Since I am still floundering with Tolstoy, this week I offer you a more contemporary book, not part of my reading list, but something I perused recently and enjoyed very much. Actually, I had first come across The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas when I was travelling to the UK earlier this year, but book prices being prohibitive there, I just stuck
to second hand purchases. Then, I was given a copy of this book on my return, and since the blurb had me curious, I decided to pick it up and give it a read. It’s quite a simple premise really, and I can tell you it without giving anything away — a man slaps a child at a party who is not his own and this has repercussions on each and every one of the guests present. It may not be a huge repercussion, sometimes, it is only a side note in a chapter, but their lives are entangled, and it all begins with the slap.
This book, I wasn’t surprised to see, has won many awards which is probably what pushed it into public attention in the first place. I have noticed most books that come out of Australia tend to be pretty good (think A Fraction Of The Whole and Thunderwith) but until they are recognised internationally, they seldom move beyond that continent. The Slap has an Australian background with Australian settings and terms, but other than the geography, it could really be anywhere, which is probably what adds to its charms.
What I like about this deep, character heavy book is the way it delves into each person’s narrative without sounding false. Tsiolkas is truly talented in the way he can skip from voice to voice, whether it is the over-anxious mother, the philandering husband or the 16-year-old girl and not have any of them sound the same. I find upon further research that he is gay, and it is interesting then, that he chose the gay character in the book to be a young boy just coming to terms with his sexuality and chose not to make it a flamboyant adult male which would have given him the opportunity to explore Australia’s gay scene.
All in all, if you’re searching for a book that is more about who than what, I can tell you this is one of the best in that genre that I have read all year. Add it to your own reading list, you won’t be disappointed.
The columnist is an author