Here’s a fun premise for a novel: In American Fantasy, out April 7, author Emma Straub introduces two middle-aged sisters as they board a four-day fan cruise dedicated to a 1990s boy band. “Before I wrote the book, I had not been on any cruises, and I found the whole idea sort of terrifying and distasteful,” says Straub, who’s previously written six novels. “Then I went on a fan cruise as research, and it was overwhelming in lots of ways—the way the cruise in the book is.” Since then, she’s unlocked the secret to enjoying nautical vacations, as she explains in the following conversation with Condé Nast Traveler.
Straub, who is also the co-owner, along with her husband, of the Brooklyn bookstore Books Are Magic, chatted about the vivid thrills of placing characters on vacation, experiencing Italy with her children, and finding new, innovative ways to lift fancy shampoo from hotels.
Why she put characters on a trip again after her 2014 novel, The Vacationers:
Maybe I should just go full Mike White and The White Lotus and set everything on vacation. It is a very fertile area for me. Traveling just knocks you out of your routine. Even when I take the subway literally five minutes into Manhattan, from my neighborhood here in Brooklyn, seeing things that you don’t see every single day knocks something loose. I think that we all aspire to be slightly different versions of ourselves on vacation. We’re out of our normal routine, and that is always juicy.
How her feelings on cruises have evolved:
After [my research cruise], I went on two cruises with my in-laws, who are big cruisers. We went to Alaska [with Regent Seven Seas Cruises], and it was incredible. I have recommended it to every person I know, even the people who are reluctant to go on a cruise. Then last summer, we went on a cruise around the British Isles, which was also very beautiful. I think the ideal cruise is taking you somewhere that’s actually difficult to get to over land and is more about nature. We went to all these amazing cities around England, Scotland, Ireland, and I just wanted to spend more time in them, but you have to get back on the boat. So I am learning my cruise likes and dislikes.
On writing while traveling:
Nowadays, my life is so busy that I sort of write wherever I am. I used to be much more precious about needing certain objects or it being a certain time of day or whatever. But now, as long as I’m awake and functional, and if I don’t have my family next to me, I can get work done on any plane or train you put me on.
The joys of traveling with tweens:
Oh God, it’s so much better [than when they are younger]! We took my children on planes starting when they were very young, but we never went too far. We would go to my in-laws’ in Florida and we took them as far as California when they were still pretty small on book tours. But we didn’t travel internationally with them until a few years ago. My children are now 10 and 12. When we finally went [abroad], they were old enough to leave us alone on the airplane, pull their own suitcases through the airport, ask for snacks if they needed snacks. Nobody needed a nap. I mean, we all needed naps, but no one was going to have a full meltdown if they didn’t have a nap. So that stress was alleviated.
