Millennial Memoirs

Former Nickelodeon star Jennette McCurdy writes about her life as a child star, a job she never really wanted, but her mother insisted that she did. What’s more, McCurdy shares how her mother was incredibly abusive, forcing McCurdy to submit to intimate inspections of her body, even into her teen years, and restricting McCurdy’s diet to keep her looking younger longer. McCurdy’s reflection on her mother can be very clinical, removed from the emotions of the event, which reflects how she kept herself from thinking too deeply about her and her mother’s relationship. But, after her mother dies from cancer, McCurdy must confront the trauma from her childhood if she is ever to truly move on.

In both her prose and her audiobook performance, Jia Tolentino has an excellent narrative voice. In every essay, I feel like I’m sitting with her in a cafe listening to her talk to me about her time on a reality show, or about how expensive yoga pants represent some key issues with capitalism. While I may not have been interested in these topics if I had heard about them any other way, Tolentino’s writing makes me fascinated in whatever she wants to write about. Her vivid writing makes me committed to learning more about her ideas. I will pick up whatever Tolentino decides to write next.