One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This will Matter - August 2018

[Kristie, Moderator]

Voted by members as our additional read for the Humor nominee.



One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter by Scaachi Koul

A collection of essays about growing up the daughter of Indian immigrants in Canada, "a land of ice and casual racism," by the cultural observer, Scaachi Koul.

In One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter, Scaachi deploys her razor-sharp humour to share her fears, outrages and mortifying experiences as an outsider growing up in Canada. Her subjects range from shaving her knuckles in grade school, to a shopping trip gone horribly awry, to dealing with internet trolls, to feeling out of place at an Indian wedding (as an Indian woman), to parsing the trajectory of fears and anxieties that pressed upon her immigrant parents and bled down a generation. Alongside these personal stories are pointed observations about life as a woman of colour, where every aspect of her appearance is open for critique, derision or outright scorn. Where strict gender rules bind in both Western and Indian cultures, forcing her to confront questions about gender dynamics, racial tensions, ethnic stereotypes and her father's creeping mortality--all as she tries to find her feet in the world.

[Reija]

I have read bunch of these type of books lately - woman, essays, memoir and I would say this is one of the best. There was nice bit India and Canada cultural stuff and genereally very relatable stuff, nothing too personal which I liked best (I'm bored reading writer's detailed lover history). Shopping trip was funny and Indian wedding was very different than Yes, My Accent Is Real: and Some Other Things I Haven't Told You which was my first climpse of that tradition.

I listened this in audio, she reads well and there was some other reader too which I think try to imitate her father? And it was short, I would like read even more of her.