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A review by keepingupwiththepenguins
Australia Day by Melanie Cheng
3.0
My full review of Australia Day is up now on Keeping Up With The Penguins.
All of Cheng’s characters are seeking something elusive, at times ineffable, and there are few happy endings. Some of the stories – ‘Ticket Holder Number 5’ in particular – offer the clang of revelation that I look for in short stories. Others fell a bit… well, short. Still others were perhaps ahead of their time; ‘Big Problems’ struck me as a precursor to novels like Kiley Reid’s Such A Fun Age. So, as with any short story collection, I’d say that this one is hit and miss. Some are great, some are okay, and each reader will probably have their own opinion as to which is which.
All of Cheng’s characters are seeking something elusive, at times ineffable, and there are few happy endings. Some of the stories – ‘Ticket Holder Number 5’ in particular – offer the clang of revelation that I look for in short stories. Others fell a bit… well, short. Still others were perhaps ahead of their time; ‘Big Problems’ struck me as a precursor to novels like Kiley Reid’s Such A Fun Age. So, as with any short story collection, I’d say that this one is hit and miss. Some are great, some are okay, and each reader will probably have their own opinion as to which is which.