A review by achjlles
Smart Ovens for Lonely People by Elizabeth Tan

emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.0

i read this for my Honours Australian Literature class and i really enjoyed it! reminded me a lot of julie koh’s portable curiosities (which makes sense as tan cites it as an influence) and koh’s book is probably my favourite out of the books i’ve read for uni, so i definitely enjoyed this. the biggest difference between the two collections is that tan’s work has a real feeling of hope permeating throughout (it’s also significantly less violent, which helps).

this is a wonderful collection of short stories and as a Perth girl, the Perth locations and references added a whole extra layer of humour — the karaoke bar in ‘eighteen bells karaoke’ on the “former site of the ritz carlton” was so funny to me having watched the slow construction of elizabeth quay and then the even slower construction of the hotels in what is now a kind of an accidental dead spot 💀

my favourites from this collection are, in no particular order:

• our sleeping lungs opened to the cold
• eighteen bells karaoke castle (sing your heart out)
• smart ovens for lonely people
• would you rather
• shirt dresses that look a little too much like shirts so that it looks like you forgot to put on pants (love will save the day)
• you put the u in utopia (or, the last neko atsume player in the world)