Vacationland

True Stories from Painful Beaches

By: John Hodgman

Narrated by: John Hodgman

“I love everything about this hilarious book except the font size.” —Jon Stewart

Although his career as a bestselling author and on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart was founded on fake news and invented facts, in 2016 that routine didn’t seem as funny to John Hodgman anymore. Everyone is doing it now.

Disarmed of falsehood, he was left only with the awful truth: John Hodgman is an older white male monster with bad facial hair, wandering like a privileged Sasquatch through three wildernesses: the hills of Western Massachusetts where he spent much of his youth; the painful beaches of Maine that want to kill him (and some day will); and the metaphoric haunted forest of middle age that connects them.

Vacationland collects these real life wanderings, and through them you learn of the horror of freshwater clams, the evolutionary purpose of the mustache, and which animals to keep as pets and which to kill with traps and poison. There is also some advice on how to react when the people of coastal Maine try to sacrifice you to their strange god.

Though wildly, Hodgmaniacally funny as usual, it is also a poignant and sincere account of one human facing his forties, those years when men in particular must stop pretending to be the children of bright potential they were and settle into the failing bodies of the wiser, weird dads that they are.

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.