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A Novel
by Jade Chang
Book Reviewed by:A deeply moving and often hilarious novel following a woman who becomes an internet folk hero in the most unexpected way, catapulting her into fame and influence just as she's finally beginning to reckon with her complicated past.
Lola Treasure Gold can't figure out her life. She's broke, unemployed, and back in her childhood home, a crumbling cottage in the Hollywood Hills. Worse—unspeakably worse—one of her closest friends has just died. So nobody is more surprised than Lola when a jackpot falls in her lap: she stars in a Very Viral Video, opening a surprising path for her to become a self-help guru.
With the encouragement of her other best friend, Celi—still alive, thank god—Lola embraces the public interest in her perceived message. But is she a scammer or a sage? Just as Lola is telling others to be their own guiding lights, she can't seem to find hers: she's grieving; she's accused of using the notoriety of her friend's death to fuel her rise; and she's full of questions about the fate of her mother, who came to America pregnant, fleeing China's one-child policy, got deported when Lola was eight, and now has totally disappeared.
Driven by an exuberant, searching spirit, Jade Chang's kaleidoscopic new novel is a deep examination of the ways we commodify belief, the power and precarity of fame, and the delicious terror of being truly seen. What a Time to Be Alive asks if we can look honestly at the world and still love it; the answer is a brilliant, resounding yes.
Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award 2026
Here is an interesting award recognizing distinguished fiction that tells American stories in a uniquely American voice, one that reflects Mark Twain's incisive curiosity and humanity. Celebrating its tenth year. Longlist 2026 Are You Happy?: Stories — Lori Ostlund Atavists: Stories — Lydia Mille...
-Anne_Glasgow
The way this book centers Lola's deep feelings of grief keeps it from reading as pure satire, but it is full of deliciously absurd and funny moments. For instance, when she appears on a popular talk show, another guest that day is a young man who went viral for singing his mom's favorite song to her on her deathbed—that song being Christina Aguilera's raunchy hit "Dirty." This is embraced by the audience as a beautiful, touching moment, with only Lola—and the reader—noting the humor. But Lola's role as detached cynic doesn't last. She knows she is inwardly a mess, and not in the faux-vulnerable, wise way she presents online: "It felt like there were three versions of myself moving forward at once: the Lola laid low by grief, the Lola sprinting toward some spiritual pinnacle, and the Lola looking for an outside answer, a person, an emotion, to rescue her from this insular world." And yet, time begins to heal Lola...continued
Full Review
(688 words)
(Reviewed by Jillian Bell).
Angela Flournoy, author of The Wilderness and The Turner House
What a Time to be Alive is a sly, sexy work of art. Jade Chang has captured the true essence of Los Angeles, in all of its motley, messy beauty, with humor and heart. This is a novel that you will devour, and share with your friends, and soon want to devour again. Rufi Thorpe, author of Margot's Got Money Troubles
A generous satire of the spiritual wellness space that delivers true magic in the character of Lola Treasure Gold, a heroine so dazzling and bold and psychologically healthy that you will wind up rooting for her with your whole heart. I loved it.
In What a Time to Be Alive, the main character, Lola, starts a spiritual movement. Her signature event is parties focused on looking at the moon through a telescope, where Lola, a Chinese American woman, speaks about the moon's power and symbology. Part of her talk concerns Chinese mythology related to the moon, which is a hit with her primarily white and wealthy audiences, though this myth did not play the large role in her upbringing that she leads them to believe.
The myth Lola shares is that of Chang'e, the Moon Goddess. This story dates back to a divination text from the fifth century BC, and evolved over the centuries as it was retold, often in the form of poetry. Chang'e is a mortal woman who steals an immortality elixir from ...
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