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

Essays

By: Scaachi Koul

Narrated by: Scaachi Koul

Length: 5 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

For listeners of Mindy Kaling, Jenny Lawson, and Roxane Gay, a debut collection of fierce and funny essays about growing up the daughter of Indian immigrants in Canada, "a land of ice and casual racism", by the irreverent, hilarious cultural observer and incomparable rising star 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 color, 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.

With a clear eye and biting wit, Scaachi Koul explores the absurdity of a life steeped in misery. And through these intimate, wise, and laugh-out-loud funny dispatches, a portrait of a bright new literary voice emerges.

©2017 Scaachi Koul (P)2017 Penguin Random House Canada

Critic reviews

" One Day We'll All Be Dead is an absolutely wonderful, impossible-not-to-love book. Whether writing about race or girlhood, the Internet or family, Scaachi Koul's writing makes each issue feel fresh and newfound. Hilarious but thoughtful, Koul draws you into her life and makes you never want to leave." (Jessica Valenti, New York Times best-selling author of Sex Object)

"Toronto journalist and BuzzFeeder Scaachi Koul has carved a niche for herself as a uniquely outspoken critic. As a writer of colour, her collection of essays offers her usual derisive wit and sharp take on a life caught between Western and Indian cultures, not just as a woman, but as someone keenly aware enough to know that the world is an outrage and we're just living in it." ( National Post)

I feel a bit robbed

I selected this book after reading the cover weeks ago at a book store. The synopsis was « 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. »
I have read a lot of Scaachi’s Buzzfeed articles and I like her writing in general.
I was interested to hear her perspective as I am an immigrant from Europe and I have had difficulties integrating in Canada.

Besides some pretty funny parts and a few pages about her childhood this book was kind of all over the place. I loved loved loved the part when she goes back to India and also feels like an outsider.
But honestly her university stories I don’t really care. We all got too drunk at 20, that’s not worth a book in my opinion.
Same as her twitter bullying or whatever. Do what I do, don’t have a twitter account.

I thought I was getting another perspective about the difficulties of making a life in Canada and most of the book ended up being the rant of someone who thinks their life is hilarious and super interesting. But it’s not really....