'Rubik' by Elizabeth Tan single work   review  
Issue Details: First known date: 2017... 2017 'Rubik' by Elizabeth Tan
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Invoking the Rubik’s Cube – a puzzle where twenty-six ‘cubelets’ rotate around a core crosspiece – Rubik is less a novel and more a book of interconnected short stories exploring narcissism, neoliberalism, and consumerism. At the book’s core is Elena Rubik, who dies in the first chapter with a Homestyle Country Pie in her hand. Despite her demise, Elena remains the protagonist of the novel via her robust digital footprint: people write ‘condolence messages on her profile ... express[ing] their grief in 420 characters or less’, weekly newsletters amass in her inbox, she endures as a contact in her friend’s mobile phone directory, and her comments remain on internet forums. Elizabeth Tan responds to the cube’s solution of returning all sides to a uniformity of colour by emphasising the isolation, despair, and quotidian nihilism at the heart of contemporary society’s obsession with competitive self-interest and extreme individualism.' (Introduction)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Australian Book Review ABR no. 396 November 2017 12175310 2017 periodical issue

    Readers of ABR - and our contributors in particular - appreciate how much cultural philanthropy has transformed this magazine in recent years. Generous donatins from well over tow hundred ABR Patrons have enabled us to diversify our programs, broaden our content, and pay writers much better than were able to do in the past.' (Editorial)

    2017
    pg. 29
Last amended 30 Nov 2017 15:00:11
29 https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/archive/2017/november-2017-no-396/213-november-2017-no-396/4400-cassandra-atherton-reviews-rubik-by-elizabeth-tan 'Rubik' by Elizabeth Tansmall AustLit logo Australian Book Review
Review of:
  • Rubik Elizabeth Tan 2017 single work novel
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