Author Emma Straub's latest book, "American Fantasy," is based on a real vacation she took.
Alpha Smoot
Much like the protagonist in her new novel, American Fantasy, Emma Straub needed a break. The bestselling author wrote her 2022 novel, This Time Tomorrow, as a tribute to her late father, horror writer Peter Straub, who passed away shortly after the book was published.
“That book was all about my father dying, and writing it was an extremely meaningful experience, important,” said Straub. “I don't know if I'll ever have a writing experience quite like that again, but I cried every day, and it was cathartic and wonderful, and yet that's hard.”
For her next book, Straub wanted something less heavy if no less true. “I wanted something that felt equally cathartic, but in the opposite sort of direction. I wanted something that brought me just deranged pleasure and joy, and that is what I set about to do,” she says.
The result, American Fantasy, is at turns fun, serious, romantic and, for women of a certain age, deeply relatable. The book, which published on Tuesday, follows Annie, a 50-year-old recent divorcee who embarks on a lark of a trip she was supposed to share with her younger sister—a cruise headline by Boy Talk, the boy band the women worshipped in their youth.
When her sister suffers a broken leg, Annie is left to go it alone, a decidedly unappealing proposition. But needing space from a job at a legacy print magazine she’s (hilariously) outgrown and wanting to try something different, she slowly embraces the absurdity of life on the American Fantasy cruise ship.
Straub’s deft characterizations of both the nostalgic female fans and the boy band members who are three decades removed from boyhood make the pages fly by. It’s such an immersive, enjoyable experience, you can almost taste the sweet, slushy drinks the women drink and hear Boy Talk’s greatest hits.
Emma Straub's new novel, "American Fantasy," takes place on a cruise ship.
Penguin Random House
That may be because Straub actually lived this fantasy. She took a cruise to the Bahamas with the ‘80s boy band New Kids on the Block, which became the inspiration for American Fantasy. The interactions between the former heartthrobs and their still-devoted fans sparked the book’s central themes of when it’s OK to move on and how nothing can last forever.
Straub also came away impressed by the band’s dedication to their fans and their work. “You have to respect the shoe leather and the hustle and the dedication. From what I have witnessed, it is really universally true that [band members] feel a great deal of gratitude. Of course, this comes even more with age, the gratitude and eventually a kind of symbiosis with their fans,” Straub says.
She also hit a particularly zeitgeisty moment for a book addressing menopause and perimenopause, which isn’t lost on her. “In the last few years, there has been sort of a bumper crop of books and other kinds of media about aging, about perimenopause, and mid midlife, divorce and that kind of stuff. That is all great, the more better. I am pro all of that. But what I haven't really seen reflected is what I sort of witness in the women around me,” Straub says.
What she’s seen is how change can have a positive impact. While it may start with a negative, such as a layoff or demotion, it often evolves into a good course correction. She wanted Annie’s journey to reflect that optimism for the next phase of life. “I have so many friends who have totally, totally changed their lives in ways that look so exciting and fulfilling. And with Annie, she’s fine where she is—but she's going to be even better,” Straub says.
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