A refreshing (but ultimately forgettable) print debut from one of today's influential voices of comedy.
It’s a given that anything written by Mindy Kaling will be hilarious. She’s authentic, relatable and has a great understanding of her voice as a writer. But though her new book, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), is hugely enjoyable, this combination doesn’t necessarily translate into much that could be considered memorable or especially insightful.
Though Kaling is best known for her Emmy-nominated role as incessantly chatty Kelly Kapoor on NBC’s The Office, for her first book—a sometimes-biographical collection of essays—she adamantly denies the oft-suggested typecasting that they are the same person.
To help with this distinction, Kaling offers clear boundaries for each. Kelly Kapoor, for example, would text while showering. Mindy Kaling would not. They both, however, would memorize their credit card numbers for online shopping.
Despite this help, the actual content of Is Everyone feels harder to distinguish. For every insightful chapter on authentic relationships or biographical reflection on body image, there are corresponding entries with titles like “The Exact Level of Fame I Want” and “These Are the Narcissistic Photos in My Blackberry” (which is exactly as described). Shopping tips interspersed with Carl Sagan references and karaoke etiquette suggestions can be found alongside Mark Driscoll-esque expectations for men and boys.
And it’s in this disconnection that the book falls a bit flat, written in a way that seems to lack effort rather than as effortless. Fortunately, Kaling’s wit covers over a multitude of filler, and the lightweight status of the book is easily forgiven because it’s so much fun to read.
This isn’t to suggest Kaling doesn’t have much to say, or that her story isn’t interesting or admirable. Her story is fairly predictable, in that through hard work, initiative and a focus on self-development for an extended period of time, she has rightfully earned her spot alongside those who have experienced far more conflicted paths to success. She may not have been slashed by a stranger as a child like Tina Fey or physically abused like Darrell Hammond (who both have also recently published memoirs), but this doesn’t diminish her accomplishments, even if they are less interesting to read about. Growing up in a family with high expectations, Kaling learned how to succeed from her immigrant professional parents, once refusing to take up knitting with her friends because she felt that presenting a finished scarf would be “like handing them a detailed backlog of [her] idleness.”
Of course, Kaling’s rise hasn’t been entirely linear. After graduating from Dartmouth, where she describes her immense accomplishments as akin to “freakin’ Jaws in a community swimming pool,” Kaling experienced several false starts after landing in New York with her best friends. Rather than immediately landing a gig writing for an award-winning syndicated show, her big-city experience started through babysitting and eating other people’s ice cream. Eventually she would bomb her network page tryout after inadvertently insulting the hiring manager, land a production assistant role for a television psychic and co-write and star in a successful play based on a fictional version of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s experience writing Good Will Hunting (she played Ben). Even after joining the staff of The Office, Kaling struggled in her early days on the show and as a guest writer for Saturday Night Live, describing herself as a “useless, friendly extra body ... eating hamburgers for free, like Wimpy from Popeye.”
This inclination toward perseverance lends itself to perhaps the most remarkable insights in the book: Kaling’s views on marriage and relationships. Kaling laments that "... fewer and fewer people are believing it’s cool to want what I want, which is to be married and have kids and love each other in a monogamous, long-lasting relationship." She describes a hookup culture that doesn’t appeal to her, and pleads for married couples to develop deep friendships with each other to "keep this sinking institution afloat."
Barely into her 30s, Mindy Kaling is already one of the most influential voices in comedy. And while many of her peers may be just as funny, it’s Kaling’s unique lack of cynicism that has earned her the ability to make a significant cultural impact whenever she chooses. Let’s all hope she takes this route and look forward to her eventual follow-up, where she’ll certainly have additional (and likely more substantive) concerns.
David Buckmaster works with a faith-based nonprofit in Lakeland, Fl. He can be found on Twitter at @d_buckmaster.
