Life, Legacy, and Celebrity: An Exclusive Guest Post From Kirthana Ramisetti, Author of Dava Shastri’s Last Day, Our October Fiction Pick
Paperback $17.99
Dava Shastri's Last Day
Dava Shastri's Last Day
In Stock Online
Paperback $17.99
If you could read your obituary before your impending death, would you? In this humorous, heart-filled novel, matriarch Dava Shastri arranges for her news of her death to break early so she could read her obituary and gauge reaction. Plans go awry when what Dava reads isn’t what she expected, and suddenly the entire world (including her grown children) knows the secret she was planning to take to her grave. An instant favorite for readers who love complex family dramas, celebrity, and the perils and humor in the relationships we rely on. Keep reading to find out from Kirthana Ramisetti about how her work as an entertainment journalist inspired her writing.
If you could read your obituary before your impending death, would you? In this humorous, heart-filled novel, matriarch Dava Shastri arranges for her news of her death to break early so she could read her obituary and gauge reaction. Plans go awry when what Dava reads isn’t what she expected, and suddenly the entire world (including her grown children) knows the secret she was planning to take to her grave. An instant favorite for readers who love complex family dramas, celebrity, and the perils and humor in the relationships we rely on. Keep reading to find out from Kirthana Ramisetti about how her work as an entertainment journalist inspired her writing.
I’ve long had a passion for writing and pop culture and was lucky to be able to marry the two when I worked as an online entertainment reporter for a major New York City newspaper. Before joining, I had been a casual reader of gossip sites. But this job was akin to going to graduate school for celebrity studies. I was immersed on a daily basis in the latest goings-on (perhaps more than I ever wanted) of boldfaced names ranging from acting legends to reality stars. And reporting on the latest developments in a star’s personal or professional life gave me a deeper understanding on how much careful cultivation goes into their public image.
The way we present ourselves to the world is a form of storytelling we all participate in — when we post about our birthdays or latest vacations on social media, for example. But when a person’s stature, career opportunities, and ultimately their legacy is dependent on projecting a certain kind of image — say a charming Mr. Nice Guy, or a glamorous humanitarian — the stakes can be much higher.
Every interview sound bite, clothing choice on the red carpet and social media post is often managed and curated by the star and their team. And when taken together, all of these elements are meant to communicate something specific about how the star wants to be perceived.
It was particularly fascinating when reporting on a celebrity’s death to see how they would be memorialized, and whether the persona they projected during their lifetime matched how the public remembered them. But what each star had in common, even the savviest ones, was that their narrative ceased to belong to them once they were gone. This reminded me of the Hamilton song, “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story.” It imparts the message that after a person dies, their legacy is largely beholden to the whims and wishes of those they leave behind, to be elevated, maligned, or erased altogether.
After several years I became burned out from working in an industry powered by the 24/7 news cycle. And my true dream was to publish a novel, going all the way back to when I was a little girl reading Nancy Drew and They Babysitters’ Club and imagining myself solving mysteries with Nancy and being BFFs with Claudia Kishi.
When I decided to write would become my debut novel, Dava Shastri’s Last Day, I sought to explore the concept of legacy through the lens of the different kinds of storytelling that takes place before, and especially after, a famous person dies.
My premise was based on something I often wondered during my time in the newsroom, while monitoring the real-time reaction on social media to the news of a celebrity passing: What if there was a famous person so obsessed with how the world perceived them, that they leaked news of their death early in order to read their obituaries?
And that’s exactly what Dava Shastri, my legacy-obsessed philanthropist, does at the beginning of the novel. She decides on this course of action upon learning she has a terminal illness, only to be shocked when the news coverage of her “death” leads to her two biggest secrets being revealed to the world.
For Dava, the story she thought she was telling about herself throughout her life — her commitment to philanthropy, specifically the arts and women’s empowerment — is not the only one being reported upon. Instead, a lot of the focus goes toward her personal life, to the point that her rumored affair with a musician is referenced in the headline of her New York Times obituary.
As she comes to terms with the fact she will not be celebrated in the way she had hoped, Dava experiences a long-needed personal reckoning. Instead of focusing on the story being told to the outside world, she reflects on a lifetime’s worth of decisions and regrets. By the novel’s final pages, Dava is more clear-eyed and accepting of her past, as well as how she will be remembered in the future.
Pop culture, stardom and image-making are also at the heart of my upcoming second novel, Advika and the Hollywood Wives. In my new phase as an author, I have come to realize that my preoccupation with the celebrity image and storytelling is due to my entertainment journalism background. As a reporter, I was always looking for the real story beyond what was presented on the glossy surface. I find it’s the same for fiction too.