UNRELIABLE NARRATOR

An Indian American comedian explores the many faces of impostor syndrome.

Nancherla says that she wanted to write a book about impostor syndrome—which she defines as constantly questioning whether or not she deserves her own success—because she wanted to get over feeling like a fraud. Unfortunately, she confesses, “it turns out nothing summons your impostor syndrome like trying to write a book about it.” In the chapters that follow, Nancherla traces her mental health history, which includes an anecdote about competing in a Miss India DC pageant while battling an eating disorder; watching her depression grow and change over time; and finding the right medications to treat both depression and anxiety. The author astutely analyzes how systems of power have intersected to create her view of herself and her profession. At one point, she responds to reviews of her colleagues’ work during the pandemic by musing, “as if it’s not outright violence to rank creative work generated during a period of large-scale trauma.” In the epilogue, Nancherla admits that writing about impostor syndrome did not, in fact, cure her feelings of inadequacy. On the contrary, she notes, the one thing she learned from the writing process was that “epiphanies…don’t arrive on schedule, and sometimes you’re the last to know you’re having one.” In fact, “epiphanies can take years to sink in.” At its best, this heavily researched memoir is refreshingly perspicacious and darkly funny. Unfortunately, it also swings too abruptly between seriousness and humor, undercutting salient points with unnecessary jokes that jerk readers out of the main story. While the book purports to be about impostor syndrome, Nancherla rarely returns to this central concept, making the text feel more like a mental health memoir than a focused exploration of the stated topic.

An uneven but still worthwhile comic memoir.