One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter in Crazy Challenge Connection

Jun 30, 2017 Chaitra rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, essay

This is such a departure for my fiction reading self, but I'm glad it's a book I picked up. Scaachi (I usually refer to authors by their last names, but Scaachi has such an awesome first name) has some really good things to say, and she talks about them in a humorous manner. I had heard of her Twitter fight with Yiannopoulos and his followers, but it didn't immediately register that I was reading her book until she dealt with it in Mute. And that's my favorite essay of the whole bunch, because i This is such a departure for my fiction reading self, but I'm glad it's a book I picked up. Scaachi (I usually refer to authors by their last names, but Scaachi has such an awesome first name) has some really good things to say, and she talks about them in a humorous manner. I had heard of her Twitter fight with Yiannopoulos and his followers, but it didn't immediately register that I was reading her book until she dealt with it in Mute. And that's my favorite essay of the whole bunch, because it's heartfelt, it shows her at her most vulnerable, and it's topical. I also dearly loved Anyway, and all her descriptions of her parents. I love her dad, and if Scaachi wrote a book only about her dad, I'd buy it. Because I'll obviously be him when my son is a bit older and can roll his eyes effectively: "I'll be here, staring into the abyss". Hell yes.

I'm an Indian and I have the some of the same issues she does, especially the weird as hell body issues (if it's any consolation, we supposedly wrinkle a lot less), except I also felt like I was looking at myself in a fun-house mirror. That probably has to do with the fact that my parents were never as complicated and dramatic as hers, and my family's traditions not as rigid. I married the guy I chose, same religion, different caste, and not a single fuck was given. I've never been more aware of how lucky I am to be born into my family. The one thing I really did think was dissonant was when Scaachi spoke of India. What I mean is, when she describes her experience as an outsider in India, she'd be speaking as my son would - if we ended up staying in the US long enough for him to consider himself a first generation American. It's not a bad thing, but he would be seeing India through a very filtered, very narrow lens. It was interesting to read about it, but I'd also never heard of several of the things mentioned - that dark skinned Indians weren't employed in banks (my mom is dark skinned and she worked for 35+ years), that men dressed up as women because women couldn't dance in front of men (that's truly weird unless I misinterpreted it in some way), and the torture instruments in the name of traditional dress (I didn't have to wear the dangly earrings, or the safety pins in my head, thankfully it's not a custom in any but a small part of India).

However, it's only a couple of essays in a great collection, and even those I didn't disagree with entirely. I liked Scaachi's humor, her prose, her insight, and mostly, her dad. Even though he's dramatic and if he were mine I wouldn't it for stand for two seconds. ...more

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