Pack your bags, a Cincinnati author is taking you on vacation to the big screen for what she called a millennial gender-swap of “When Harry Met Sally…,” one of her favorite films.
Cincinnati native and best-selling author Emily Henry’s first book-to-movie adaptation for her 2021 novel, “People We Meet on Vacation,” is set to debut Jan. 9 on Netflix.
Although the Queen City may not have beaches, Henry knows how to write beach books. A few months after the book’s release in 2021, Henry spoke to The Enquirer about “People We Meet on Vacation,” which spent 56 weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers List and became the summer read.
Here’s what Henry told The Enquirer about her vacation-inspired romance novel.
What is ‘People We Meet on Vacation’ about?
“People We Meet on Vacation” is Henry’s follow-up to her 2020 best-seller, “Beach Read.” The rom-com is about best friends and polar opposites, Poppy and Alex. Poppy is a New York travel writer with wanderlust. Alex is a small-town Ohio teacher who prefers a good book. Yet, they vacationed together every summer for a decade.
Then, something happened during their visit to Croatia two years ago, and they haven’t talked since, until Poppy suggests they take one more trip together to save their friendship.
Emily Henry details ‘People We Meet on Vacation’
Henry, who grew up in Northern Kentucky and Liberty Township and now lives in Cincinnati, spoke with The Enquirer in 2021 about her inspiration and writing a travel book in the middle of a global pandemic.
The author said she set out to write a millennial gender-swapped version of the classic 1989 film “When Harry Met Sally….”
“I have this experience where every time I sit down to watch it again, I wonder if I am misremembering how much I liked it because Harry bothers me so much at the beginning,” Henry said.
“… I wanted Poppy to be the one who was a little more grating, a little more flighty, and to take life and relationships less seriously.
“I wanted to take two characters who, when they meet, you don’t think that they have anything in common. Really, they don’t have all that much in common except that they really have fun together. It just seemed like a fun challenge to me as a writer to try and pull that off.”
Is Emily Henry more like Poppy or Alex?
It’s not uncommon for authors to relate to their characters. They did write them, afterall. So, who does Henry see herself in more, Poppy or Alex?
“I relate so much more to Poppy,” Henry told The Enquirer. “… Writing Poppy was therapeutic and a little unnerving.
“Not only do writers share pieces of us in our characters, I think most readers tend to assume that too, and you’re always putting yourself out there, especially if you’re letting yourself write a character who you recognize how imperfect they are. But I also think those are the most interesting characters to read about, people who make bad decisions.”
Henry based a portion of the book on Cincinnati suburbs
Henry told The Enquirer she based the fictional East and West Linfield – where Alex lives and from where Poppy wants to escape – on Cincinnati suburbs.
“I do think it’s a really common thing when you grow up in the suburbs or a smaller city feeling like you want to go somewhere else,” Henry said, “and a lot of that is about your identity and feeling like you can’t really know who you are or prove who you are without going somewhere where no one knows you.”
In the book, Poppy and Alex visit a wide variety of locales, from Vancouver to Tuscany, some you could visit on a shoestring budget, others that require the backing of a major travel magazine.
“With ‘People We Meet on Vacation,’ I was pulling from places that I have traveled and places that I really like to visit,” Henry said. “So even though there is this sort of home base of Cincinnati, it turned into very much an escapist type of book. I feel that Cincinnati is really all about that.”
She noted our local obsession with Jimmy Buffett. “We want to experience that vacation vibe,” she said.
Henry feared readers wouldn’t resonate with ‘People We Meet on Vacation’ due to COVID-19
There was still some fear that readers wouldn’t want to be reminded of traveling when they were stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We were just worried that people would feel very resentful,” Henry said. “It reminded them what they felt they were missing out on. … Then it happened to work out that (the novel) came out as people were getting vaccinated and visiting each other again …
“Luckily, I feel like it has been more of a relief and a balm for people than a source of frustration.”
