Shelf Life: Jennette McCurdy
Welcome to Shelf Life, ELLE’s books column! In this ongoing segment, authors share an assortment of their most memorable reads: the books that have shaped their lives as writers and as human beings. Every month, ELLE will feature authors with a new and upcoming release of their own, asking them which stories have impacted their work most—and which stories they recommend you pick up next. Whether you’re on the hunt for a book to move you, calm you, or change you, consider a recommendation from the writers in our series. Perhaps one of their favorite titles will become one of yours, too.
If there was ever any doubt whether the narrative command Jennette McCurdy displayed in her bestselling memoir I’m Glad My Mom Died might translate to fiction, let it be henceforth put to rest. The former Nickelodeon star’s debut novel, Half His Age, is as unapologetic—and undeniable—as its young protagonist, Waldo, whose fixation on her married, middle-aged creative writing teacher soon spirals into an intense, all-consuming affair.
In short, staccato chapters and equally short, unpretentious sentences, McCurdy lays Waldo’s adolescent desires bare. (“I’ve never wanted someone’s gross parts before,” McCurdy writes from Waldo’s perspective. “But with him, I want it all. Even the gross parts. Especially the gross parts.”) There is no attempt to smooth over the taboo in Half His Age—the opening paragraph details cunnilingus between Waldo and a fellow high school student—and McCurdy treats Waldo’s want with an almost reverent seriousness. Sex, the author writes, is the “one place” where “it’s okay” for Waldo to want as much as she does. “The one place where my needs aren’t too big and all of my yearning is acceptable. The one place where I can show how deep the well is within me. The void. The one place where I can beg and whine and scream to have it be filled.”
Half His Age, you might infer, is not a particularly breezy read. That, McCurdy says, is exactly the point. She compares her debut to Tom Perrotta’s 2017 novel Mrs. Fletcher—about a middle-aged woman with a porn addiction—and last year’s Good Girl by Aria Aber, about a 19-year-old woman’s coming-of-age in Berlin. Asked what she might write were she to blurb her own book, McCurdy jokes, “Oh God, blurbing somebody else’s book is tough enough. Now you’re gonna make me blurb my own?” But she ultimately comes up with this: “Propulsive, stirring, charged. This book will make you angry not only at every time you humiliated yourself for a man, but also just at men.”
She tosses in a caveat: “Also, I do know there are kind men out there. I am with one of them.” Still, the “rage I felt about past experiences with unavailable men”—such as one she details in her memoir, when she was a teenager in a relationship with a much older iCarly crew member—is woven into every one of Half His Age’s 88 chapters, many of them no longer than a page or two. It’s a quick read, but one the former actress hopes will leave a lasting impression.
McCurdy, 33, lives in Pasadena, California; was raised as a Mormon; began acting at 6 years old; quit acting at age 24; likes to write at least six days a week; loves a “multi-beverage situation” while she’s working; has had to change her phone number “a few times” in the wake of her memoir’s massive success; and has already penned a script for a potential Half His Age film adaptation, which she plans to direct. (I’m Glad My Mom Died is already in development as an Apple TV series, starring Jennifer Aniston in the role of McCurdy’s late mother. McCurdy serves as a co-showrunner with Ari Katcher.)
After you’ve read Half Her Age—or perhaps as a prerequisite before you dive in—peruse her book recommendations below.
The book that:
…helped me become a better writer:
Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski. I’m obsessed with his sentence structure. I love non-flowery, simple sentences.
…I wish I’d written:
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh.
…I tell people I’ve read, but I haven’t actually read (yet):
I’ve only read half of Madame Bovary. I know, I know…
…I wish I could read again for the first time:
Fireworks Every Night by Beth Raymer. It’s vivid, with beautiful, messy characters.
…I’ve re-read the most:
In recent years, Everything Nothing Someone by Alice Carriere. Four times.
…is my favorite book from last year:
Flesh by David Szalay. Simple, clean sentences. Unbelievable storytelling.
…I’m most eager to read this year:
I’ve read an early copy of both of these and adore them, but I’m eager for others to read them: Go Gentle by Maria Semple and Kill Dick by Luke Goebel. They’re very different reads, but, ultimately, I fell in love with each protagonist, and that’s what hooked me.
…has the best love story:
Pride and Prejudice, of course.
…has the best setting:
There is only one possible answer to this question, and it’s Harry Potter.
…has the best cast of characters:
The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith.
…is the most performative for someone to read in public:
Infinite Jest. Please, put it down, sir.
Bonus questions:
If I could live in any library or bookstore in the world, it would be…
The New York Public Library.
If I could have dinner with one author, living or dead, it would be…
Roald Dahl or C.S. Lewis.
My ideal reading experience is…
By the fireplace with a vanilla tea, a cozy blanket, and a highlighter.