Aahana Swrup
In ‘People We Meet on Vacation,’ the central duo, Poppy and Alex, hail from the same small town of Linfield, Ohio. Yet, despite sharing a hometown, neither actually becomes aware of the other’s existence until they find themselves coincidentally at Boston College, carpooling back home for the summer. This marks the first of what will become a string of summer vacation trips spent together as a part of a friendship pact. However, years down the line, one wrong vacation ruins Poppy and Alex’s relationship in the worst way. Therefore, when the duo fatefully find themselves in the same holiday spot once again, it promises the chance to iron out old complications and maybe even find a new beginning. The town of Linfield remains a defining element in both characters’ narratives, shaping their desires, motivations, and goals. In providing the protagonists with well-trodden roots, the town also ends up grounding the narrative in a realistic foundation.
Linfield is a Fictional Town Based on the Suburbs of Cincinnati
‘People We Meet on Vacation’ is a fictional film based on Emily Henry’s eponymous 2021 novel. As a result, despite retaining fictitious origins, many of the on-screen elements have a pre-existing basis in the author’s work. Linfield, Poppy and Alex’s hometown, is no exception. The town is a work of fiction created by Henry in the service of her young adult romance. Brett Haley’s film adaptation brings the same literary town to the screen. Consequently, there are no identical small towns in real life. Although fans may be able to find an identically named village in West Sussex, England, the latter has no connection to Poppy’s hometown. However, despite sporting no direct counterpart in reality, Linfield does share a different connection with real life.
Henry reportedly based the fictional town in her book on the suburbs of her own hometown. The author was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and currently lives in the city’s suburbs. After splitting her childhood between the Ohioan city and Kentucky, she went off to college in western Michigan. Yet, at the end of the day, the author found herself returning to her hometown for good. In a conversation with TODAY, Henry spoke about the same and said, “I don’t know if it’s (Cincinnati suburbs are) the key to my success, but I think that it might be the key to my happiness.” As such, it’s no surprise that the author found inspiration in her beloved hometown for Linfield from her novel ‘People We Meet on Vacation.’ In the novel, and by extension the film, Linfield becomes a relevant element in Poppy and Alex’s respective storylines.
For the former, it represents a repressive small town that she must escape from, while the latter finds stability, comfort, and reliable roots in the same. Thematically, their attitudes toward their hometown become largely symbolic of their own fears and desires, outlining the friction in their relationship for most of the novel. Henry spoke about the universally complicated relationship many have with their hometown in a 2021 interview with The Cincinnati Enquirer. She said, “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.” Ultimately, this personal connection behind the creation of the fictional Linfield extends a sense of realism to the place, which is similarly translated on the screen in Haley’s film adaptation.
Read More: Where Was People We Meet on Vacation Filmed? All Shooting Locations
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