Over the holidays, I was in the mood to read something light and fun. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? fit the bill.
Mindy Kaling is a writer, acto
Over the holidays, I was in the mood to read something light and fun. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? fit the bill.
Mindy Kaling is a writer, actor, director, and producer best-known for her roles on the TV series The Office (the American version) and The Mindy Project. Aside from having watched a dozen or so episodes of The Office, I didn’t know much about her. Like me, Kaling is of Tamil origin through her dad. There aren’t many South Asian women in North American TV shows and movies, so I was curious to learn more about her.
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? is composed of numerous short, memoir/diary-like essays on a variety of topics such as her family and childhood, her friends, her weight and body image, her dating life, and of course, her career in comedy. The book contains a lot of silly observations and goofy lists. Throughout, the tone is that of an enthusiastic friend chatting with you over a glass of wine. Somehow Kaling is able to give you the impression she is gossiping, without ever been mean about anyone and coming across as modest yet confident—I totally get why other reviewers have written that they want to be her friend!
That said, there were some things in the book that irked me. One of them is that Kaling calls herself a “chubby” person, while being a size eight. She uses this self-proclaimed moniker in a chapter called “Chubby for Life” that includes her own definitions of terms used to describe fat people. Personally, I didn’t find this chapter funny and it is of questionable taste, especially considering that body positivity is such a popular topic nowadays.
I enjoyed the essays “Best Friend Rights and Responsibilities” (“I will be there for you during your horrible break-up, or getting fired from your job, or if you’re just having a bad couple of months or year. I will hate it and find you really tedious, but I promise I won’t abandon you.” p. 83) and “Guys Need to Do Almost Nothing to Be Great” (“Bring wine or chocolate to everything. People love when guys do that. Not just because of the gift, but because it is endearing to imagine you standing in line at Trader Joe’s before the party.” p. 166). These essays are not only witty, but actually contain good advice! Some of the other essays are a bit too silly for my taste, but overall it was an entertaining book to read over the holidays in my pyjamas.
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