“Half His Age” by Jennette McCurdy a Novel with Soft Porn and Hard Facts

There’s a reason “Half His Age” is on the New York Times Best Seller’s list, the author, Jennette McCurdy, is a talented writer. Actually, she’s a very talented writer. This is McCurdy’s second book making the NYT list of good reads. Her other work, “I’m Glad My Mom Died” was a provocative memoir of her childhood.

A familiar face to fans of ‘Sam & Cat’ with Ariana Grande, ‘Malcom in the Middle‘, Nickelodeon’s ‘iCarly’ and Zoey 101‘, the pop-sensation’s formative years were spent in the spotlight.  Her family secrets however, grew in the shadows.

Jennette McCurdy was managed into professional compliance and a serious eating disorder by her stage-door mom Debra McCurdy.

At 18, on the set of iCarley, the young actress had a consensual relationship with a 32 year old co-worker. Although legal, Jennette described the affair as creepy and twisted.  What was never consensual was the psycho-sexual abuse her mother Debra justified as a form of maternal care. For Mrs. McCurdy examining her daughter’s breasts and vagina were expressions of love not sexual assaults.

Fundamentals of those abuses move “Half His Age” from cover to cover.  The novel introduces readers to Waldo, a 17 year old Alaskan girl bored by; books, BFF’s and boys her own age. Complying with academic obligations, an after-school job and mothering her narcissistic mother’s lust for the man-du-jour Waldo lives an emotionally frigid life until she ignites the passions of a horny and very married teacher, Mr. Korgy.

McCurdy;s novel is a back-seat, un-zipped odyssey of trailer parks, cheap lingerie and fast-foods.

While Waldo is coming-of-age Mr. Korgy is coming-all-over a mid-life crisis.  “Half His Age” is a vehicle for soft-porn that drives on a dark road of flirtation and giving no-fucks. Chapters tour the neighborhoods of classism, pseudo-intellectualsim and the value of values.

McCurdy’s phrasing is sharp, her pacing is quick and her stylistic syntax moves this timely novel from soft-porn into a serious look at our cultural acceptance of moral decay.

It would be satisfying to say “Half His Age”  is the product of fantasy but that would deny the reality of Jennette’s traumas and our times. Written in the context of contested Epstein-esque revelations and our social compass pointing to institutions feigning ignorance of main-street molestations. Sadly, this novel isn’t novel at all. It spotlights dark shadows in our society.

In the end there is no climax, no redemptive awakening. Waldo personifies a pop-cultural heroine of sorts; demoralized, desensitized and unaware of real love.  

“She”  thinks “Half His Age”, a New York Times Best Seller, will leave readers with the bitter taste of cultural corrosion far too long kept secret in our communities. Maybe it’s time to talk about it.