to be the children of bright potential they were and settle into the failing bodies of the wiser, weirder dads that they are.

Other subjects covered include the horror of freshwater clams, the evolutionary purpose of the mustache, which animals to keep as pets and which to kill with traps and poison, and advice on how to react when the people of coastal Maine try to sacrifice you to their strange god.

After three best-selling books of fake facts, Hodgman is finally ready to tell the truth - in the same outlandish, audacious, and inimitable style that has won him fans in every medium he has worked: books, stage, social media, television, and movies.

©2017 John Hodgman (P)2017 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Subtle and profound ... A strange and very funny book - one that makes comedy out of the anxieties and indignities of middle age.” (The Atlantic)

“Achingly funny ... Sharp, silly, and sensitive, Vacationland is a literary selfie of a concerned citizen storyteller - one in which the oldest slice of the United States does a little inelegant photobombing.” (NPR)

“An ambitious departure from Hodgman’s previous authorial endeavors. It’s funny, but it’s no joke. The book is a cleverly composed meditation on one privileged American’s life - and, glancingly, on America - at a crucial moment for both.” (Chicago Tribune)

Beautiful and funny

John Hodgman is one of the best storytellers whom I have ever read. This particular audiobook is both hilarious and touching. I couldn’t have chosen a better listen.

Caution: it flies by too fast.

If you like John Hodgman, you’ll love this book. As expected it’s funny and thoughtful for 8/10ths of the book, but is unexpectedly haunting and moving at the end. If you’ve become accustomed to binging his other books and podcast, be careful; this book can go by in an afternoon and leave you wanting more.

enjoyed every minute

Whether or not you were familiar with John Hodgman, this book stands on its own. Like Bill Bryson and Garrison Keillor, Mr. Hodgman's sense of place and ability to tell a story makes you wish the book didn't have to end.

Honest and Thought Provoking

John Hodgman does an excellent job of narrating this book whose setting is a character itself. This was much more of a personal story than I had anticipated (maybe I didn't read any reviews...). Hodgman's great wit is demonstrated, and I enjoyed it very much

Thank You John!

Amazingly entertaining! So glad he chose to narrate this wonderful audio book. It made me an instant fan.

Enjoyed, except....

Mr. Hodgman's pronunciation of Piscataqua is incorrect. Other than that I found it to be a delightful listen.

Well worth it.

This was a delightfully entertaining listen. Hodgeman weaves a series of more or less unconnected stories into a great narrative that takes you on a journey of a part of his life. His words and tones are evocative so you really get the picture of the places he goes.

A good time

Very funny but dragged down in the latter half by a few chapters dedicated to pondering white guilt.

Musings to my ears

A delight from beginning to end. The perspective offered in this book will bring enjoy to me for the rest of my days.

Lived Up to Everything I expected

Smartly funny, thought provoking, and just the right amount of emotional evocation. This book speaks to the awkwardness, simple delights, confusion, and slow anger of the human experience.