Title: Are You There Krishna, It’s Me Reshma. Or Rachel. Or Whatever.; Essays on Talking to Ghosts, Accosting Celebrities, One-night Stands Gone Wrong, Sexism, Race, and First-Generation Woes
Author: Rachel Khona
Genre: Memoir / Humor
Rating: 4 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Review copy provided by Enchanted Book Promotions in exchange for an honest review.
Rachel knew even as a young child that she wasn’t like the rest of her Indian family. While her parents were plotting how she could make it into med school with her mediocre grades in chemistry and biology, she had other things on my mind.
Including such gems as:
- Why can’t she go to the temple on her period?
- Why don’t her Indian cousins like her?
- Why was it OK to be sexualized at a beauty pageant but not for herself?
- How can she straddle two cultures while retaining her sense of self?
- Why are women considered sluts and men considered studs?
- Why do people keep asking her if she was born in India?
- Should she wax down there?
- Why does she have crazy eyes?
After leaving home, Rachel got high in Amsterdam, met her pop singer idol in a bathroom, argued with a ghost and got lost in the Pyrenees. But that didn’t stop her from questioning while men still tell her to smile. Are You There Krishna, It’s Me Reshma. Or Rachel. Or Whatever.; Essays on Talking to Ghosts, Accosting Celebrities, One-night Stands Gone Wrong, Sexism, Race, and First-Generation Woes weaves stories of Rachel’s life with observations on race, class, sex, feminism and culture with humor and candor.
In Are You There, Krishna? Are You There Krishna, It’s Me Reshma. Or Rachel. Or Whatever. author Rachel Khona describes her life in a humoristic, down-to-earth style that makes it easy for the reader to connect with her, and the story she has to tell.
The book is part memoir, part criticism on today’s society, and for the most part, an account of the author’s searc for herself, who she is, her culture, her identity, and how who she is compares to what society wants her to be. The author includes a lot of clever, insightful obvervations about topics like race, sex, culture, and more.
One of my favorite parts was the chapter about the ghost, which included a picture of a ghost that looks pretty scary.
Rachel’s writing style is simple and down-to-earth but it works really well to tell this story. I loved the author’s sense of humor, which shone through clearly throughout the book. I even laughed out loud a few times.
An insightful, hilarious memoir about life and its perils.
Speak Your Mind