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BOOKSHELF

Books’ Teen Heroine and Life on 116th Street

By Yelena Shuster ’09

Megan McCafferty ’95

Photo: Jerry BaUer

Megan McCafferty ’95 leads two lives that share a preference for speckled black and white composition notebooks.

McCafferty, 33, is a popular author of young adult novels whose series featuring 20-year-old heroine Jessica Darling has sold more than 300,000 copies worldwide. Armed in case inspiration strikes, McCafferty carries a composition notebook with her at all times. Jessica shares her cynical reflections of the world in her own speckled composition notebook.

“I fully involve myself in the process of imagining what it’s like to be Jessica Darling. It’s sort of like method acting,” McCafferty says. The method has created a tone that’s irreverent and endearing, making Jessica a teenage girl’s anti-hero since her appearance in 2001’s Sloppy Firsts: A Novel (Three Rivers Press), revealing high school hypocrisy and never settling in her quest for love and education.

McCafferty felt alienated at her high school in Bayville, N.J., and wanted to craft a heroine who could have a timeless influence, like Holden Caulfield of J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye . After finding her voice in creative writing classes and learning some of the tricks of the publishing industry through several jobs in magazine editing, McCafferty published her American Library Association and New York Public Library-lauded debut. Its sequel, Second Helpings: A Novel (Three Rivers Press), became a Booklist editor’s pick for one of 2003’s best novels. In 2004, McCafferty edited Sixteen: Stories About That Sweet and Bitter Birthday (Three Rivers Press), a compilation of short stories.

In this year’s Charmed Thirds: A Novel (Crown) , McCafferty’s biggest commercial success, Jessica is now attending the College, dealing with dilemmas that shift from the false friendships and unrequited loves of high school to the identity crises and value judgments of college.

McCafferty, meanwhile, has gained notoriety for a different reason: a plagiarism scandal. Earlier this year, Harvard student Kaavya Viswanathan was praised for her debut novel, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life — until McCafferty’s publisher accused her of plagiarism. In April, a fan alerted McCafferty to paragraphs from Viswanathan’s book that were virtually identical to paragraphs from McCafferty’s first two novels. McCafferty read Viswanathan’s book and by the end was sobbing, finding everything from turns of phrase to entire scenes that were taken from her novels.

Strangely enough, McCafferty had been plagiarized before. At 15, she had one of her poems published in Seventeen and later used by a girl to win a state poetry contest. Plagiarism of McCafferty’s books was far more serious, however: After weeks of deliberating the case, Viswanathan’s publisher recalled her book.

McCafferty credits her family's support with enabling her to handle the situation. "They are probably the best therapy for the whole thing," she says.

Motherhood brought McCafferty a more structured writing schedule, as she now regularly writes from 8 a.m.- 1 p.m. Though she relishes family life, McCafferty is emphatic about maintaining a separation and does not write about her family.

The same limitation does not hold true for her Columbia experiences. Charmed Thirds follows Jessica’s growth as a Columbia student and is McCafferty’s tribute to the University. References range from mentions of Furnald and Wallach to discussion of the Core Curriculum’s value. “Writing this book reminded me how important going to Columbia was,” McCafferty says. “Going there changed my life.” An English major who transferred from the University of Richmond, McCafferty calls it “the opportunity to study at one of the greatest universities in the world.”

McCafferty remains connected to the College as a member of the Alumni Representative Committee, interviewing prospective students in Princeton, N.J. She happily recalls life in 9A Wallach with her suitemates, recording the Clefhangers anniversary CD and meeting her best friend, Monica Ryan ’95, an assistant U.S. attorney who was maid of honor at her wedding.

Saying of Jessica and others in the books that she’s “not done with these people yet,” McCafferty is working on her forth novel in the series, which will deal with changing definitions of what it means to be an adult. McCafferty, however, exhibits none of Jessica’s angst. With a caring family and 450,000 books in print worldwide, she is content. “I like being in my 30s. It’s a really good time,” she says. “I feel like I’m still young but also feel I have learned from my mistakes.”

Perhaps her heroine is on the same trajectory.

Read more about McCafferty at her website.

Yelena Shuster ’09 plans to major in comparative literature and society. This is her first article for CCT.

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