I want to be Mindy Kaling’s best friend. If you’ve ever met me, this isn’t necessarily a secret. I’ll gladly sing her praises any day. She was a fifth of the featured authors in my master’s thesis, though she alone accounted for much more than a fifth of the pages. If you’ve read anything else I’ve written for The Ontarion, you’ll know that I’ve been counting down the days to her sophomore literary effort since the beginning of 2015. My anticipation was, I believe, more than justified, and Why Not Me? met and exceeded the expectations of my wildest dreams. This is a book with proffers for all; for anyone who has ever doubted themselves, for anyone who has ever found that they didn’t belong, for anyone who has ever felt “less than.” Sure, Kaling has a pretty unique, acquired-taste-style voice, and if you’re less interested in the mysteries behind fashion and beauty rituals, you might have to read between the lines, but her newest effort is, at its core, a love letter to working hard and doing amazing things and still feeling like a fish out of water, regardless.
Kaling makes you feel at home in her words, serving up her signature dish: the perfect blend of self-deprecation and confidence, of wit and charm, of sarcasm and sincerity. She leaves her reader —“probably a woman [or] a gay man” or someone who thought this was “the Malala book”—with side splitting laughter and a simultaneous “aha” moment. Yes, perhaps her intended audience is niche, but she also knows enough about the human condition to pull off a joke about Spanx and a complex argument about racial perceptions in the same sentence.
Though she is certainly funny—like the leading lady’s best friend in every romantic comedy who is always prepared with the perfect one-liner—it’s Kaling’s thoughts on what it means to work for what you want that stand out. “People talk about confidence without ever bringing up hard work,” she tells us, “ but I don’t understand how you could have self-confidence if you don’t do the work. I work a lot. Like, a lot […] I’m usually hyper-prepared for whatever I set my mind to do, [which is what] makes me feel deserving of attention and professional success, when that’s what I’m seeking.”
Of course, she wouldn’t be the Kaling I know and love if she didn’t finish off the meal with a side of poignant, memorable, take-it-home-with-you-and-eat-it-later cheese: “If you believe in yourself and work hard,” she tells us, “you have a fighting shot at having your dreams come true.”