{"id":259383,"date":"2025-09-27T18:32:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T18:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/259383\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T18:32:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T18:32:17","slug":"jade-changs-what-a-time-to-be-alive-takes-aim-at-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/259383\/","title":{"rendered":"Jade Chang’s ‘What a Time to Be Alive’ takes aim at social media"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The world is a confusing and scary place right now. Many of us are anxious wanderers in the wilderness, looking for answers. Is it any wonder that the wellness industry is booming? Into this strange new world comes Jade Chang\u2019s funny and poignant novel \u201cWhat a Time to Be Alive,\u201d<\/a> whose protagonist Lola is broke and aimless \u2014 until a leaked video transforms her into an instant self-help guru. <\/p>\n

Chang, whose first novel, \u201cThe Wangs vs. The World,\u201d<\/a> was a sharp satire on class and ambition, has now turned her gaze to the promise and peril of self-actualization through social media. I sat down with Chang to discuss spiritualism for profit, tech bros and trucker hats.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re reading Book Club <\/p>\n

An exclusive look at what we\u2019re reading, book club events and our latest author interviews. <\/p>\n

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(Please note: The Times may earn a commission through links to Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.)<\/p>\n

\u270d\ufe0f Author Chat \"Book <\/a> <\/p>\n

Book jacket of \u201cWhat a Time to Be Alive\u201d by Jade Chang<\/p>\n

(Los Angeles Times illustration; book jacket from Ecco)<\/p>\n

This book almost didn\u2019t make it, as you physically lost it. <\/b><\/p>\n

I started it years ago. I was writing in longhand in a notebook, entire chapters of the book. I lost the notebook and I was devastated. Then I moved on and wrote \u201cThe Wangs vs. The World.\u201d<\/a> It took a long time to get back into writing this new book. By the time I circled back to it, the world had changed so much. I think I have become more generous about things, and the story benefited from it.<\/p>\n

Lola, your protagonist, unwittingly becomes an online self-help guru on the basis of a leaked video that is posted on social media. She becomes a sort of accidental wellness expert.<\/b><\/p>\n

As someone who didn\u2019t grow up with religion, I have always been really fascinated by belief. Why do we want to believe, and how are we compelled to certain beliefs? And it was just kind of fascinating and amazing that people could find so much life in religious stories. As I was developing the story of this novel, I realized that everyone in the digital world takes a page from this book as well, using stories to convert listeners into believers. I think Lola starts out sort of thinking she is in above her head, but by the end, her sincerity shines through. She wants to believe what she is telling others to believe.<\/p>\n

Do you think the internet breeds cynicism and has turned us all into an angry mob?<\/b><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t. The digital world doesn\u2019t make us any different from who we are, but it can throw a lens on certain aspects of our behavior. I think the internet allows us to be our best and worst selves. Think about all those strangers who might contribute to a GoFundMe campaign because someone has had a serious injury and needs to pay their medical bills, which can yield tens of thousands of dollars in some cases. That\u2019s the mob functioning at its best.<\/p>\n

But isn\u2019t it a little too easy to pull a con job online? <\/b><\/p>\n

Yes, it\u2019s easy to be inauthentic online, but it\u2019s important to remember that online performance is a tiny percentage of someone\u2019s life. That\u2019s why I was so interested in writing about the rise of this self-help guru, because usually when these stories are told you only see it from the acolyte\u2019s point of view or the skeptic\u2019s point of view. But we all have to make money, and we all are pulling a little something over on someone at some point \u2014 it\u2019s part of surviving in the world.<\/p>\n

Lola cauterizes the pain in her personal life by offering panaceas to pain for strangers online, but she affects a false persona to do so. <\/b><\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to assume that anything we do, whether it\u2019s on social media or elsewhere online, is performative or fraudulent in some way. RuPaul has a great quote where he says gender is drag. Everything is drag, a performance. Every choice we make is often not reflective of our essential self. You can\u2019t codify identity in clothes or that trucker hat you\u2019re wearing; anything you\u2019re going to choose is going to be influenced by the times in which you live and who you surround yourself with. I can only speak from experience, but I think it\u2019s almost impossible to suppress your true self.<\/p>\n

You mentioned how self-help gurus and tech bros have a similar public worldview. <\/b><\/p>\n

As research for the book, I attended one of Oprah\u2019s Super Soul Sundays at Royce Hall. Every single person that spoke had the same arc: \u201cI was down in the dumps, and then I looked up from that hole and I saw a glimmer in the form of CrossFit,\u201d or drumming, or whatever it was that pulled them up from the brink. Then I went to a TED talk, and these tech gurus are saying the exact same thing. It\u2019s the narrative of our time. I saw that crossover, and I knew I had something to say. I was interested in this internal push and pull of, how much do you give in to this tactic, and how much do you not.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcf0 The Week(s) in Books \"Illustration <\/a> <\/p>\n

(Jay L. Clendenin \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Hamilton Cain<\/a> has mixed feelings about Patricia Lockwood\u2019s autofictional account of the COVID-19 lockdown, \u201cWill There Ever Be Another You,\u201d<\/a> praising Lockwood\u2019s \u201crich and kinetic\u201d prose but bemoaning her \u201cself-indulgent and repetitious\u201d narrative.<\/p>\n

Steve Henson<\/a> has a chat with tennis legend Bj\u00f6rn Borg about his new memoir, \u201cHeartbeats,\u201d<\/a> which delves into his heavy cocaine and alcohol use that began shortly after he walked away from the sport at age 26.<\/p>\n

Karen Palmer\u2019s harrowing memoir, \u201cShe\u2019s Under Here,\u201d<\/a> \u201cdetails forgery, a child\u2019s kidnapping, a mental breakdown, struggles to stay afloat \u2014 and joy,\u201d writes Bethanne Patrick<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And David A. Keeps<\/a> reports on the fiscal inequities of the booming audiobook industry: \u201cMany actors are vying for audiobook roles at a time when the talent pool is expanding and casting is becoming a growing topic of debate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcd6 Bookstore Faves \"The <\/p>\n

The Book Jewel, located in the city of Westchester, is just minutes from LAX.<\/p>\n

(The Book Jewel)<\/p>\n

The Book Jewel is a welcome addition to the neighborhood of Westchester, an expansive bookstore with an excellent selection of fiction and nonfiction titles for locals, or those who might stop by there before catching their flight at nearby LAX. We talked with general manager Joseph Paulsen about the store.<\/p>\n

Your store is serving a community that hasn\u2019t had a general interest bookstore in quite some time. <\/b><\/p>\n

The Book Jewel opened smack-dab in the middle of the global COVID-19 pandemic in August of 2020. Our Westchester community has supported us from Day 1, and we recently celebrated our fifth anniversary. We are the only bookstore in Westchester, and we are locally owned and independent. I live here in Westchester and have raised both of my sons here.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s selling right now?<\/b><\/p>\n

Right now we\u2019re selling tons of children\u2019s literature and graphic novels (\u201cInvestiGators,\u201d<\/a> Dav Pilkey<\/a>, etc.). Of course, the ABA Independent Bestsellers. Lots of romantasy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You are pretty close to LAX. Do you sell a lot of books to travelers? <\/b><\/p>\n

The travelers give themselves away with their roller bags, and we catch \u2019em heading out of Los Angeles on the reg! They like long books for long flights. Lots of souvenirs too! We have some unique, local non-book items as well and offer a better vibe than the international terminal.<\/p>\n

The Book Jewel<\/a> is located at 6259 W. 87th St, Los Angeles, CA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The world is a confusing and scary place right now. Many of us are anxious wanderers in the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":259384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[3601,3602,3604,1022,3596,3606,3603,3605,171,3607,2323,3599,3600,2252,3597,3598,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-259383","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-author","9":"tag-bestselling-novelist-silvia-moreno","10":"tag-book-exploder","11":"tag-books","12":"tag-chef","13":"tag-conversation","14":"tag-daughter","15":"tag-doctor-moreau","16":"tag-entertainment","17":"tag-fiction","18":"tag-garcia","19":"tag-keith-corbin","20":"tag-l-a-times-book-club-newsletter","21":"tag-life","22":"tag-memoir","23":"tag-thrills","24":"tag-united-states","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115277696396923471","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}