I’m a Fan
Sheena Patel
Sheena Patel
I could say that I find books by searching through the most hidden bookstores, doing an exhaustive hunt in the new cities I visit... but the truth is, like everyone else, I spend hours on Instagram, and... I follow Rosalía.
In a carousel she posted, featuring several photos of a picnic, her in the studio, her nails, and a pair of Prada sunglasses I want to copy, there was also this book she was reading: I’m a Fan by Sheena Patel.
Discovering this book on Instagram, recommended by a cultural phenomenon like Rosalía, couldn’t have been more fitting for the story this author presents: a thirty-something woman who lives with her boyfriend in London, juggles precarious jobs in the art world, and obsessively stalks two people on social media. One of them, an artist she refers to as “the man I want to be with” (which I found very amusing), and an influencer she calls “the woman I’m obsessed with.”
Its suspenseful plot occasionally reminded me of the stalker we all got to know in the Netflix series You. Probably because the protagonist in You ends up being a psychopathic killer, a result of narrative extremism, I was never able to connect with him. But with this book, it was different because it takes on a more intimate and universal approach. Who hasn’t followed the lives of complete strangers on social media? Who hasn’t envied them despite not knowing them? Who hasn’t wanted to be like them? Who hasn’t dined at that restaurant a girl posted about? Who hasn’t bought that tablecloth adorning the table of that adorable family? You don’t need to be crazy to feel all these things if you have a phone and a social network: we’ve all felt it.
All this internet narcissism is narrated skillfully and without fear of offending by the protagonist. Some themes underlying this novel, which might initially seem like “just another book about Instagram,” include the persistence of class structures or the traps of multicultural society. No, it’s not just another novel about social media. Sheena Patel hooks you with an almost psychological thriller and narrates with razor-sharp words some of the obsessions my generation is living through: relationships through a screen and the consequences of late-stage capitalism.
By the way, here are some other books Rosalía introduced me to on Instagram:
Amo a Dick - Chris Kraus
La Casa de la fuerza - Angelica Liddell
Agua y Jabón - Marta D. Riezu
En la tierra somos fugazmente grandiosos - Ocean Vuong
Note
“I might look innocent but I screenshot a lot”