Your Biggest Fan

Rosenholtz explores the dark side of fandom in his accomplished debut. Over the course of three lengthy letters, the unnamed protagonist—a 53-year-old high school English teacher with two daughters—addresses pop star “TS” (Taylor Swift, whose songs are referenced by name) and details how he came to love her music. In part one, he assigns her songs to playlists ranging from typical (“My Favorite TS Songs”) to absurdly specific (“TS Songs in Which Dancing Occurs in Unusual Places”) and analyzes her literary references, including Vonnegut, Shakespeare, and the Brontës. Part two gets discomfortingly personal, with the narrator illuminating the midlife crisis and incipient mental breakdown that’s the clear cause—to the reader, at least—of his obsession. Part three sees the narrator sliding completely off the rails, with the stakes raising to frightening heights as he ruins his life in pursuit of his “perfect” beloved. Rosenholtz engages in a great deal of sophisticated literary gamesmanship throughout, nodding slyly to Nabokov’s Pale Fire as his pathetic protagonist spirals out of control. Thriller fans looking for something off the beaten path should check this out. (Nov.)