ShortStoryFilter: Looking for a short story where Americans go on vacation and get killed

May 6, 2007 11:21 PM

ShortStoryFilter: Looking for a short story where Americans go on vacation and get killed.

I remember reading a short story back in high school that I would love to find again.

It told the story of an American group or couple going to vacation in some tropical getaway. If I remember correctly, the majority of the story is focused on the trivial menial materialistic things until the very end while the group is sailing out in the open sea. Pirates come and slaughter everyone on the boat and take their money.

The distinguishing characteristic is the shock value of the plain emotion-less narrative account of their deaths.

Anyone know of the one I'm talking about? Bonus points for your interpretation of the story, and recommended further reading.

posted by mwang1028 to Writing & Language (3 answers total)

I don't know that story, but you might enjoy Flannery O'Connor's short story, "A Good Man Is Hard To Find," in which a very typical American family go on vacation and then "things happen." I'm trying to learn more about American literature; this one's a classic.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 12:51 AM on May 7, 2007

This plot line sounds similar in some respects to that of "Monkey Hill", by Paul Theroux, which appeared in the final issue of the New Yorker of 2006.
posted by Maxwell_Smart at 8:14 AM on May 7, 2007

Not the one you're looking for, but you might like Eric Puchner's "Legends" (in Music Through the Floor.)
posted by tangerine at 12:04 PM on May 7, 2007