Book Review: Your Biggest Fan

Reviewed by John M. Murray

A self-referential funhouse mirror of creators and their audience

A series of letters written to pop star Taylor Swift chronicles the compelling, horrifying psychological decline of a broken man in Your Biggest Fan by Jeremy Rosenholtz. 

The writer and narrator of the letters is an unnamed high school English teacher. One day when he listens to a Taylor Swift album while commuting to work, he finds an intense and undying connection to her music. What follows is an obsessive spiral where the man—a father, husband, and teacher—focuses on “TS” to the detriment of all else. His life collapses, and the letters follow his decline mentally and physically. The unhinged letters first hint at and then finally showcase the extreme nature of unchecked fandom.

The man seems normal initially with a family—wife, two daughters—and a job he not only enjoys but is respected by colleagues, students, and parents. The sudden connection with TS cracks the façade of his sanity leading to an unsettling and slow descent into insanity. His work life suffers and his family life breaks, but he continues to craft meticulous playlists to study TS’s entire oeuvre. There are only three letters, but the sprawling nature of them coupled with an unusual disconnect from time allows the man to cover not only his obsession with TS but his life leading up to what he calls the “Year of TS.”

The voice is an unsettling blend of manic obsession with poignant comedy. The man reveres TS above all else and proffers to be a polite and friendly person, but when the GPS voice utters a navigational direction that plays over his playlists, he yells with intense fervor that even his daughter mock. The obsessive nature of his ramblings often leads to slow reveals of his psychological state and undiagnosed illnesses that further degrade his psyche. But all the while, he dons a veneer of affability in stark contrast with the clearly misguided love of the pop star and what he hopes will be her inevitable response.

As a concept, the letters are both fun and unsettling but their length plays against the intended effect. It’s clear from the opening of the first letter, this unnamed man is an unreliable narrator making a potential lie out of most of what he says. He can be difficult to connect with and relate to despite his love of one of the most popular stars of a generation. Some of the sections drag on after adroitly establishing and maintaining the black comedy tone.

Still, Your Biggest Fan is an intriguing investigation of obsession and parasocial connections that is both hilarious and unsettling.

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