I'm Glad My Mom Died
December 27, 2022 3:39 PM - Subscribe
I'm Glad My Mom Died is a memoir by American former actress and singer Jennette McCurdy based on her one-woman show of the same name. The book is about her career as a child actress and her difficult relationship with her abusive mother who died in 2013. [from wikipedia]
Highly recommend the audiobook version, read by McCurdy herself.
Highly recommend the audiobook version, read by McCurdy herself.
I'm also too old to know who Jennette McCurdy is an an actress, but I'm just the right age to have seen Drew Barrymore's public spiral and recovery. Several months ago this interview from Drew's show got fed to me by an algorithm, I watched it, and immediately put the audiobook on hold at my library. I finally hit the top of the waitlist this week and I listened to the whole book today in one shot. Really, really good.
While I thankfully can't draw many parallels between her mom and mine, it was downright eerie hearing my own grandma's words coming out of her grandma, chapter after chapter.
posted by phunniemee at 5:34 PM on December 27, 2022 [5 favorites]
While I thankfully can't draw many parallels between her mom and mine, it was downright eerie hearing my own grandma's words coming out of her grandma, chapter after chapter.
posted by phunniemee at 5:34 PM on December 27, 2022 [5 favorites]
I'd never even heard of her before but I couldn't put the book down. Glad she's had a lot of really good therapy to get past a childhood that would mess anyone up. Great read.
posted by potrzebie at 5:41 PM on December 27, 2022
posted by potrzebie at 5:41 PM on December 27, 2022
My kid and I watched iCarley and Victorious on Nick when she was growing up (although not the short lived sequel starring McCurdy and Arianna Grande). I'm glad to hear that she's come out of that mess reasonably OK.
posted by Spike Glee at 6:19 AM on December 28, 2022
posted by Spike Glee at 6:19 AM on December 28, 2022
It really was a compelling read. She managed to walk the line of being reasonably unsparing in her writing without making me as a reader feel voyeuristic.
I watched her with my kid too. It's weird feeling somewhat retrospectively complicit in the whole thing. ugh.
posted by gaspode at 5:53 PM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
I watched her with my kid too. It's weird feeling somewhat retrospectively complicit in the whole thing. ugh.
posted by gaspode at 5:53 PM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
I watched iCarly with my kids as they were growing up and the thing I remember about it was envy. Mostly envy over their apartment in a clocktower where the face of the clock was their window to the city. What a cool spot. I also envied these kids who had gotten this hit show, both as part of the narrative with their web show, but true also of these two newcomers who played the leads. Just like so many Disney and Nickelodeon kids before them, their futures seemed bright.
But this book was a revelation. And what was revealed to me was not what was written, it was how. The familiar story of a fucked up childhood fueled by a damaged mother and an evil system wasn't a surprise, it was the discovery of McCurdy's actual voice. What a smart, erudite, self-aware, literary, engrossing, and funny, really funny book this is about nothing actually funny. What an amazing writer she turns out to be. Yeah, this surprised even me and is definitely on my 2022 top ten.
posted by Stanczyk at 11:52 AM on December 29, 2022 [4 favorites]
But this book was a revelation. And what was revealed to me was not what was written, it was how. The familiar story of a fucked up childhood fueled by a damaged mother and an evil system wasn't a surprise, it was the discovery of McCurdy's actual voice. What a smart, erudite, self-aware, literary, engrossing, and funny, really funny book this is about nothing actually funny. What an amazing writer she turns out to be. Yeah, this surprised even me and is definitely on my 2022 top ten.
posted by Stanczyk at 11:52 AM on December 29, 2022 [4 favorites]
Excellent book, pulled no punches.
I couldn’t help but laugh when she realized that her co-star on Sam & Cat was getting preferential treatment to do other projects while shooting the show when there was an entire episode where said co-star had been written out of the episode as “trapped in a box”, leaving her to act opposite a giant trunk.
posted by dr_dank at 5:56 PM on December 30, 2022 [1 favorite]
I couldn’t help but laugh when she realized that her co-star on Sam & Cat was getting preferential treatment to do other projects while shooting the show when there was an entire episode where said co-star had been written out of the episode as “trapped in a box”, leaving her to act opposite a giant trunk.
posted by dr_dank at 5:56 PM on December 30, 2022 [1 favorite]
I'm the wrong generation for iCarly, and don't usually read memoirs, and I liked this book a lot. Its emphasis on what it felt like was welcome, and helped me understand the act behind the acting, the way she had to suppress her sense of self, her changing body, her own needs and wants. Her last therapy appointment with Laura--it must have taken bravery, and a tremendous emotional effort, to be able to articulate what that one conversation exposed. I appreciate the work that went into being this candid and self-aware. And that it's well-written and darkly funny too? Well done, Jennette McCurdy.
posted by MonkeyToes at 3:10 PM on March 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by MonkeyToes at 3:10 PM on March 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
I hope she keeps writing because she's a really good writer. This reminded me of Lisa Brennan-Jobs' Small Fry. Painful but so artfully told.
posted by queensissy at 3:14 PM on September 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by queensissy at 3:14 PM on September 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
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I was not of the right age to know her as a child star but I'm glad it seems like she's come out OK on the other side. Or at least someone who is willing to work through the weird life she had. I'm excited to follow what she does next, if she wants to do anything else. She doesn't need to.
posted by edencosmic at 5:09 PM on December 27, 2022 [2 favorites]