The May-December Affair in Novels: The Allure Versus the Perils
The May-December Affair in Novels: The Allure Versus the Perils
By Cindy Fazzi
Readers have always been fascinated by May-December relationships, judging by the wide appeal of novels like Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë) and Girl with a Pearl Earring (Tracy Chevalier). However, when the age gap is too huge, the relationship turns creepy, just like in The Lover (Marguerite Duras) and Lolita (Vladimir Nabokov).
My historical novel, My MacArthur, focuses on General Douglas MacArthur’s little-known May-December affair with a Filipino actress, Isabel Rosario Cooper, in the 1930s. Researching and writing about the relationship gave me a chance to take a closer look at this trope.
The Allure
Age gap fuels passion. The classic May-December relationship typically involves an older man and a much younger woman. In Jane Eyre, Jane is 18, while Edward Rochester is in his mid-30s. In Girl with a Pearl Earring, Griet is 19 to Johannes Vermeer’s 33. Likewise, in my novel, MacArthur is 50 and divorced when he meets Isabel, who’s 20 but pretending to be 16. In real life, MacArthur was indeed 50 when the relationship began, but nobody knows how old Isabel was. Some MacArthur historians speculated she was 16, but in all likelihood, she was at least 20 or 21. There’s conflicting information about her age. It’s possible she lied about it, just like so many actors do even today.
Power fuels attraction. In literary May-December affairs, the older person in the relationship is usually richer, more powerful, or famous and has something substantial to offer the younger person, who’s often portrayed as attractive. The MacArthur-Cooper affair fits the bill. In my novel and in real life, President Herbert Hoover appointed MacArthur as the U.S. Army chief of staff shortly after he first met Cooper. MacArthur became the youngest four-star general and one of America’s most powerful men. Meanwhile, Cooper struggled as an actress, singer, and vaudeville performer in fiction and in reality.
Brontë’s heroine, Jane, and Chevalier’s Griet are both poor working women. Jane is a governess at the Thornfield estate and she falls for the rich owner, Rochester. Griet is a maid who catches the attention of Vermeer, the illustrious Dutch painter. Griet is a fictional character. Vermeer is based on the real painter, or at least on the little information that exists about his personal life.
The Perils
Lopsided relationship is romanticized. In most fictional May-December relationships, the woman is emotionally or financially dependent (or both), as though such dependence makes the affair more romantic somehow. Since My MacArthur is based on real people, I didn’t have a choice but to portray the lopsided relationship between MacArthur and Cooper, though I didn’t romanticize the power imbalance between them.
They broke all the taboos at the time with their four-year relationship. He was white and she was biracial; her native Philippines was under the colonial rule of the United States, which MacArthur served as a high-ranking military official. While MacArthur risked a political scandal and jeopardized his soaring military career when he wooed Cooper, she paid a higher price to be with him, judging by the outcome of their careers and lives.
Blurred line between romance and child abuse. The publication of Lolita and The Lover pushed the envelope. When Lolita, about a middle-aged man’s predatory relationship with a 12-year-old girl, was published in the United States in 1958, it drew explosive criticisms and public outrage. The novel romanticized Humbert Humbert’s pedophilia when he claims that he “loves” Lolita.
The Lover, Duras’s autobiographical novel, also shocked readers when it was published in 1984. It’s about a 15-year-old French girl’s affair with a wealthy 27-year-old Chinese man in Indochina in the 1930s. Unlike Lolita, however, the novel is not narrated from a man’s point of view and it’s not erotic. The unnamed heroine, whose mother owes huge debts, admits that she accepted her lover’s advances out of financial necessity. Regardless of the varied opinions about the May-December affairs in these books, today both are highly acclaimed best-sellers.
In real life, May-December relationships are not any more special than relationships involving couples in the same age bracket. But in literature, the trope will always captivate readers with its promise of drama, glamour, and passion. I hope readers agree that My MacArthur fulfills that expectation.
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About the Author
Cindy Fazzi is a Filipino-American writer and former Associated Press reporter. My MacArthur, was published by Sand Hill Review Press in November 2018. The novel was named a quarterfinalist in this year’s ScreenCraft Cinematic Book Competition.
Fazzi writes romance novels under the pen name Vina Arno. Her first romance book, In His Corner, was published by Lyrical Press, while her second romance novel, Finder Keeper of My Heart, was published by Painted Hearts Publishing. Her short stories have been published in Snake Nation Review, Copperfield Review, and SN Review.
About My MacArthur
The year is 1930. The place: Manila. Douglas MacArthur is the most powerful man in the Philippines, a United States colony. He’s fifty years old, divorced, and he falls in love at first sight with a ravishing young Filipino woman. He writes her a love note on the spot. Her name is Isabel Rosario Cooper, an aspiring movie actress. One glance at his note and she thinks of him as my MacArthur.
MacArthur pursues his romantic obsession even though he’s breaking numerous taboos. She reciprocates his affection because he could open doors for her financially struggling family. That MacArthur happens to be handsome compensates for the fact that he’s as old as her father.
When MacArthur is appointed the U.S. Army chief of staff, he becomes the youngest four-star general and one of America’s most powerful men. Out of hubris, he takes Isabel with him to America without marrying her.
Amid the backdrop of the Great Depression, MacArthur and Isabel’s relationship persists like “a perilous voyage on turbulent waters,” as she describes it. In 1934, after four years of relationship, MacArthur leaves Isabel for fear of a political scandal.
The general goes on to become the iconic hero of World War II, liberating the Philippines and rebuilding Japan. Isabel drifts in Los Angeles unable to muster the courage to return to Manila. As he ascends to his special place in American history, she plunges into a dark place.
My MacArthur is available here:
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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, On Writing
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