{"id":1810865,"date":"2026-03-06T11:26:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T08:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1810865"},"modified":"2026-03-06T11:26:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T08:26:00","slug":"love-junkie-the-must-read-cult-novel-about-the-80s-new-york-gay-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1810865","title":{"rendered":"Love Junkie: The must-read cult novel about the 80s New York gay scene"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/844\/0-0-844-563\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/0\/1440579.jpg&#8221;]<\/p>\n<article class=\"main-article standard \">\n<div class=\"article-main-content article-wrapper has-media-but-its-an-image\" data-status=\"loaded\" data-primary-article=\"true\" data-url=\"\/life-culture\/article\/69819\/1\/love-junkie-robert-plunket-author-novel-penguin-modern-classics-interview\" data-article-id=\"69819\">\n<header class=\"article-header has-landscape-image no-media\">\n<div class=\"wrapper dg-max-width\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<figure class=\"main-img has-figcaption\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.78\" data-template=\"Standard Article\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Studio 54 \" class=\"img\" height=\"563\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1000\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/0\/1440579.jpg\" width=\"1000\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"inner\"><span class=\"credit\">Studio 54 <span class=\"nowrap\">(Film Still)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"meta\">\n<div class=\"inner\"><time datetime=\"2026-03-06T11:26:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"06 March 2026\"><span class=\"month\">March<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"6\">6,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div class=\"titles\">\n<div class=\"tags\">\n<div class=\"sections\"><a class=\"category vertical - life-culture\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\">Life &amp; Culture<\/a><br \/>\n\/<br \/>\n<a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/q-and-a\">Q+A<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"standard-tag-container\"><a class=\"standard-category\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\">Life &amp; Culture<\/a> \/<br \/>\n<a class=\"standard-series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/q-and-a\">Q+A<\/a><\/div>\n<h1 class=\"title\"><span>Love Junkie: The must-read cult novel about the 80s New York <span class=\"nowrap\">gay scene<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n<div class=\"standfirst\">\n<h2>To mark the book\u2019s reissue with Penguin Modern Classics, we speak to author Robert Plunket about gender fluidity, the Aids crisis, and the connection between sex and <span class=\"nowrap\">hustle culture<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-03-06T11:26:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"06 March 2026\"><span class=\"month\">March<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"6\">6,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-03-06T11:26:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"06 March 2026\"><span class=\"month\">March<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"6\">6,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/p>\n<div class=\"providers\">\n<div class=\"contributors\"><span class=\"contributor\" data-contributor-role=\"Text\"><span class=\"contributor-role\">Text<\/span><a class=\"contributor-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/user\/EliCugini\">Eli Cugini<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article-body-container\">\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Robert Plunket \u2013 or Bob, in company \u2013 always suspected that he was going to get rediscovered, but he\u2019s a little surprised, at 80, that he\u2019s alive to see it. \u201cI thought it would be after I was dead,\u201d he tells me from his home in Florida; \u201cit\u2019d make a better story if I was dead. But as it is, I\u2019m still alive. So, you\u2019re stuck with me.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>We\u2019re talking about <\/span><em><span>Love Junkie<\/span><\/em><span>, the second of his two novels, which was originally published in 1992. Plunket was at the centre of the New York gay scene in the 70s and 80s (he even played a \u2018timid gay guy\u2019 in Scorsese\u2019s <\/span><em><span>After Hours<\/span><\/em><span>); his books, both satirical comedies of manners with dazzlingly immoral protagonists, have a small, dedicated fanbase, and might have even been an influence on <\/span><em><span>Seinfeld<\/span><\/em><span>. Yet, despite this acclaim, Plunket\u2019s books fell out of print, and he decamped to Sarasota to become a gossip columnist.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Plunket\u2019s fans have, however, finally succeeded in bringing him back to public notice, and both his books have now been reissued in gorgeous, colourful editions with Penguin Modern Classics. <\/span><em><span>Love Junkie<\/span><\/em><span>\u2019s reissue, in particular, is one of the most exciting things to happen to contemporary fiction in years. It tells the story of Mimi Smithers, a bored, mildly evil Westchester housewife who falls into a circle of New York gays and becomes infatuated with Joel, a professional hustler. Amidst the comedy of Mimi\u2019s descent into madness, the novel silently fills in the background with a sharply detailed portrait of the start of the AIDS crisis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span>Love Junkie<\/span><\/em><span>\u2019s sensibility is usefully different to more contemporary queer fiction, but it also gains a lot from critical lenses that have been honed more in recent years. (Plunket brings up the book\u2019s trans resonances unprompted: \u201cIn retrospect, though I didn\u2019t intend it, there\u2019s definitely this transgender quality to the whole book.\u201d) Good news, then, that we are \u2018stuck with\u2019 Plunket; he has lost neither his charm nor his critical eye, and he\u2019s working on his first new fiction in over three decades.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"3714dc44-e37b-4e3b-83c7-b40400dbb18f\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/326\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/0\/1440293.jpg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"0.65\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"9780241795095-jacket-large\" class=\"img\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/326\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/0\/1440293.jpg\" width=\"326\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"credit\">Penguin Modern Classics<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p>Dazed <span>spoke to Plunket over Zoom about sexual obsession, the book\u2019s influences, and the psychology of hustling.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>I love the title <\/strong><strong><em>Love Junkie<\/em><\/strong><strong>. There are a bunch of different ways you can parse it. I don\u2019t know if Mimi\u2019s primarily a junkie for love, but it depends on how you use \u2018love.\u2019 Why did you call it that?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>I was watching television, and there was a talk show about women who fell in love too much, and how it caused issues in their lives, and they\u2019re all sitting around talking, and one of them says, \u2018I feel like a love junkie.\u2019 And a lightbulb went off.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Love Junkie <\/em><\/strong><strong>is, in some ways, out of step with what queer fiction tends to do now, but I think it\u2019s a welcome out-of-step-ness. We have so much very sincere, very authentic, very trauma-informed contemporary gay and queer fiction. Getting a spiky comedy of manners feels like a gulp of cold water.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>I don\u2019t follow current gay fiction, but I certainly know what you mean. The more irreverent side, the side with an edge, doesn\u2019t seem to be there much right now.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>There will be people coming to <\/strong><strong><em>Love Junkie <\/em><\/strong><strong>now who won\u2019t have much of a frame of reference for what you\u2019re doing here. If someone reads <\/strong><strong><em>Love Junkie <\/em><\/strong><strong>and likes it, what would you tell them to go read? What were your influences at the time?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>There are two novels I can think of off the top of my head that deal with and explain the same period in gay history, and I would very highly recommend either. The first one is <\/span><em><span>Dancer from the Dance <\/span><\/em><span>by Andrew Holleran, and the second is <\/span><em><span>Faggots <\/span><\/em><span>by Larry Kramer. They\u2019re both from 1978, and they were the first \u2018legitimate\u2019 gay novels; they both proved that gay literature wasn\u2019t just for queer men. It was good enough for everybody.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>If a gay guy tells the story, then it\u2019s entirely a \u2018gay novel\u2019, and straight people are not interested in gay novels. So, I got the idea to have a woman telling it, which opens the story up to a much wider audience<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Mimi is a kind of slantwise narrator. She\u2019s both inside and outside of the gay milieu that the novel is describing. What do you think we get out of seeing it through Mimi\u2019s eyes, rather than through a gay guy\u2019s eyes? How does her positionality contribute to the story?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>Well, actually, I chose to have it narrated by a woman for a very crass commercial reason. If a gay guy tells the story, then it\u2019s entirely a \u2018gay novel\u2019, and straight people are not interested in gay novels. So, I got the idea to have a woman tell it, which opens the story up to a much wider audience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Then, once I decided that Mimi was going to be the narrator, I had to figure out how women think. That was very difficult. But it was fun. I asked a lot of women: \u2018What would you do in a situation like this?\u2019 And they gave me all kinds of crazy answers, which led me to believe that Mimi, in her naivete and her lack of comprehension about men and sex, is expressing something accurate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>I saw someone in a review say they didn\u2019t think Mimi made a convincing woman. And, well, she\u2019s clearly quite heightened, but I disagree. There\u2019s something real there.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>I hope so. I can see why people say that she doesn\u2019t make a convincing woman, but so what? She\u2019s still a great character, and hopefully she\u2019s fun to hang out with. And, though I didn\u2019t intend this at the time, there\u2019s this transgender quality to the whole book. You\u2019re playing with gender, and you\u2019re switching around, and you\u2019re looking at situations through a female eye, then a male eye, and perhaps through a transgender eye.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>100 per cent, there\u2019s a transgender effect there. Mimi\u2019s very readable as trans. I also love how Mimi is pursuing this very straight fantasy, but every step she takes to get to it seems to make her gayer? She leaves her husband, kills her dependent, trashes her house, and has lesbian sex multiple times, all in an attempt to get closer to Joel.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>I think that\u2019s the gay man in me coming out, in talking about the effects of sexual obsession, which is such a tricky subject. It\u2019s hard to explain. You either have it for somebody or you don\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"6d0b2982-3990-45d0-a14a-b40400e5bcd6\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1060\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/0\/1440347.jpg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.5\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"article00_large\" class=\"img\" height=\"707\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/786\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/0\/1440347.jpg\" width=\"1060\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"credit\">Hannah Philips<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><strong>Seeing some of the ways in which Mimi is deliberately deluding herself as to Joel\u2019s actions, it can make you think, <span>\u2018<\/span>I hope that\u2019s not me.<span>\u2019<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>Uh\u2026[<em>laughs<\/em>] It probably is you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>We should accept it.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>Now I\u2019m old, that doesn\u2019t happen to me anymore. And I do kind of miss it, you know? Those sexually obsessive relationships, they were a lot of fun. They usually don\u2019t last very long. But one of Joel\u2019s great gifts in the book is that he knows how to make that kind of relationship last long enough for him to get as much money out of it as he can.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>I love Joel as a character. He feels like this figure produced by the place where straight women\u2019s and gay men\u2019s fantasies meet. It can feel weird to act like straight women and gay men want the same things \u2013 writ large, they don\u2019t \u2013 but he\u2019s where they overlap.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>I didn\u2019t think of it like that, but I think you\u2019re right. And I think the reason is that Joel has this talent for sex. He understands how to use it; he understands how to make money from it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>It\u2019s interesting that he\u2019s not always very good at the practicals of sex, though. But the fantasy seems to sustain itself enough that it doesn\u2019t necessarily matter.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>Maybe not, but he understands what the other person wants. He has a sixth sense for figuring out what they need, sexually. And sometimes they don\u2019t even know. But he can put his finger on it. I saw that firsthand, because my lover was a hustler, and he had clients and he had to figure out how to make money off of them. He figured out what they wanted more than anything, and then he gave it to them. It really is a skill. And, of course, you\u2019ve got to have the looks. But he worked at it, five hours a day, he was lifting weights, doing exercise, keeping himself in perfect condition.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>What did the research look like for <\/strong><strong><em>Love Junkie<\/em><\/strong><strong>? Were you drawing mainly on areas that you knew a lot about anyway? There\u2019s an encyclopaedic understanding of furniture in this book.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>I didn\u2019t need to research the furniture; that\u2019s all stuff that I\u2019ve been obsessed with my entire life. And, well, everything in the book really happened. You know? I changed the names, I switched the situations around and fictionalised them, but everything in it happened.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>The disastrous film production, which was based on real stuff?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>Oh, yeah, that happened.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Did people get annoyed at you when the book came out, or did they consider it more fair use, using that kind of circulating gossip?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>No, nobody got annoyed at me, believe it or not. Of course, most of them had died. Which sounds awful, but it\u2019s what happened. There was a woman I knew quite well who had many of Mimi\u2019s characteristics. I think she was a little annoyed, but, you know, she forgave me. Presumably, she didn\u2019t want to bring it up because she was pretending that it wasn\u2019t her. So I somehow came out of it without making any enemies. I was surprised.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>I don\u2019t think people realise how dangerous sex is [&#8230;] It can kill you, and it always gets you in trouble<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>You didn\u2019t design the book to reappear during this period. If you\u2019re presented with the question of how <\/strong><strong><em>Love Junkie <\/em><\/strong><strong>can speak to, like, gay life now, conditions now, does that preoccupy you? Or is your vision for the republication different to that?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>I\u2019m not really interested in whether it does or not, because it\u2019s a period piece. It\u2019s very specifically about AIDS. It\u2019s like writing about Vienna in 1938: the horrible thing is about to happen, and nobody quite realises it yet, and their doom is being set up. And that\u2019s such a very specific and unusual situation. It couldn\u2019t happen again in that way, because when AIDS happened, it was out of the blue and no-one could have imagined such a thing. Now we know the story behind it. But when it happened, it was an incredible shock.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Why is it particularly pressing to read about AIDS in the 80s now?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>Well, I hate to tell you the first thought that popped into my mind, which is, \u2018because it\u2019s fun.\u2019 [<em>laughs<\/em>] Or, you know, I made it fun. It\u2019s important because I don\u2019t think people realise how dangerous sex is. We pretend it\u2019s this wonderful thing where you fall in love with somebody and you have this intimate moment of sharing and you understand humanity, and infinity, and God\u2019s grace in the world for the first time. But it can also kill you. It can kill you, and it always gets you in trouble. Now, maybe you\u2019ve been lucky and it hasn\u2019t gotten you in trouble, but it\u2019s always gotten me in trouble.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>It\u2019s gotten me in some trouble.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>It\u2019s a very dangerous part of being a human being. And you have to be careful with it. That\u2019s certainly the lesson I learned.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Love Junkie <em><span>is out now<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"newsletter-inline-last\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-small\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<h1 class=\"newsletter-title\">Escape the algorithm! Get The Drop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"meta-row\">\n<p class=\"meta\">Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"confirmation\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p class=\"confirmation-title\">Thank you. You have been subscribed<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<footer class=\"article-footer\">\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<div class=\"article-series\">\n<h4 class=\"heading\">More on these topics<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-series\"><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\">Life &amp; Culture<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/q-and-a\">Q+A<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/aids\">AIDS<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/gay\">gay<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/love\">love<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/books\">Books<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/queer-culture\">Queer Culture<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/trans\">trans<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/transgender\">transgender<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/footer>\n<div class=\"grid\">\n<div class=\"lava-lamp\">\n<div class=\"lava-lamp-text-container\">\n<h3 class=\"lava-lamp-subheading\">Expand your creative community and connect with 15,000 creatives from around the world.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"grid section-header\">\n<div class=\"section-header__link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/69819\/1\/life-culture\"><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"section-header__title\">READ MORE<\/h2>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"grid tag-article-list\">\n<div class=\"swiper swiper-latest\">\n<div class=\"swiper-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"swiper-slide list-element\">\n<div class=\"scard-latest__section\">\n<div class=\"card-latest__wrapper\"><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/69723\/1\/how-to-date-a-people-pleaser-beth-mccoll-love-relationships-boundaries\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"HowToDateWhen 16x9\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/125-0-1624-1080\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/8\/1438515.png\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">How to date when&#8230; you\u2019re a people pleaser<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/69826\/1\/can-you-still-use-chatgpt-clear-conscience-anthropic-claude-department-of-war\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Zoe Kravitz in Kimi (Film Still)\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/219-63-1763-1173\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/0\/1440363.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">Is it finally time to boycott ChatGPT?<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/fashion\/article\/69744\/1\/ganni-harley-weir-spring-summer-2026-maggie-maurer\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\">\n<p class=\"optional-paragraph\"> GANNI<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"GANNI_SS26-CAMPAIGN_4X5_1\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/0-610-2399-1596\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/8\/1438662.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">GANNI is yearning for a dreamy summer \u2013 and so are we <\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"swiper-slide list-element\">\n<div class=\"scard-latest__section\">\n<div class=\"card-latest__wrapper\"><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/69824\/1\/brooklyn-pastry-chef-tanya-bush-will-this-make-you-happy-book-interview-baking\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Pauline Chatelan x Tanya Bush - film -32\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/66-788-2142-1425\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/0\/1440286.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">Can cake solve your quarter-life crisis? This Brooklyn chef thinks so<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/magazine\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"fakemink\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/0-752-2399-1596\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439649.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">Buy Dazed Magazine<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/article\/69779\/1\/the-rise-of-esdeekid-tracks-gucci-afterparty-aw26-milan\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Gucci_Dazed_270226-29-SzymonStepniak\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/0-733-1366-908\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439451.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">The rise of EsDeeKid in 5 tracks<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"swiper-slide list-element\">\n<div class=\"scard-latest__section\">\n<div class=\"card-latest__wrapper\"><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/69804\/1\/why-micro-apartments-are-on-the-rise-housing-crisis-renting-london\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"1193876\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/0-1-2000-1330\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439994.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">\u2018It\u2019s super claustrophobic\u2019: Would you live in a micro-apartment?<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/69700\/1\/palestine-comedy-club-documentary-alaa-shehada\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Palestine Comedy Club\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/0-504-1997-1328\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/8\/1438110.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">This doc follows 6 Palestinian comics risking their lives on tour<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/69794\/1\/tiktok-figure-skater-laine-on-ice-dubin\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Laine Dubin\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/0-484-1179-784\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439851.jpeg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">Figure skater Laine Dubin wants you to go outside and get a hobby<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"swiper-slide list-element\">\n<div class=\"scard-latest__section\">\n<div class=\"card-latest__wrapper\"><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/69745\/1\/say-halo-to-the-young-scots-behind-the-gaelic-revival-scotland-celtic-language\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Gaelic revival scotland\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/0-2-3000-1995\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/9\/1439338.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">Say h\u00e0lo to the young Scots behind the Gaelic revival<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/69690\/1\/8-books-novels-wuthering-heights-annie-ernaux-anna-karenina-henry-james\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"WHE-490-10_112_B281_2\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/307-0-2078-1382\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/8\/1438052.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">9 books to read if you loved Wuthering Heights (the novel, not the film)<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/69729\/1\/palestine-action-ban-high-court-what-happens-next\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"GettyImages-2233345701\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/0-320-683-454\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/8\/1438558.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">The fight against the Palestine Action ban isn\u2019t over<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"newsletter-inline\" data-newsletter hidden>\n<div class=\"newsletter-small\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<h1 class=\"newsletter-title\">Escape the algorithm! Get The Drop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"meta-row\">\n<p class=\"meta\">Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"confirmation\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p class=\"confirmation-title\">Thank you. You have been subscribed<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Robert Plunket \u2013 or Bob, in company \u2013 always suspected that he was going to get rediscovered, but he\u2019s a little surprised, at 80, that he\u2019s alive to see it. \u201cI thought it would be after I was dead,\u201d he tells me from his home in Florida; \u201cit\u2019d make a better story if I was dead. But as it is, I\u2019m still alive. So, you\u2019re stuck with me.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>We\u2019re talking about <\/span><em><span>Love Junkie<\/span><\/em><span>, the second of his two novels, which was originally published in 1992. Plunket was at the centre of the New York gay scene in the 70s and 80s (he even played a \u2018timid gay guy\u2019 in Scorsese\u2019s <\/span><em><span>After Hours<\/span><\/em><span>); his books, both satirical comedies of manners with dazzlingly immoral protagonists, have a small, dedicated fanbase, and might have even been an influence on <\/span><em><span>Seinfeld<\/span><\/em><span>. Yet, despite this acclaim, Plunket\u2019s books fell out of print, and he decamped to Sarasota to become a gossip columnist.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Plunket\u2019s fans have, however, finally succeeded in bringing him back to public notice, and both his books have now been reissued in gorgeous, colourful editions with Penguin Modern Classics. <\/span><em><span>Love Junkie<\/span><\/em><span>\u2019s reissue, in particular, is one of the most exciting things to happen to contemporary fiction in years. It tells the story of Mimi Smithers, a bored, mildly evil Westchester housewife who falls into a circle of New York gays and becomes infatuated with Joel, a professional hustler. Amidst the comedy of Mimi\u2019s descent into madness, the novel silently fills in the background with a sharply detailed portrait of the start of the AIDS crisis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span>Love Junkie<\/span><\/em><span>\u2019s sensibility is usefully different to more contemporary queer fiction, but it also gains a lot from critical lenses that have been honed more in recent years. (Plunket brings up the book\u2019s trans resonances unprompted: \u201cIn retrospect, though I didn\u2019t intend it, there\u2019s definitely this transgender quality to the whole book.\u201d) Good news, then, that we are \u2018stuck with\u2019 Plunket; he has lost neither his charm nor his critical eye, and he\u2019s working on his first new fiction in over three decades.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"3714dc44-e37b-4e3b-83c7-b40400dbb18f\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/326\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/0\/1440293.jpg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"0.65\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"9780241795095-jacket-large\" class=\"img\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/326\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/0\/1440293.jpg\" width=\"326\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"credit\">Penguin Modern Classics<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p>Dazed <span>spoke to Plunket over Zoom about sexual obsession, the book\u2019s influences, and the psychology of hustling.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>I love the title <\/strong><strong><em>Love Junkie<\/em><\/strong><strong>. There are a bunch of different ways you can parse it. I don\u2019t know if Mimi\u2019s primarily a junkie for love, but it depends on how you use \u2018love.\u2019 Why did you call it that?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>I was watching television, and there was a talk show about women who fell in love too much, and how it caused issues in their lives, and they\u2019re all sitting around talking, and one of them says, \u2018I feel like a love junkie.\u2019 And a lightbulb went off.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Love Junkie <\/em><\/strong><strong>is, in some ways, out of step with what queer fiction tends to do now, but I think it\u2019s a welcome out-of-step-ness. We have so much very sincere, very authentic, very trauma-informed contemporary gay and queer fiction. Getting a spiky comedy of manners feels like a gulp of cold water.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>I don\u2019t follow current gay fiction, but I certainly know what you mean. The more irreverent side, the side with an edge, doesn\u2019t seem to be there much right now.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>There will be people coming to <\/strong><strong><em>Love Junkie <\/em><\/strong><strong>now who won\u2019t have much of a frame of reference for what you\u2019re doing here. If someone reads <\/strong><strong><em>Love Junkie <\/em><\/strong><strong>and likes it, what would you tell them to go read? What were your influences at the time?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>There are two novels I can think of off the top of my head that deal with and explain the same period in gay history, and I would very highly recommend either. The first one is <\/span><em><span>Dancer from the Dance <\/span><\/em><span>by Andrew Holleran, and the second is <\/span><em><span>Faggots <\/span><\/em><span>by Larry Kramer. They\u2019re both from 1978, and they were the first \u2018legitimate\u2019 gay novels; they both proved that gay literature wasn\u2019t just for queer men. It was good enough for everybody.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>If a gay guy tells the story, then it\u2019s entirely a \u2018gay novel\u2019, and straight people are not interested in gay novels. So, I got the idea to have a woman telling it, which opens the story up to a much wider audience<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Mimi is a kind of slantwise narrator. She\u2019s both inside and outside of the gay milieu that the novel is describing. What do you think we get out of seeing it through Mimi\u2019s eyes, rather than through a gay guy\u2019s eyes? How does her positionality contribute to the story?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>Well, actually, I chose to have it narrated by a woman for a very crass commercial reason. If a gay guy tells the story, then it\u2019s entirely a \u2018gay novel\u2019, and straight people are not interested in gay novels. So, I got the idea to have a woman tell it, which opens the story up to a much wider audience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Then, once I decided that Mimi was going to be the narrator, I had to figure out how women think. That was very difficult. But it was fun. I asked a lot of women: \u2018What would you do in a situation like this?\u2019 And they gave me all kinds of crazy answers, which led me to believe that Mimi, in her naivete and her lack of comprehension about men and sex, is expressing something accurate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>I saw someone in a review say they didn\u2019t think Mimi made a convincing woman. And, well, she\u2019s clearly quite heightened, but I disagree. There\u2019s something real there.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>I hope so. I can see why people say that she doesn\u2019t make a convincing woman, but so what? She\u2019s still a great character, and hopefully she\u2019s fun to hang out with. And, though I didn\u2019t intend this at the time, there\u2019s this transgender quality to the whole book. You\u2019re playing with gender, and you\u2019re switching around, and you\u2019re looking at situations through a female eye, then a male eye, and perhaps through a transgender eye.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>100 per cent, there\u2019s a transgender effect there. Mimi\u2019s very readable as trans. I also love how Mimi is pursuing this very straight fantasy, but every step she takes to get to it seems to make her gayer? She leaves her husband, kills her dependent, trashes her house, and has lesbian sex multiple times, all in an attempt to get closer to Joel.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>I think that\u2019s the gay man in me coming out, in talking about the effects of sexual obsession, which is such a tricky subject. It\u2019s hard to explain. You either have it for somebody or you don\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"6d0b2982-3990-45d0-a14a-b40400e5bcd6\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1060\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/0\/1440347.jpg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.5\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"article00_large\" class=\"img\" height=\"707\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/786\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/0\/1440347.jpg\" width=\"1060\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"credit\">Hannah Philips<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><strong>Seeing some of the ways in which Mimi is deliberately deluding herself as to Joel\u2019s actions, it can make you think, <span>\u2018<\/span>I hope that\u2019s not me.<span>\u2019<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>Uh\u2026[<em>laughs<\/em>] It probably is you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>We should accept it.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>Now I\u2019m old, that doesn\u2019t happen to me anymore. And I do kind of miss it, you know? Those sexually obsessive relationships, they were a lot of fun. They usually don\u2019t last very long. But one of Joel\u2019s great gifts in the book is that he knows how to make that kind of relationship last long enough for him to get as much money out of it as he can.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>I love Joel as a character. He feels like this figure produced by the place where straight women\u2019s and gay men\u2019s fantasies meet. It can feel weird to act like straight women and gay men want the same things \u2013 writ large, they don\u2019t \u2013 but he\u2019s where they overlap.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>I didn\u2019t think of it like that, but I think you\u2019re right. And I think the reason is that Joel has this talent for sex. He understands how to use it; he understands how to make money from it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>It\u2019s interesting that he\u2019s not always very good at the practicals of sex, though. But the fantasy seems to sustain itself enough that it doesn\u2019t necessarily matter.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>Maybe not, but he understands what the other person wants. He has a sixth sense for figuring out what they need, sexually. And sometimes they don\u2019t even know. But he can put his finger on it. I saw that firsthand, because my lover was a hustler, and he had clients and he had to figure out how to make money off of them. He figured out what they wanted more than anything, and then he gave it to them. It really is a skill. And, of course, you\u2019ve got to have the looks. But he worked at it, five hours a day, he was lifting weights, doing exercise, keeping himself in perfect condition.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>What did the research look like for <\/strong><strong><em>Love Junkie<\/em><\/strong><strong>? Were you drawing mainly on areas that you knew a lot about anyway? There\u2019s an encyclopaedic understanding of furniture in this book.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>I didn\u2019t need to research the furniture; that\u2019s all stuff that I\u2019ve been obsessed with my entire life. And, well, everything in the book really happened. You know? I changed the names, I switched the situations around and fictionalised them, but everything in it happened.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>The disastrous film production, which was based on real stuff?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>Oh, yeah, that happened.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Did people get annoyed at you when the book came out, or did they consider it more fair use, using that kind of circulating gossip?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>No, nobody got annoyed at me, believe it or not. Of course, most of them had died. Which sounds awful, but it\u2019s what happened. There was a woman I knew quite well who had many of Mimi\u2019s characteristics. I think she was a little annoyed, but, you know, she forgave me. Presumably, she didn\u2019t want to bring it up because she was pretending that it wasn\u2019t her. So I somehow came out of it without making any enemies. I was surprised.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>I don\u2019t think people realise how dangerous sex is [&#8230;] It can kill you, and it always gets you in trouble<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>You didn\u2019t design the book to reappear during this period. If you\u2019re presented with the question of how <\/strong><strong><em>Love Junkie <\/em><\/strong><strong>can speak to, like, gay life now, conditions now, does that preoccupy you? Or is your vision for the republication different to that?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>I\u2019m not really interested in whether it does or not, because it\u2019s a period piece. It\u2019s very specifically about AIDS. It\u2019s like writing about Vienna in 1938: the horrible thing is about to happen, and nobody quite realises it yet, and their doom is being set up. And that\u2019s such a very specific and unusual situation. It couldn\u2019t happen again in that way, because when AIDS happened, it was out of the blue and no-one could have imagined such a thing. Now we know the story behind it. But when it happened, it was an incredible shock.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Why is it particularly pressing to read about AIDS in the 80s now?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>Well, I hate to tell you the first thought that popped into my mind, which is, \u2018because it\u2019s fun.\u2019 [<em>laughs<\/em>] Or, you know, I made it fun. It\u2019s important because I don\u2019t think people realise how dangerous sex is. We pretend it\u2019s this wonderful thing where you fall in love with somebody and you have this intimate moment of sharing and you understand humanity, and infinity, and God\u2019s grace in the world for the first time. But it can also kill you. It can kill you, and it always gets you in trouble. Now, maybe you\u2019ve been lucky and it hasn\u2019t gotten you in trouble, but it\u2019s always gotten me in trouble.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>It\u2019s gotten me in some trouble.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Robert Plunket: <\/strong>It\u2019s a very dangerous part of being a human being. And you have to be careful with it. That\u2019s certainly the lesson I learned.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Love Junkie <em><span>is out now<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"newsletter-inline-last\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-small\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<h1 class=\"newsletter-title\">Escape the algorithm! Get The Drop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"meta-row\">\n<p class=\"meta\">Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"confirmation\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p class=\"confirmation-title\">Thank you. You have been subscribed<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/69819\/1\/love-junkie-robert-plunket-author-novel-penguin-modern-classics-interview&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/844\/0-0-844-563\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/0\/1440579.jpg&#8221;] Studio 54 (Film Still) March\u00a0 6,\u00a0 2026 Life &amp; Culture \/ Q+A Life &amp; Culture \/ Q+A Love Junkie: The must-read cult novel about the 80s New York gay scene To mark the book\u2019s reissue with Penguin Modern Classics, we speak to author Robert Plunket about gender fluidity, the Aids crisis, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,76],"class_list":["post-1810865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-dazeddigital-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1810865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1810865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1810865\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1810865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1810865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1810865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}