Vacationland

True Stories from Painful Beaches

Hardcover, 257 pages

English language

Published Nov. 18, 2017 by Viking.

ISBN:
978-0-7352-2480-3
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OCLC Number:
1005988269

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4 stars (3 reviews)

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 ot middle that connects them.

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 and which to kill with traps and There is also some advice on how to react …

4 editions

Review of 'Vacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

TV's John Hodgman lives in Brooklyn and sometimes he lives in Brooklin, and these are stories about his life in those places. He name-drops Brooklyn easily (who doesn't?) but does not ever specify Brooklin, Maine, because he respects the privacy of his neighbors, but he leaves enough clues, on purpose, with large fat arrows pointing at them, because I think he really wants you to do some light stalking.

John Hodgman is also quite obsessed with the notion of his impending death. In many of his stories he worries that the strangers he encounters are secretly plotting to kill him. He also begs the reader not to track down his home address in Maine, show up on his doorstep, and murder him. Well what did you think was going to happen, John Hodgman? Serial killers love riddles. I wish you didn't have to go ahead and do that, John Hodgman.

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4 stars

Subjects

  • Television personalities
  • Biography
  • American Humorists

Places

  • United States