Once the idea of immortality takes hold, everyone must go into the oven. Starting
with a reference to Sylvia Plath’s tragic end, A Perfect Day to Put Your Head in the Oven
weaves a mesmerizing narrative that blurs the lines between memoir, fiction, and
literary meditation. Told through the eyes of a bold Taiwanese woman, Tan, this tale
is the story of her life—from childhood exclusion and her parents’ unexpected divorce
to a transformative encounter at age thirteen. Lee crafts a profound exploration of
memory, truth, and preservation. A genre-defying work that questions our attempts
to immortalize moments in writing, likening them to preserving specimens in an
oven. This work examines how we process, transform, and eternalize our experiences
through literature.