Why not me?
2015
- conduct of life
- adulthood
- humor
- biography
- actors
- actors, biography
- humor, form, essays
- nyt:combined-print-and-e-book-nonfiction=2015-10-04
- american wit and humor
- autobiographies
The story
Hollywood starlet Mindy Kaling shares her ongoing, laugh-out-loud journey to find contentment and excitement in her adult life.
What it’s like
Brisk, conversational first-person voice that reads like a friend talking across a kitchen table, quick jokes stacked on confessional asides, with short chapters and lists that make it easy to dip in and out. The sensory world is domestic and specific: a cramped apartment, a shopping trip, a late night on a set, the small rituals of getting dressed for a party she half-dreads. Its vibe is wry, warm, and self-deprecating, with an undercurrent of earnest curiosity about what a good life looks like. It suits a lazy weekend afternoon, a long commute, or a bedtime read when you want to laugh without having to concentrate. The humor is the main register, with sincere reflection threaded through it, and the emotional arc is a woman getting more comfortable with her own ambitions and her singleness. Language is frank and occasionally crude, with brief references to sex and dating, but there is no violence and nothing bleak. It is for readers who enjoy memoir-as-comedy, who like essays that feel like gossip with a point, and who want something light, funny, and reassuring.
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