“How to Ruin a Summer Vacation”, by Simone Elkeles

While working my shift at the public library, and browsing the YA fiction shelf for books to read for this reading journal, I randomly pulled “How to Ruin a Summer Vacation” off the shelf. I’d been trying to read ansgty, coming of age novels (“The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” “Seventeenth Summer”, et al), and was looking for something a little more fun. Perhaps one of the Traveling Pants knockoffs, even. So you can imagine that the title of this one appealed to me, as I was looking for something slightly more comedic than what I had been reading.

In “How to Ruin a Summer Vacation,” seventeen year old Amy is sent by her mother to Israel with her biological father, whom she only knows as “Sperm Donor.” Ron mysteriously shows up in her life again, despite being an absentee father all her life, and whisks her away from her previous plans of tennis camp and boyfriend, to Israel to visit her dying grandmother whom she’s never met. And oh yeah, Safta lives on a moshav – a sheep farm. Lots of life lessons and learning about other people’s cultures, as well as questioning her own spiritual identity, ensue.

Though the premise sounds tough to take, I have to admit, I was able to get past it and enjoy the rest of the novel. Elkeles writes in a colloquial tone, and I got a kick out of her sense of humor. I laughed out loud every time Amy used one of her Anglocized nicknames for her new Israeli friends (Her cousin, Osnat, quickly becomes known as “Snotty,” and a member of the group is often referred to as “Moron”), and even chuckled right along with the Israelis at her ignorance of their culture. The story moves fast, as Amy learns to put aside the chip on her shoulder, and really question all she’s ever known about love, religion, and day to day life. Her new gang of friends are funny, have much to say about “stupid Americans,” and complement each other well. Her spiritual struggle almost reminded me of an older version of Blume’s Margaret, as Amy observes the nuances of Judaism and wonders whether she should embrace it or not. The romantic comedy aspect got me too – she and Avi meet cute while doing something disgusting with sheep, and the insults fly between them until one day, they make out. In a kayak on the Jordan River, no less.

While some of the writing did get trite at times, with lines like “Life in Israel is hard compared to the teenage life in America,” I have to admit, I kind of bought it. I visited Israel as a teenager, as did many of my friends and relatives, all of us skeptical Jews at best, and thoughts like that really did cross our minds, as simplistic as they sound. I had many friends who came back with a new understanding of what life is like there – most of us didn’t come back and start keeping kosher kitchens, but whether our visits inspired more fear or more understanding, they certainly did have an impact on us, similar to what Amy experiences in the book. Despite the on the nose descriptions of the lessons Amy was learning, I could totally buy her transformation. That is, until the last page or two wraps everything up in an unnecessarily neat and rushed ending.

If I were to booktalk this book, I would probably read aloud one of the passages where Amy first gets to Israel, and has lots of comical mishaps involving sheep farming and stepping on dead snakes.

Elkeles, Simone (2006). How to Ruin a Summer Vacation. MN: Flux. 240 pages.