Vir Das’s ‘memoir’ is a blow-by-blow of his average, everyday life — right from when he was a child to when he became ‘famous’. There is no great life lesson here. Only read if you are his jabra fan
PIC/Kirti Surve Parade
In chapter 11 of his book, The Outsider: A Memoir for Misfits, Vir Das says, “I didn’t really want to write this book. I wanted to write a book, but not a memoir. This inherently felt like a wrong time to write it, and that’s because I think you write a memoir at the end of it all”.
He is right. He shouldn’t have written it. The simplest one-word review would be: Meh. It has nothing new, nothing revelatory, and nothing wise for a reader to take away.
Okay, he moved from India to Nigeria back to India. As a kid, he was miserable at a very fancy boarding school. He goes into painful details of his friendships, and his getting a whooping from his teachers — it sounds like any other boarding school experience. Read Enid Blyton instead.
Then, he went to Africa. I don’t remember anything about that chapter because there is nothing interesting.
Then there is a whole chapter on who all he dated — and had sex with — including a stripper. Okay.
Then he went to America, and that seems like the story of every Indian boy who goes to America. Groundbreaking.
Then he returned to India, and performed at India Habitat Centre. He got a standing ovation. He found his calling. Okay.
Oh, then he came to Mumbai. He did shows at Blue Frog. Then, he did Delhi Belly. Then he wrote for the Filmfare Awards. Okay.
Then he did the famous “Two Indias” set. Then he did the Netflix special. Then he got an Emmy.
Then there is a whole chapter about his dog, Watson. Cute. But did we need to read 18 pages, front and back, about him?
This is his book in a nutshell — a rundown of all that he has done, with dialogue. There is no heart-warming narrative, no real aha moments, and no poetic, inspiring words to hold close to your heart.
Also, each chapter has a small snippet at the end, called “A short dose of grounding”, where we get too much inane and unnecessary information about Das “sitting on his own junk”, being called ugly, and how weed makes him h***y, and… No need to go on.
I do wish he had remained a comedian, and let his fans admire the words that come out of his mouth on stage or TV. He is even a decent actor, so we could
have waited for his next role — I think he was quite good in Call Me Bae.
He didn’t need to write this book — either as a brand building exercise, or as something he needed to share with the world. Like he said, he should have waited. Maybe, in 10 years, he would have written a different, deeper book. Alas. Pick it up only if you are a die-hard fan, or save R699.
*YUCK **WHATEVER ***GOOD ****SUPER *****AWESOME
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