Entertainment : Books & Poetry
Speakeasy interviews Sloppy Firsts author
By Susannah Elliott, Entertainment Editor
April 11, 2006 | 5:26 p.m.
In 2001, McCafferty introduced readers to Jessica Darling, the witty narrator of the author’s celebrated coming-of-age novels. Darling, originally created as a female counterpart to J.D. Salinger’s Holden Caulfield, has since gone off to college at Columbia University. Charmed Thirds follows her for three years, starting with the summer after her freshman year.
The Jessica Darling series has developed a very strong, almost cult following over the years, mostly through word of mouth. Fans keep up with McCafferty’s progress through her Web site, where she also started posting her own diary entries from her youth in her (retro)blog.
Speakeasy: The diary entries from your youth in your Web site’s (retro)blog reveal just how much of Jessica’s personality stems from your own. Were you ever worried that this might spoil the magic for your readers?
Megan McCafferty: Actually, I thought that it would do the opposite; it would show readers where I end and Jessica begins. Thematically, our writing is similar. But in content there is very little overlap. I can only think of one partially self-plagiarized entry — about Valentine’s Day — that I lifted directly from my diary and put into Jessica’s. I thought that readers would confirm that yes, I can relate to Jessica’s troubles, but also see how much effort went into turning her into a fully-evolved person in her own right. With every book, I’m relying far less on my personal experiences and more on my imagination.
SE: How did you develop Jessica’s voice? Is it purely from your own mind and old diaries as in your (retro)blog, or did you pull inspiration from other writers or people you have known?
MM: Jessica’s voice is certainly an extension of own, but she’s her own person. She says and does things I would never say or do -- then or now. My journals were my primary source materials. They helped me get back into tumultuous mindset of a sixteen year old girl, an age when the tiniest event takes on monumental importance.
Then I moved on to spying. I’m still a chronic eavesdropper. Whenever I go to the mall, the movies or wherever, I listen in students’ conversations. This really isn’t an invasion of privacy because they’re usually shouting out their personal, private business -- it’s as if they want strangers to get involved. And until this year, my mom taught at my high school alma mater, so I sat in on a few of her classes and just observed how her students interacted with each other. Five minutes in her classroom provided me with all the particulars of suburban Jersey teendom at the turn of the new century.
SE: Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings are a very honest and realistic portrayal of a teenage girl’s coming-of-age, except for the character of Marcus Flutie – his type doesn’t seem to exist in the real world at all! What made you decide to put such a fantasy guy in a book designed to be so realistic?
MM: The thing you have to remember is that there’s no such thing as an unbiased narrator. Everything in these books comes from Jessica’s skewed point of view. So I agree that Marcus comes off as this impossibly seductive character, but that’s because Jessica sees him as such. Don’t we all idealize our crushes? I certainly mythologized all the guys who made me ache. Think of [it] this way: If another character made Jessica sweat -- Len, for example -- everything he does would be heavy with romantic significance. But she’s not into Len, so she ignores his overtures. I imagine there’s some other nameless girl in the Pineville universe who watches Len and writes about him passionately, obsessively.
SE: When you’re writing, do you have an image of the average reader in your head? What type of person do you imagine being a reader of the Jessica Darling series?
MM: I wrote the type of book that I enjoy reading, and I happen to love teen angst. I figured that Jessica would appeal to anyone who, like me, felt like an outsider in high school, whether that reader was still suffering through those years, or had graduated long ago.
But there’s no such thing as “the average reader.” For example, there’s a fourteen year old girl I’m friendly with. She’s smart, sharp, sarcastic. Sometimes she talks too much. She doesn’t wear makeup and she’s usually in the T-shirt and shorts she wears for lacrosse practice. She’s friends with the alterna-boys, but she doesn’t just sit and giggle on the sidelines, she grabs a skateboard and grinds along with them. I’m not surprised that she identifies with Jessica.
Her sister is also smart, but you would never know it from the way she screeches about her three favorite topics: her “fat” ass, fashion, and the opposite sex. Whenever I see her around town, she’s either fiddling with her hair, reapplying her makeup or sneaking cigarettes. I know from very reliable sources that she is one of the most popular girls in her class. She told me that she “like, totally, totally get[s] Jessica.” All I could think was, “Wha-? Jessica would, like, totally, totally hate you.”
My point is, almost everyone feels like an outcast in high school, even when they’re not. And I think that’s why Jessica has such a broad appeal.
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Visit Megan McCafferty’s official Web site at: http://www.meganmccafferty.com