Peripathetic: Notes on (un)belonging (Cher Tan, NewSouth)

The nine essays in this collection, Peripathetic by Melbourne-based Cher Tan, use the form’s digressive capacity well. In elastic prose informed by wide reading, Tan heads down wordy, winding rabbit holes, exploring such issues as the ubiquity of English in the internet age, the wonders and perils of identity creation, or how Shanzhai might just save the world. Self-described as a person whose ‘East Asian looks and anglophone ways are starting to occupy a more privileged space in Australia’, Tan shares, in helter-skelter fashion, quite a lot about herself. Working in ‘shit jobs’, from Macca’s to food delivery to house cleaning, provided (if not much money) companionship and vital connections, especially those forged via her teenage years working in a Singaporean cybercafe. Along the way, she connected with the international punk and goth movements, and reflections about these communities give the book its spice. Tan is critical of much around her—including the complacency of Australian society, where we’re blessed with a minimum wage and freedom of speech, but where ‘resistance was somehow even more of a lifestyle’—all of which fills her with both hope and despair. But like many autodidacts, she appears to feel insecure about the validity of her literary achievements: she is surprised when her work is published and she receives a prestigious grant. We need curious, energetic and risk-taking commentators like Tan, so let’s hope she’s able to find that work-life balance she craves, stay focused, and keep writing.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Julia Taylor worked in trade publishing for many years. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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