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Vacation

by Jeremy C. Shipp (Goodreads Author)

4.13 of 5 stars 4.13 · rating details · 226 ratings · 59 reviews

It's time for blueblood Bernard Johnson to leave his boring life behind and go on The Vacation, a yearlong corporate-sponsored odyssey. But instead of seeing the world, Bernard is captured by terrorists, becomes a key figure in secret drug wars, and, worse, doesn't once miss his secure American Dream.

Paperback, 164 pages

Published April 1st 2007 by Raw Dog Screaming Press

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Oct 18, 2011 Lou rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: may-read

Unconventional novel and an unconventional vacation. Jeremy writes with an mind bending process he seems to not want to leave you at rest until you're dumbfounded by the story. We all need a vacation but where and who you spend it with is the big question. I am still bit puzzled as this wacky story does not leave you with a clear picture. I suppose watching fight club years ago did not either. The protagonist is slightly insane then again maybe even the author (I gathered that info from his twit...more

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Nov 20, 2007 Keith rated it 5 of 5 stars

ONE CAN ONLY PRAY to the Pax-dishing government conspiracy theorists that Jeremy C. Shipp's inaugural dip in deep end of the novel pool is not his last. And if the prayers do go unanswered, those still in the living world just lost the one thing that might make life worth living. Vacation is a surreal jaunt skittering across the calm surface of social norms (on an ocean that certainly doesn't exist) hellbent on splashing waves of ever-disturbing rings disrupting the way one thinks: As if you cou...more ONE CAN ONLY PRAY to the Pax-dishing government conspiracy theorists that Jeremy C. Shipp's inaugural dip in deep end of the novel pool is not his last. And if the prayers do go unanswered, those still in the living world just lost the one thing that might make life worth living. Vacation is a surreal jaunt skittering across the calm surface of social norms (on an ocean that certainly doesn't exist) hellbent on splashing waves of ever-disturbing rings disrupting the way one thinks: As if you could still think for yourself. And it deserves a fast read. Except that one might miss out on a rather grand experience that begs to be savored like an aged box wine. Read it like your life depended upon it. Then read it again; you'll be both happy and uncomfortable that you did.

From the cover snippet:

"It's time for blueblood Bernard Johnson to leave his boring life behind and go on The Vacation, a yearlong corporate-sponsored odyssey. But instead of seeing the world, Bernard is captured by terrorists, becomes a key figure in secret drug wars, and, worse, doesn't once miss his secure American Dream."

Yes, that is Vacation all summed up in a neat little literary bouquet garni dunked in a larger world of haggis. It is a valid description, but only like the word "water" can singularly describe the planet Earth. There is a lot going on under the verbal covers that make up the 158 pages of Vacation. And, while 158 pages may seem short, the world Shipp reveals nestled in those pages is a vast society of organized crime set on one of two sides: Either keep everyone from the truth or blast the truth around the world like a revolutionary gunshot. (The truth is something you'll have to read the book to learn)

Do yourself a favor. Take a blank sheet of paper and your favorite pen. Draw ten blank lines randomly on that piece of paper like a fill-in-the-blank test from grade school but without any questions. Now fill in those blanks with the most glorious adjectives that one might use to light up sentences meant to describe Vacation. Having read this book or not, no matter how creative you might be in choosing these words, you will have done Shipp and Vacation an injustice. The only way out of that hole is to buy the book and read it in your sleep. And hope the dream machine isn't broken.

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Nov 24, 2007 Wandaful rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone

Awesome story
Awesome writing
Awesome author
Jeremy Shipp is currently taking the world (as we know it) by storm...!!!
Or is that, Jeremy (as we know him) is currently storming into the world ????
Either way, this writer is no storm in a tea cup.... although I have heard some sneaky rumours that he reads tea leaves for coconut monkeys.......
Go figure..!!!

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Oct 24, 2008 C.B. rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone

Vacation Penalty

People love vacations, need vacations, jump at the chance to take vacations. The blossoming thoughts of laughter and fun and mystical locales unseen sparkle with possibility in the mind’s eye. The rush to get there, wherever there may be, casts a thrilling tenor to the days and weeks leading up to that moment of departure. It is this event, Bernard (Bernie) Johnson thinks about a brief time, a moment really, subsequent to his conjuring a quick rundown of his accomplishments and p...more Vacation Penalty

People love vacations, need vacations, jump at the chance to take vacations. The blossoming thoughts of laughter and fun and mystical locales unseen sparkle with possibility in the mind’s eye. The rush to get there, wherever there may be, casts a thrilling tenor to the days and weeks leading up to that moment of departure. It is this event, Bernard (Bernie) Johnson thinks about a brief time, a moment really, subsequent to his conjuring a quick rundown of his accomplishments and placements in the academia hierarchy, to summarize it thusly, “Writers may think their words are important, but I’m the one who decides what those words mean. Whose words are worthy.” A summation which in itself does not sound such a bad lot. It is the tag line that raises the red flag, “I’m a literati god. Then why aren’t I as happy as an endorphin pumped clam?” immediately followed by him swallowing a Pax pill.

Seems old Bernie is an unsatisfied customer, an unhappy camper, a thirty-five year old sufferer of the malaise of modern man. Mid life, unfulfilled expectations, caught in the snare of impending end game defeat, it is no wonder that Bernie finds the incessant need to obsess, lament, and pop Pax pills in rapid succession, in short, do everything within his power to end his dismally perceived downward spiraling arc. Settling on a vacation, the generous corporate sponsored yearlong vacation, appears the most lucid idea he’s had in some time. Even his twenty-one year old girlfriend, Hillary, agrees, “If there’s anything you want to do with…anybody, you should be able to do it. I won’t be mad.” Which to Bernie sounds rightly as not so much permission to him, but to herself. It is this series of events which bring him to a room of triple mirrors, literally and metaphorically, where he slips into his tourist gear, metamorphosing instantly into a adventuring persona to become the, “justified voyeur,” emerging finally fully outfitted into the light, where he is greeted by a rather shapely female backside, only to find on alarmingly quick examination, that this particular pleasing attribute belongs to none other than a former “male” student of his in transsexual form.

Thus concludes the chapter one setup. A series of fairly conventional middle age malaise elements with a few surprises, one of them a bonafide shocker, tossed into the mix. So at this point, the tale seems to have played out for us before even gaining speed enough to blast into chapter two. A rush to judgment in this case is of no benefit. With chapter two, the tale takes a hard left, turning from conventional disgruntled academic professional on redemptive vacation quest, to Escape From Terror Island. It is at once clear that the shock potential of this tale has just begun. Perhaps it is an ode to pop culture. Perhaps it is an elegiac riff on the culture of the spectacle. Or better still, perhaps it is merely Shipp’s attempt to show us that whatever our self imposed torments, self flagellations, self directed smackdowns spurred by self perceived failures, there remains one clarifying conclusion to consider: it could be worse. Unwilling anti hero, Bernie Johnson, comes to appreciate this perspective as his vacation from the dark side commences. No tour guides, no on site experts, no ameliorative of any kind. Just a skidding step off a precarious edge which sends him tumbling into an abyss of horrors unimaginable in content or scope.

This tale with adopted tag, Literary/Science Fiction, missed the boat on that count. It may indeed fit the Science Fiction motif in a sense, maybe even if one were to liberally apply it, the Literary tag to a small degree. But the tag decidedly absent which I believe sums up this tale most comprehensively is Bizarro. For one tired of the same ol’ same ol’, the predictable plotlines, the genre distinctions that fall flat, the tired unfunny comedies, the reigning flavor of the week memoir, look no more. With adventures that charge the senses and blast open the cerebral networks with unexpected thrills, Shipp’s tale of Bizarro proportions, Vacations, may be just the ticket to soothe those tired eyes and beleaguered genre sensibilities.
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Mar 24, 2008 Geri Ahearn rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Dark Fiction/Bizzaro Lovers

Jeremy Shipp takes the reader on a psychological head-trip
through the eyes of Bernard Johnson. A thirty-five year old
intelligent man with a wild, incredible imagination. Bernard
is tormented with his dreams, fantasies, and nightmares.
The reader is taken through the door of a magic carpet ride
of adventure, but the ride doesn't end there. The ride
continues from the magic carpet of fantasy, through the
doors of the haunted house of fear. Each reader will be
taken through the same journey, but if they...more

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Jan 04, 2008 Jason Pettus rated it 4 of 5 stars

(My full review of this book is much longer than GoodReads' word-count limitations. Find the entire essay at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

I'm sure some of you must think of it as an insult when I occasionally refer to a book here as "weird;" but believe it or not, so-called "weird fiction" or "weird lit" is in fact a legitimate genre, originally coined by the Romantic writers of the 1800s to describe the absolute strangest of the moody, atmospheric novels...more (My full review of this book is much longer than GoodReads' word-count limitations. Find the entire essay at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

I'm sure some of you must think of it as an insult when I occasionally refer to a book here as "weird;" but believe it or not, so-called "weird fiction" or "weird lit" is in fact a legitimate genre, originally coined by the Romantic writers of the 1800s to describe the absolute strangest of the moody, atmospheric novels they were all pumping out at the time. Let's not forget, after all, that the term "romantic" has changed quite considerably in our society since those days; although now primarily used to describe a gooey love story, in the Victorian Age it meant any story with a gloomy, dramatic, emotional feel, a direct rebellion by that generation against the rational Enlightenment of their parents' and grandparents' times. A direct line can be drawn, weird-lit fans claim, from such projects on the fringe of Romanticism (including such works as Nathaniel Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables, which I'll be reviewing here next week) straight to such modern genre masters as Stephen King, Clive Barker, Mark Danielewski and DB Weiss, often through such 20th-century transitionary writers as HP Lovecraft (the first weird author to add a distinctly otherworldly element to the genre) and William Burroughs (the first to add academic respectability).

One such contemporary weird writer, for example, is Californian Jeremy Shipp, a highly respected genre author who has nonetheless spent most of his career so far toiling in the unglamorous world of fanzines and the like; ah, but now Vacation is out, his very first traditional full-length prose novel, which in a perfect world will finally start helping him get the larger respect he deserves. Because frankly, Shipp is about as great a weird author as weird literature gets, even while acknowledging that there are certain weaknesses to the genre in general as well; that anyone who is a fan of strange stories and off-kilter characters is bound to love this novel, and in fact love it more passionately than the current weird authors they only think they love. This isn't going to stop many of you from intensely disliking it, don't get me wrong -- that's the dice roll you always take with genre work, as I'm seemingly always saying here, is that by its very nature you are simply going to have a split audience going right into page one -- but for those who click with stories about the hidden strange details of the cosmos that are very quietly buried among us all the time, you are sure to love this book with the burning intensity that you currently reserve for your Buffy DVDs.

Set in a world very similar to ours but not quite the same, the central premise behind Vacation is a fascinating one that reflects our times...(less)

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Jan 28, 2008 Lance rated it 5 of 5 stars

Jeremy Shipp has a unique and entertaining writing style. The 164 page VACATION demands the reader’s attention and should perhaps not be read just before bedtime or while operating heavy machinery. In fact, a second reading may be required to fully enjoy/appreciate the story. But it is definitely worth the effort. Shipp’s surreal and eery vision of the future (or maybe an alternate universe) seems to drift seamlessly between dream and reality. The tale of the battle between the haves and have-no...more

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Oct 10, 2008 Adam rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, bizarro-sci-fi

An incredible first novel from Jeremy Shipp. Aspects are reminiscent of Chuck Palahniuk and Philip K. Dick, but Vacation stands on its own as everything that's right with modern sci fi and bizarro. A quick read, Shipp cuts to the heart of the story and his characters, accomplishing more with choppy sentences and embedded commentary than volumes three times the length. An absolute must read for fans of avant-garde literature.

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Dec 23, 2007 Ben rated it 4 of 5 stars

To be honest I'm not sure I remotely know what this book is about, terrorism, drug-running, secret gardens, and sex changes, for sure, and the education system, probably, totalitarian societies, no doubt, but beyond that, can't say. But who cares, it's really good, and completely absorbing, and so what if Jeremy is obviously a complete wack-job, the dude can flat out write.

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Nov 19, 2008 Matt rated it 4 of 5 stars

Some of the other reviews that I have read of this book in the past seemed to dote on the complexity of the storyline. This idea coupled with my previous experiences with Shipp's short stories led me to believe that I was embarking on a task of 'Finnegan's Wake'-like proportions when I first began reading. This was a task that I wasn't sure that I was up for at this point in time, and I was pleasantly surprised to find the storyline fairly straight forward. I do not know whether my ease in follo...more Some of the other reviews that I have read of this book in the past seemed to dote on the complexity of the storyline. This idea coupled with my previous experiences with Shipp's short stories led me to believe that I was embarking on a task of 'Finnegan's Wake'-like proportions when I first began reading. This was a task that I wasn't sure that I was up for at this point in time, and I was pleasantly surprised to find the storyline fairly straight forward. I do not know whether my ease in following the story has to do with my penchant for fringe literature.

'Vacation' is a brilliant critique of the foibles of modern society. Why do we all feel so tired and sickly when we live in the most prosperous nation in the world? Why does the evening news air almost exclusively commercials for pills with a myriad of damned scary side effects? Has anyone else wondered about this? These questions are but one of the themes explored in this book. There are also some interesting questions about human gender that I am still rolling around in my head.

I often tend to get hung up on short passages and little tidbits in books that don't always make an impression on others. An example of this is that the vacationers must wear uniforms that consist of corporate logos. Shipp doesn't explicitly state the reasoning behind this, and I found that it was much more fun to theorize about while reading rather than being spoon fed. I also love the fact that a sour nut in a bag of airline peanuts can be used as a subtle foreshadowing of bad things to come.

While 'Vacation' is a completely original animal, I found myself drawing slight similarities to "The Illuminatis Trilogy!" Don't let this thought lead you astray, as 'Vacation' goes in a completely different direction. I'm also impressed that Shipp managed to cover as much ground as RAW did in that book in five hundred less pages.

It's very exciting to read a young author as his career is beginning. Thanks Jeremy! I look forward to reading your future works.

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Jul 23, 2008 Josh Olsen rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book startled me.

The beginning of the book had me grasping a bit, trying to figure out exactly what was going on. I was confused and almost felt like I was being shoved around a little bit. Then as more and more things began to unfold, the smile got wider and wider.

Then Jack stepped in, and we met Odin and Noh. The confusion was back, yet again I was living beside Bernard, feeling what he felt, because I too was a Tic.

The fifth star in this comes from the end of Chapter 19 if I'm not mistak...more

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Feb 06, 2008 Peggy rated it 5 of 5 stars

I'm not sure exactly what I expected when I started Vacation, but suffice to say that it managed to both meet and confound all of those expectations.

For many, a novel of ideas is an excuse to be preachy and a novel that uses surreal images and dream-like prose is all flash and no substance.

Nothing could be further from the truth in Shipp's book.

Oh, there are ideas aplenty here: thought-provoking,history-laden, Big Time ideas about the nature of self and the nature of the universe. And surreality...more

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Mar 18, 2009 Sean rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Sean by: Jeremy

Shelves: 2009, college, fiction, horror, sci-fi

What if the life you're living right now is a dream? Take it one step further:
What if the life you're living right now is a dream of a dream? Now take it another step further:
What if the life you're living right now is a dream of a dream being controlled by an outsider to mask the truth from you to mask the truth from you?

This is the kind of cerebral head-trip that Jeremy Shipp presents in his novel, Vacation.

Mr. Shipp's voice is clear and immediate, almost minimalist, choosing to move you forwa...more

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Jan 25, 2008 Jo rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Jo by: Jeremy Shipp

Shelves: fiction, horror

First e-book. The e-book part is fascinating. At first it was a lot of fun, but after about 30 pages, I wanted to hold it. I printed it out! Don't laugh at me. I am just old fashioned.

The story is detailed and believable. That is what makes it scary. You have to care. A lot of info and a lot to track.
Jeremy S. can write!
Recommend to those who like a scare. ...or are going on vacation!!!

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Jul 30, 2008 Sandi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2008, sci-fi

"Vacation" by Jeremy C. Shipp little book takes a lot of brain power to read. I cannot tell how many times I had to go back a few pages to figure out something I had missed. In many ways, it reminds me of the best of Philip K. Dick. It's thought-provoking, cautionary, ambiguous and downright weird. I like that in a book.

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Feb 28, 2008 Natalie marked it as to-read

I have never heard of this book until this site and from what I have read in the discription it looks extremely interesting. I can't wait to see where this book takes me, if it inspires and gives me a whole new understanding of life itself. If anybody has this book for lending please let me know ASAP:D!

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Feb 25, 2008 Adriane rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: horror fans and those living outside of the box

Recommended to Adriane by: Jeremy Shipp

Shelves: horror

A twisted-wicked sinfully delicious read. It spirals off the page but not for the timid or those with weak eimaginations. If you want to go on a "Vacation" in the likes that you have never experienced then pick up this book and turn the page and get ready! Excellent~!

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Apr 15, 2008 Krystin added it Recommends it for: Anyone and everyone!

Shelves: favorites

This has to be the most unique book I've read in a long time. I thought it would be good, but was pleasantly surprised with how amazing it was! I loved the plot, the characters, everything! I absolutely loved it, it is now one of my favorites!

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Apr 10, 2009 Elaine rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009, april, favorites

Vacation was my first foray into the bizarro fiction genre. I wasn't sure what to expect when starting this book, but soon realized that all expectations simply fly out the window anyway. Bernard Johnson, a 35-year-old English teacher decides (in an early-mid-life-crisis kind of way) to spend the next year of his life "finding himself" during a government sponsored world Vacation. On this Vacation, Bernie meets up with a beautiful woman who used to be one of his male students; is visited by his...more

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Feb 02, 2009 P.D. rated it 5 of 5 stars

I would give this book four and a half stars. Since I can't do that and I feel it deserves more than four stars, I am giving it a five star rating.

Delightfully subversive.

You will never be sure what is really happening in this wonderful book. It is full of sociopolitical and socioeconomic insights. (Is there really any difference between the two.) This is the sort of book I would like to have everyone read to help open their eyes.

This is the sort of writing I was hoping to find when I began expl...more

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May 31, 2008 J.R. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

An author strives to transport his readers to another world; that of his imagination. Jeremy Shipp achieves that goal is this short novel. But it isn’t an easy world he conveys.

His premise is simple. A jaded man—dissatisfied with his career, his lover, his life—goes on vacation in search of redemption. Shipp’s writing style is stark and plain. In many ways his style reminds me of the English writer Magnus Mills.

Bernard Johnson, the son of an “Education Expert Extraordinaire, has gone from being...more

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Oct 11, 2008 GUD Magazine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviews_by_julia, works_by_gud_authors, reviewed_by_gud

I had to take a step back after reading Vacation to realize it really is as imaginative as it's advertised as being, because it's not so much the usual suspects, like the crazy plot antics or the political interpolations, that impressed me, but the parts that were presented more matter-of-factly, the characters and the interactions. The novel's main character, Bernard Johnson, suspends himself from his prestigious job and prestigious relationships to take his medicated, ennui-filled self off on...more I had to take a step back after reading Vacation to realize it really is as imaginative as it's advertised as being, because it's not so much the usual suspects, like the crazy plot antics or the political interpolations, that impressed me, but the parts that were presented more matter-of-factly, the characters and the interactions. The novel's main character, Bernard Johnson, suspends himself from his prestigious job and prestigious relationships to take his medicated, ennui-filled self off on the Vacation, a free year-long trip provided to each citizen by the oh-so-benevolent U.S. government. But he's sidetracked into the Garden, a more-or-less-terrorist more-or-less stronghold where he's detoxed and deconstructed, then shown the world as it is outside the bubble he's been limited to thus far. It's a twist, though not a very radical one, on the classic hero's journey—but in each part of the journey, the goal Bernard thinks he has is just a slight angle off from what turns out to be the real end. And fitting in with the hero-journey theme, Shipp throws in a few more classic character-types, including guides, foils, virgins, geniuses, and even a bona fide Jester, but they're all nicely fleshed-out, so you have to work to recognize them as types. The characters in Vacation aren't exactly what you'd call believable, but they are true, and that's more important.

Vacation is a novel with a lot of interesting ideas in it and a lot of problems. (In fact, Vacation has been referred to as a Novel of Ideas.) Many of those ideas weren't as new to me as they may have been to some, but then, I read a lot of anti-corporate-globalization, anti-capitalist, and anti-imperialist writing, including some that's dropped off the far edge of paranoia. (Not that I’m saying Vacation is necessarily any of those things, per se, but it draws on the relevant paradigms to build the particular possible future of its setting.) A lot of other reviewers seem to think this novel really wild and crazy, and not that I don't think it's an original take, but if you've never thought about this stuff before...well, read Vacation and get thinking, because you should be! It's a good meditation on the possible outcomes of Progress, and it usually manages not to be preachy. And as the characters point out, certain ideas are best encountered in fiction first, before they bite you on the ass in reality.

Besides its political ideas, Vacation also has plenty of interesting and thought-provoking musings on the intertwining and conflict of personal goals with political or artistic ones, the vagaries of human nature, the question of deserving what we get, and the importance of eating your vegetables—mixed in with a lot of hot air from Bernard, the former-English-teacher narrator. (In case you miss anything, the important ideas are repeated, in a way that is usually more interestingly refrain-like—a Chorus, perhaps?—than annoying. Usually.) His characterizations of the world around him, in pithy analogies and humorous tangents, can be quite clever when they work—and when they don't, their particular brand of annoyingness does fit the character. Shipp is one of those writers who bases his craft on being a good social analyst; that's mostly a good thing, but there are almost more observations about the contradictions of—and the nifty things about—our society and humanity in general packed into the space of this short novel than it can hold.

In fact, Shipp could have written a much longer book with the same basic content; this book is good and spare, mostly without feeling too abbreviated. In general, it's nice to have a bit of a challenge, to have to fill in some of the emotional details for oneself, though there are a few points of character development and relationships on which it might have been nice to have a bit more to go on; at times I felt more like I was giving the author the benefit of the doubt than accepting a challenge. In any case, the novel is never boring, even the parts that are just the narrator whining—but interestingly, I didn't find the bits that would usually be called action sequences particularly more exciting than the rest; the book is very evenly paced.

As for the problems.... Well, most of the things I found problematic about the novel came at me full-force with the introduction; I half-suspect the author of trying to warn off the faint of heart. So if you can get through that, you know what you're in for, and at least things don't get much worse. The introduction frames the whole novel as a personal letter from the narrator to his parents and advertises that we're in for an abrasive read. The intro is clumsily written at various levels, and though I'd like to think that's on purpose because it's supposed to be a personal letter, I frankly suspect the author was just trying too hard to get a certain feel and not paying much attention to the details. The letter-frame (and the attitude of the narrator in writing it) isn't necessarily plausible in the context of the whole book, but it's an integral part of the way it's written. There are a number of such small implausibilities, as well as a couple of discontinuities and general factual unlikelihoods, scattered throughout the book, along with more low-level editing problems, but it's not bad for a first novel.

As the book goes on, the character changes and one gets more used to his abrasiveness anyway, so it ceases to interfere as much. One can fall into the rhythm and special logic of the story and be captivated by its charms—and I, at least, certainly was.(less)

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Sep 03, 2008 Garrett Cook rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of the Prisoner, Gnostics, anarchists, literature majors, human beings

Obnoxious Hollywood logline: The Prisoner meets Fight Club. Pretentious expat lit major analysis: a surreal sequel to Hamlet. Vacation is surreal, hyperreal, political and apolitical, dark, capable and humorous. Vacation looks at escapism and denial in society and how hard it is for postmodern man to do the right thing. I highly recommend this book. Protagonist Bernard Johnson is morose, hyperintellectual and indecisive with a tendency to add import to moments and distance himself from reality b...more

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Mar 03, 2009 Laurie rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Lit majors, bizarro fans

Wow... very thought provoking. I should probably preface this review by saying that this is a book that is definitely not in the genre(s) that I typically find myself choosing books from. However, the story sounded so unique and interesting I thought I'd give it a try. I'm glad I did! I loved Jeremy's writing style and didn't find the story hard to follow as I saw in some of the other reviews. However, I do have to say that this was a book that took me awhile to read. Mostly because I'd stop and...more

1 like · like · see review

Mar 18, 2009 Jo rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, e-books

I thought at first this was going to be a horror novel, something akin to the Predator movies. It's more of a psychological study of western society, our attitudes and paranoia. Quite strange in parts but still worth reading.

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May 23, 2009 Galo rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: jeremy-shipp

Bernard Johnson embarks on a journey of self-discovery through a vessel of infinite imagination. Surreal landscapes morph at the blink of an eye and the speed of thought. Bernard will question his existence, his sanity, and the many quirky characters he encounters on this psychedelic trip, and struggle to understand if it’s all real or fantasy. But do pay attention… Vacation is embedded with a sublime message relating to the state of Bernard’s psyche and its connection to the nightmarish design...more

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Mar 27, 2009 David Agranoff rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Bizarro readers, vegans

Shelves: bizarro, by-a-vegan-author, surreal-horror

Vacation by Jeremy C. Shipp
159 pages, Raw Screaming Dog Press

Vacation is the tale of Bernard Johnson, a teacher who leaves his boring life to go on a year long corporate sponsored trip. Shortly after leaving he falls for a transsexual who he discovers was one of his most hated students back when she was a boy. Sound strange? We have not even touched the tip of the iceberg. Bernard is captured by terrorists and is drafted into secret drug war battles. The book has the label Science fiction from t...more Vacation by Jeremy C. Shipp
159 pages, Raw Screaming Dog Press

Vacation is the tale of Bernard Johnson, a teacher who leaves his boring life to go on a year long corporate sponsored trip. Shortly after leaving he falls for a transsexual who he discovers was one of his most hated students back when she was a boy. Sound strange? We have not even touched the tip of the iceberg. Bernard is captured by terrorists and is drafted into secret drug war battles. The book has the label Science fiction from the publisher on the back cover, it is however much stranger than your average Science Fiction. It has elements of horror for sure, Humor, politics and is provocative.

Jeremy C. Shipp has done something truly fantastic. I love the growing Bizzaro movement; the world needs a literature underground with stories about post nuclear warriors in cockroach suits* and time travelers being vomited through time by Giraffes**. I enjoy the off-the wall nature of the books. Most of the genre has its tongue planted firmly in cheek and the humor is one of the things most exciting about Bizzaro. This book takes the genre to a whole new level.

That is not to say it hasn’t been done before in Bizarro. No two Bizarro authors are alike it is not enough in this genre just to write something original daring and different to se yourself apart. No one writes like Gina Ranalli but her. No one writes like Jeremy Robert Johnson but him. So what sets Shipp at the top with this novel?

Jeremy Shipp is not filling space he has written an original fine tuned freak fest that has many levels to it. He is a talented writer who has written a whacky novel that is not only Bizzaro but it rises to the level of literature. I don’t mean this as an insult to anyone in the genre but this is a book that could break out of the underground ghetto.

While the pages go by you will find reality bending in the same way that the best of Phil K. Dick’s novels do. You will not only be wondering about what is coming in the story but the nature of the reality you engulfed in. One thing is for sure this book is worth the money.

When you close the book for the last time you may not feel as though you can put every piece in the puzzle but the picture you do have will be fascinating. This is a book that begs to be re-experienced each time you dive in and peel a layer off the onion you’ll get a different flavor.

*Extinction Journals by Jeremy Robert Johnson
** It came from Below the Belt by Bradley Sands (less)

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Jul 30, 2011 Deathraceking rated it 5 of 5 stars

Jeremy Shipp’s “Vacation” provides the reader with an escape on a intriguing holiday inside the human psyche. Shipp creates a psychological profile of the average human animal, almost reminiscent of Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five.” This work of fiction is a search for one’s place in the universe; where truth is subjective, and apathy can be as dangerous as conformity.

Bernard Johnson takes a government-sanctioned vacation, where he is to experience a pleasant, meditative break from his average...more Jeremy Shipp’s “Vacation” provides the reader with an escape on a intriguing holiday inside the human psyche. Shipp creates a psychological profile of the average human animal, almost reminiscent of Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five.” This work of fiction is a search for one’s place in the universe; where truth is subjective, and apathy can be as dangerous as conformity.

Bernard Johnson takes a government-sanctioned vacation, where he is to experience a pleasant, meditative break from his average nine-to-five life. Bernard is then thrust into a world where reality and surreality are one in the same. Bernard is constantly confronted with choices; he begins trying to understand himself and come to terms with the choices he has made. At points of self-reflection, Bernard is a Hardyan character. He is a dreamer; however, there is no support or happy ending for a dreamer. He comes to a point where choosing what’s best for himself becomes counter-productive, and he must weigh other considerations, acting completely inhuman (get it? Ha!).

Shipp’s story is a gatlin gun loaded with social commentary. Throughout this book, there is repetition. For example, consider a line such as “human beings have an uncanny ability to deny and forget.” The only constant here is that humans are greedy and pathetic animals; we believe convenient lies in order to water-down our own reality, making it easier to cope with existence. Also, there is an inherent need for we humans to maintain control of our own lives, and have a sense of safety that there is order in the world. We elect leaders to make sure nothing bad happens to us, and help us turn a blind eye to everything we might disagree with, but would rather ignore. However, problems cannot be ignored, and doing so makes matters worse. In his “Far from the Madding Crowd,” Thomas Hardy wrote “a resolution to avoid an evil is seldom framed till the evil is so far advanced as to make avoidance impossible” (Hardy, 1874). I’m sure that Shipp is aware (as I’m sure Hardy was) that this a reality of human existence; something we cannot change. But perhaps if we were to consider and weigh the options given to Bernard, we would understand a lot more about ourselves.

This critique of the human animal by Jeremy Shipp is remarkably well-done. I highly recommend this novel for fans of Vonnegut, Palahniuk, and Hardy; you’ll be taking quite an adventurous trip, without leaving your seat.

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Jan 24, 2008 Buffy rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone!

Recommended to Buffy by: Jeremy

Shelves: books-read-in-2008

Wow Jeremy! So I finished this book today and LOVED it! It was like the Island met Dean Koontz and had a baby . I loved how you would describe the situations the best though: "This is Don Quixote's psyche, This is Don Quixote on his deathbed, regaining his sanity."

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. I didn't read any synopsis beforehand, and I am glad the whole book was a shock and each discovery led me closer to the truth, just like Mr. Johnson.

Thanks to: Jeremy Shipp

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Aug 27, 2009 Mark R. rated it 3 of 5 stars

For one year in a person life, he or she is provided with a guided trip known as the Vacation. The narrator of "Vacation" finds out very quickly that the mysterious Vacations hold much more than simply some time off. He ends up unwittingly (at first) involved in an ongoing battle between warring peoples undergoing extremely top secret missions to continue the existence of the planet, all with their own motivations and highly classified superiors.

The story is told mostly through dialogue. I must...more

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Ask Jeremy any weird question	4	29	Mar 15, 2012 04:34am
Vacation has made the Bram Stoker Award Preliminary Ballot	3	9	Jan 24, 2008 03:40pm
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About Jeremy C. Shipp

Jeremy C. Shipp is the Bram Stoker nominated author of Cursed, Vacation, and Sheep and Wolves. His shorter tales have appeared or are forthcoming in over 50 publications, the likes of Cemetery Dance, ChiZine, Apex Magazine, Pseudopod, and Rosebud. While preparing for the forthcoming collapse of civilization, Jeremy enjoys living in Southern California in a moderately haunted Victorian farmhouse wi...more Jeremy C. Shipp is the Bram Stoker nominated author of Cursed, Vacation, and Sheep and Wolves. His shorter tales have appeared or are forthcoming in over 50 publications, the likes of Cemetery Dance, ChiZine, Apex Magazine, Pseudopod, and Rosebud. While preparing for the forthcoming collapse of civilization, Jeremy enjoys living in Southern California in a moderately haunted Victorian farmhouse with a legion of yard gnomes.

"Shipp's clear, insistent voice pulls you down into the rabbit hole and doesn't let go."
--Jack Ketchum

"[Vacation] is an intriguing, challenging, literate, provocative novel I'm not sure I understand and suspect I'm not meant to… I recommend it to those who find reality boring; it may make them see it in new ways."
—Piers Anthony

"Jeremy C. Shipp's Vacation is a surreal, bizarre, and utterly captivating tale. This ambitious story covers a lot of territory: it's disturbing, funny, thoughtful, and even touching. A wildly unpredictable first novel from one WEIRD author."
—Jeff Strand, author of The Sinister Mister Corpse

"It's rare to find a work that claims to be a mind-bender actually live up to its claims, but Jeremy Shipp's Vacation does just that. Imagine the finale of 2001: A Space Odyssey set in a deceptively everyday world that quickly— and effectively—jumps into William S. Burroughs territory by way of Donald Barthelme...and even that comparison won't prepare you for the head-trip that awaits you in these pages. The mundane turned mystical turned metaphysical turned indescribable. This is a genuinely one-of-a-kind trip, and one you won't want to miss."
—Gary A. Braunbeck, Bram Stoker and International Horror Guild Award-winner, author of Prodigal Blues, Destinations Unknown, and Mr. Hands

"None of the usual accolades work for Jeremy Shipp's Vacation. The reader is not amazed, astounded, or aggrieved - the reader is achingly curious, alarmingly moved, and at the end, astonished by the vision and darkness and redemption. No one writes like Shipp, and that's a great thing."
—Susan Straight, author of A Million Nightingales

"I'm convinced Jeremy Shipp is a little bit crazy, in the best possible way. Vacation is edgy, surreal, and original. This is one of those books that alters your brain in a way similar to Philip K. Dick. A very good first novel."
—Jeff VanderMeer, author of City of Saints & Madmen and Shriek: An Afterword

"I don't think there has been a more aptly titled book in recent memory than Jeremy Shipp's Vacation. This sprawling psychological pseudo-fantastical surrealistic mind-trip of an adventure story demands that you step out--far, far, far out--of your comfort zone, and embrace the possibilities of a universe that may be a dream, a nightmare, or just wishful thinking. Vacation is a headfirst dive into the rabbit hole, assuming those rabbits lined their burrow with mirrors, because as bizarre as this novel ultimately appears to be on the surface, there's very little here that we won't find in ourselves, assuming we're brave enough, and know how and where, to look. For now, we will have to content ourselves with author Shipp's efforts to do tha(less)

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“This is the Torture Room. But don't let the name fool you. This is a tent, not a room.” — 7 people liked it

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