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

September 1, 2017

Certain authors are their own best narrators--even more true for memoirs (think Roxane Gay, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Luvvie Ajayi). Here, Koul's accomplished reading comes with the bonus of regular vocal interjections from her father. With this first book, a collection of smart, sassy, revealing essays, BuzzFeed culture writer Koul presents her personal experiences as universally resonating; her youthful, earnest voice serves to enhance what's on the page. Caught between her parents' Kashmiri immigrant background and her Calgary birth and upbringing, Koul deftly uses humor as an effective balm in soothing uncomfortable generational, familial, cultural, and ethnic disconnects. She knows how to laugh at herself (a changing-room fiasco with the perfect skirt), but she's unblinkingly veracious about inequity ("shadism" in India) and rape culture ("the first time I was roofied"). Most compelling for today's media-addicted generation might be the two-week hiatus Koul took from Twitter--deleting her account--after a tweet about wanting to read more work by nonwhite, nonmale writers provoked a vicious barrage, including death threats. VERDICT Koul definitively has her say--although her irresistible father still has the sweet satisfaction of getting the last word.--Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 13, 2017
Simultaneously uproarious and affecting, the personal essays in Buzzfeed contributor Koul’s debut explore the nuances of life as a first-generation Canadian with Indian parents, from phobias, guilt trips, and grudges to the drama of interracial dating. She provides insight into the experience of traveling to her parents’ homeland, undergoing the inverse of their assimilation, and the conflicting desire to maintain and amend cultural traditions (for example, she dislikes weeklong wedding celebrations with alcohol restrictions). She discerns the “shadism” of India’s caste system and its more benign cultural quirks, like every woman being given the title of “aunt” (“Mom, why do you have forty sisters? Was your mother a sea turtle?”). There is an occasional essay of sheer slapstick, as when Koul describes getting stuck inside a coveted garment in a boutique dressing room (“I flew too close to the sun with this skirt,” she remarks sadly), but she also reflects poignantly on race, sexism, and body image issues. She includes a surprisingly sympathetic judgment of misogynist internet trolls and a polemic against rape culture that contains the unfortunate phrase “the first time I was roofied.” The specifics of Koul’s life are unique, but the overarching theme of inheritance is universal, particularly the vacillation between struggling against becoming one’s parents and the begrudging acceptance that their ways might not be so bad. Koul’s deft humor is a fringe benefit. Agent: Ron Eckel, Cooke Agency.