Recommended spring books from USA TODAY
USA TODAY book writer Claire Mulroy recommends three books you won’t want to put down this spring.
NEW YORK – When novelist Emma Straub was a child, she loved New Kids on the Block. When she was in her mid-40s, her deep-rooted fandom led her on a boy band nostalgia cruise. And he becomes friends with Joey McIntyre. Of course it’s for research purposes.
Aboard the 2023 NKOTB cruise, the “All Adults Here” author got to see Jonathan, Jordan, Joey, Donnie and Danny in action, mingling, partying and singing with the 3,000 blockheads who were there. This act of embracing your inner fangirl, no matter your age, is the basis of her seventh book, American Fantasy (now available from Riverhead Books). In it, 50-year-old Annie embarks alone on a ’90s boy band cruise after her sister withdraws. Recently divorced and with an empty house, she is able to awaken a long-buried part of herself by being with a group of enthusiastic fangirls.
We don’t often take teenage girls and their interests seriously. Whether it’s a band, a celebrity, or the media (see the spooky masterpiece Twilight), polite society ridicules screaming fans of all ages and genders. they are ferocious. Hysterical. Obsessed.
But they also get the job done. Who else could build a lucrative career as a “professional fan” content creator on social media? Or will there be a general admission line like Navy, which is so well-respected that even the venue respects the fan-created system?
“People don’t respect teenage girls. They really don’t, but I do, and I will until the day I die,” Straub told USA TODAY, sitting for an interview at Books Are Magic, the bookstore he owns in Brooklyn. “Teenage girls are smart, passionate, fun, and know what’s good.”
Emma Straub wants you to keep fangirling
Straub’s last novel, “This Time Tomorrow,” captured novelist and Stephen King collaborator Peter Straub’s grief over the death of his father through the lens of fictional time travel. She said she cried “nonstop” while writing this. As she took to the skies, she craved a different kind of catharsis.
“American Fantasy,” by contrast, is full of joy. It’s so fun to read that you can just imagine Straub smiling as he types every word. This story is told from three points of view. Keith is a nice guy who is the lead singer of the fictional group “Boy Talk” and has a high brand name. and Sarah, a no-nonsense cruise producer in charge of conflicts with talent, fans, and incompetent assistants.
“In this world that we all live in together right now, we’re all so lacking in joy,” Straub says. “I don’t know if I would have given myself permission to write this book if it hadn’t been for ‘This Time Tomorrow,’ because some people seem to think it’s ridiculous at first glance, and it’s funny. There’s a lot of humor in this book, but it’s also as serious as a heart attack to me. I’m not making fun of any of these people, the fans, the band, Cruise. I fully support the complex fullness of this book.” All of that. ”
Like the main character, Straub also embarked on a cruise alone. If the NKOTB cruise is anything like “American Fantasy,” it’s full of themed costumes, prom-like dances, intimate shows, and lots of selfies (a 2018 Boston Globe article confirms this: “The women begin to crowd around[Joey]as if they were one big cell and he was the nucleus.”)
“When they were 12 years old or so, they were teenybopper fans, and now they’re grown women and have all the responsibilities. They’re responsible for their children, they’re responsible for their elderly parents, they’re responsible for their jobs, they’re responsible for making dinner,” Straub said. “What I loved was seeing the women use every inch of their brain power for themselves, for themselves, for their own joy and happiness. They wore very elaborate costumes. They thought of everything. I believe they can plan anything.”
In “American Fantasy,” Annie leaves dry land anxious, unsure of herself, and open to change, but unsure of how to pivot. Surrounded by her biggest fans and cruise regulars, Annie recalls a college roommate who teased her for liking boy talk. She felt childish.
For the author, being a fan is a way of life. Writing books and owning Book Are Magic means she’s immersed in the world of literature from all angles.
“I could be a fan, and being a fan doesn’t diminish me,” she says. “The more you love something, the more it grows for you.”
She believes that “the idea of disgust is evaporating” among younger generations. She wants fans of all ages to enjoy what brings joy. She quotes Mary Oliver’s poem “Wild Geese,” which says, “All you have to do is let the soft creatures love what you love.”
Emma Straub became friends with Joey McIntyre while writing a new novel
Keith Fiore, the “voice” of Boy Talk, is experiencing his own crisis. He’s also a middle-aged man with a teenage daughter and a disintegrating marriage, and he goes to therapy to help him “work through being Keith Fiore.” His younger brother, Boy Talk member Scott, enjoys the attention and wants to keep milking the money tree. Keith is unsure.
To build a complex, layered celebrity character, Straub turned to NKOTB again. When she was in her late 20s, she saw McIntyre perform and realized that he was more than just the figurehead she had loved since childhood.
“It was the first time I thought, ‘Oh, this is a human being,’ and this is a person who has a complicated relationship with his life,” Straub said. “I would say that was a turning point for me. I kept paying attention[to NKOTB]but my eyes became more empathetic and I thought, ‘Oh, I see. It’s not easy. It’s not easy to do this, to have this career.'”
She wanted to know what life was like under the spotlight. She had no idea. So she called McIntyre.
In a video posted to Instagram weeks before the book’s release, McEntire praised Straub as “my new best friend” and opened a box of “American Fantasy” merchandise wearing a purple “boy band” hat.
“This is really sexy book merchandise,” he said in the video. In the comments, eagle-eyed fans quickly identified Straub as the author who had been peeking at the fan’s Facebook page, or whom they had met on past cruises.
“Being Friends with Joey McEntire” was the highlight of Straub’s nostalgic journey through the Planet Boy band. I believe in her foresight as a young fangirl. Had she ever imagined this? “I really felt like a genius when I was a kid,” she jokes. “It was very delicious.”
But “American Fantasy” is not NKOTB fanfiction, nor is it an interpretation of One Direction, *NSYNC, or any other hot new KPop group. Boy Talk men are typical, yet so universal.
“I wanted to make this so that anyone who’s ever loved something, really any other boy band, could see themselves reflected in it. It’s not age-specific. It’s not just for middle-aged women. It’s for anyone who’s ever loved something this deeply,” Straub says.
Claire Mulroy is USA TODAY’s books reporter, covering hot releases, chatting with authors, and diving into reading culture. please find her on instagramsubscribe to our weekly magazine book newsletter Or tell her what you’re reading cmulroy@usatoday.com.
