Join Christos Tsiolkas to talk about THE SLAP - our March Book of the Month - on Weds 23 March, 8-9pm

[TillyBookClub]

Our March Book of the Month has inflamed critics, readers and journalists across the world. The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize, is also a Top Ten bestseller in the UK, Australia and Canada. A zeitgeist-capturing exploration of multiculturalism and the limitations of liberal values, it will definitely provoke some strong reactions...

Atlantic books are offering 100 copies of The Slap to Mumsnetters. To bag your copy before they run out, please email [email protected] with your full postal address and "Mumsnet The Slap offer" in the email subject line.

We'll post on this thread once the copies have all been sent out but if you're not lucky enough to bag a free copy, buy it here instead.

We are delighted that Christos will be joining us on Wednesday 23 March, 8-9 pm, for the bookclub discussion - look forward to seeing you all there...

[MrsKwazii]

Hate is a strong word I suppose, I really found it hard to relate to a lot of the characters. I know what you mean about the sex passages as well - meh.

[gingercat12]

I have got my book in the post as well. Thanks. Unfortunately, my DH got hold of it, so I'll have to wait till he finishes it.

I can't wait after seeing all these comments.

[ninedragons]

I am only halfway through, but the race issue seems to me to have been treated like some sort of dystopian Benetton advert; there's one of these, one of those, two of the other. Multiculturalism is a much more complex and subtle issue than it appears in this book. I thought it was tokenistic, actually.

I am Australian (though what the author would call a skip, ie of Anglo-Celtic descent and ninth generation Australian-born) but the world in the book is like nothing I know. Thinking of my own very ethnically mixed workplace, literally the ONLY time race has come up was my third-generation Australian-Chinese colleague pissing herself laughing when she heard me swear in Cantonese on the phone to my DH (we used to live in Hong Kong), because she was surprised to hear it.

But then I am from Sydney so maybe it's just Melbourne that is a festering shithole of racism

[TheMonster]

ninedragons

Can I be thick and ask about the use of the word 'wog'? It is a native Australian word? It is used to mean Europeans?

[ninedragons]

It refers specifically to people of Mediterranean descent - Greek and Italian, usually.

To some extent it has been reclaimed - you would certainly hear people use it referring to themselves, or a "wog box" (large flashy new house, often with some faintly ludicrous feature like Doric columns, or a statue of the Venus de Milo in the front garden). It's not shockingly offensive but in my opinion would certainly still be inappropriate to use at work, but in some circles would be acceptable in casual conversation. I don't like it (though I do use wog box, like everyone else - I think that's now just the accepted architectural term, like Mid-Century Modern). I would discipline DD if I ever heard her use it, and I don't use it myself.

[saffronwblue]

I am Australian and live in Melbourne and do not know anyone as loathsome as these characters. However I could not stop reading the book as I found it quite compelling.
Did tell a friend of mine to read it before sending her DC to Northcote High School, though!

[TheMonster]

Thanks, ninedragons.

[defineme]

Why is abook that writes about misogynistic characters misogynist? They're hardly described in a positive way?

I do think that a lot of posters are kidding themselves about the nature of some people's internal dialogue, but then we'll never know.All I can say is that if someone heard my thoughts they might change their mind about my level of respectability- surely I'm not the only one.

As for normalised drug taking and casual racism. I live in a very wealthy suburb populated by doctors/lawyers and their families. Scratch the (very respectable conservative) surface and there's pockets of people taking drugs on a regular basis, racism and adultry. I don't think that makes my area abnormal. You could spend years not noticing these things, but it doesn't mean they're not happening. Obviously that still doesn't mean you'll enjoy reading about them.

I don't think it makes the book a depressing read- I think it makes it fascinating!

The way this discussion has gone reminds me when I read Helen Simpson's 'Hey Yeah Right Get A Life' and loved it so much that I passed it around my friends. Some of them were so offended by it's bleak portrayal of mothers that they wanted to write to Simpson and complain, I loved its bleakness. Can I nominate that for a book club choice please

[TheMonster]

defineme, you're right. Rather than being full of unusually racist character with a lack of morals, perhaps it is a realistic view.

I wonder if people would react differently to it if it was set in England?

I'm currently on Rosie's chapter and I am finding it intreguing. I can't make my mind up about her at all. One minute I feel for her and the next I hate her.

[TillyBookClub]

Time to gather advance questions - please pop them up here and we'll kick off with those on Wednesday evening.

defineme, I love Helen Simpson, she'd be a great boocklub choice, I think she's got new collection out, so we'll look into it.

See you all on Wednesday 8pm...

[MrsKwazii]

Hello Christos, am v excited that you're coming to talk to us but may not be able to make the talk itself. Will be cheeky and post two questions, hope that's OK Tilly.

I've already said in an earlier post that I disliked the majority of the characters - in a bit of a rant I said that they were an assembly of arseholes . Did you plan to write them in an unsympathetic light or did they just develop like this?

Also, I found it interesting that the slap became such an important moral standpoint, when the behaviour of many characters - the casual racism, adultery and drug-taking - seemed to portray the amorality of a particular Western-style of modern living. Did you set out to make this distinction?

[AlmaMartyr]

Defineme - that's an interesting point, I hadn't thought of it like that. I don't think my internal monologue would make me very sympathetic either.

I still don't think the internal monologues of the women quite worked though, but obviously that's just my perception (or lack of it!).

I did wonder what other people thought of Hugo? It seemed to be slightly assumed that his behaviour at the barbeque was terrible but apart from the risk of him bashing someone else with the bat I didn't think his behaviour was all that shocking for that age. I was more shocked by his behaviour towards the old man in the final chapter. I was just interested what other people thought really, I want to discuss it with DH but he hasn't read it yet.

[Earwiggo]

Christos - I enjoyed the book, but I thought the female characters were less realistic than the males. Did you consider having a female co author for those chapters?

[thecatatemygymsuit]

Fascinating book, I found it compelling and atmospheric, with a real sense of place, and relished in the characters being so unlikeable.
My question to Christos is:
Do you think the kid deserved the slap? Honestly?
(for the record I did!)

[poppygolucky]

Hi Christos - may not be able to make it tomorrow night so wanted to ask a couple of things.

1. What do you make of the misogynist accusations? I personally found it to be quite a lazy criticism; as others have pointed out, the characters who have misogynistic tendencies are not portrayed sympathetically. However, what is your personal take on it?
   
2. Was it a deliberate decision to include the younger characters to make the story more 'hopeful', particularly ending on such an uplifting note with Ritchie? And how did you decide which characters would have their own chapter ahead of others? (I would've loved Bilal's story or Sandi's...perhaps a sequel!).
   

Thank you!

[Shells]

Hi Christos,
I'm interested in the 'but I'm Australian and Australia is not like that' kind of responses you have had to the book. Do you think this would happen in a more established, confident culture? I'm from a small country myself (smaller than Oz) and there's a lot of chippiness. I always perceive Australia as being uber confident in its sense of self, but maybe books like yours rock the foundations of that self belief?

[ChristosTsiolkas]

@MrsKwazii

Hello Christos, am v excited that you're coming to talk to us but may not be able to make the talk itself. Will be cheeky and post two questions, hope that's OK Tilly.

I've already said in an earlier post that I disliked the majority of the characters - in a bit of a rant I said that they were an assembly of arseholes . Did you plan to write them in an unsympathetic light or did they just develop like this?

Also, I found it interesting that the slap became such an important moral standpoint, when the behaviour of many characters - the casual racism, adultery and drug-taking - seemed to portray the amorality of a particular Western-style of modern living. Did you set out to make this distinction?

It wasn?t at all a conscious decision to portray them unsympathetically but I did set myself the task of asking why had my generation in Australia become so materialistic and so ungenerous. In particular I was driven to understand this ?sense of entitlement? that I think is prevalent in my generation and which disturbs me in its selfishness and self-regard.
But though they are ?arseholes? at the same time I do feel tenderness to every single one of them. They frustrate me, infuriate me, disappoint me but I also understand their frailties and weaknesses. Otherwise I couldn?t have sustained the will and energy to complete the book. The hardest part was trying to remain honest, to look at myself clearly in the mirror, to dissect my own failures of courage, my own deceits, infidelities. There are so many things I look back on and feel shame ? I think knowing shame humbles you, for me it was coming to terms with being fully adult. I wanted to give expression to this in the book and also the problems that arise when shame remains unacknowledged or repressed

[ChristosTsiolkas]

@MrsKwazii

Hello Christos, am v excited that you're coming to talk to us but may not be able to make the talk itself. Will be cheeky and post two questions, hope that's OK Tilly.

I've already said in an earlier post that I disliked the majority of the characters - in a bit of a rant I said that they were an assembly of arseholes . Did you plan to write them in an unsympathetic light or did they just develop like this?

Also, I found it interesting that the slap became such an important moral standpoint, when the behaviour of many characters - the casual racism, adultery and drug-taking - seemed to portray the amorality of a particular Western-style of modern living. Did you set out to make this distinction?

Also I should also say thanks so much for having me here. It is morning in Australia, I have my coffee in my hand and my shorts on. Again, thanks so much for this.

MrsKwazil, here is my response to your second question. And no, I don't think you are being cheeky.

The slap, as a writer, was a starting point not an end point. In structuring the novel I wanted each section to deliver a ?slap?, for the reader to ask precisely the question you have above. What is it about this particular incident that sparks such fury and indignation when there is so much activity the characters participate in which is equally abhorrent? I think there is hypocrisy at work in our day to day lives where we make distinctions, sometimes unconsciously, between our public morality and our private morality. Some friends have said to me that they believe that this is more true for men than it is for women. I am not so sure this is true but it felt like such a rich vein to mine.
I am always interested that no one comments on the final slap in the book, or that they rarely do, the slap Richie?s mother gives him. It was a very conscious decision to bookend the novel with ?slaps? (nothing very original there, I know, but very satisfying for me in terms of getting me to a conclusion). I hope this second slap is ?ignored? because the reader understands it comes from a place of real love and care, that it is not selfish, not the result of aggression but of fear. It is, I hope, very human. Your question makes me very happy because it is precisely the reason why that second slap is there, to get the reader to ask, is it the slap which is the real issue or something else.

[withagoat]

CHRISTOS

the sex thing

did you ever think " ok this is a BIT explicit"?

all that cunt this and cunt that?

[ChristosTsiolkas]

@Earwiggo

Christos - I enjoyed the book, but I thought the female characters were less realistic than the males. Did you consider having a female co author for those chapters?

I was so nervous initially about writing the female characters, I think because of the whole question of representation, can I convincingly write as "a woman", will it be authentic? I am very fortunate to be a part of a writing group with three other authors, all women. We show each other our drafts, our chapters, and we interrogate the work. They certainly jumped on me if they thought I wasn't getting the women right, they would say "women don't think like this" or "women don't experience sex like this". At the same time, I like to think that they have enjoyed bouncing their work off a male reader/writer, been fascinated by the moments when I have said "I don't think a man would say/think/do this". This has resulted in many many fascinating complicated discussions and I think in turn affected (in a positive way) the shape of the book.
Years ago I remember reading a quote from an author (wish I could remember her) who said every good writer has to be bisexual, by which she meant a writer needs to understand men and needs to understand women. I think this is true.
Having said that I do love collaborations, I have often collaborated in theatre and I think a book, almost a dialogue between a man and a woman might be a fascinating project.

[ChristosTsiolkas]

@thecatatemygymsuit

Fascinating book, I found it compelling and atmospheric, with a real sense of place, and relished in the characters being so unlikeable.
My question to Christos is:
Do you think the kid deserved the slap? Honestly?
(for the record I did!)

I think Hugo deserved to be disciplined. I think part of my coming to terms with being an adult male was working out how to control my anger, my aggression. I don't think Harry should have slapped Hugo but I wonder what the result would have been if he had turned around to the parents and demanded they disciplined the child? I'd like to think that's what I would do; I'm fear I might not have the courage.
I got slapped a few times for bad behaviour from my parents, smacked on the bottom by my aunt and uncle. I don't really recall those incidents. But I do remember being belted by a particularly sadistic teacher, I could tell her violence was some sort of hate. I think kids know these things, you can sense them.

[ChristosTsiolkas]

@thecatatemygymsuit

Fascinating book, I found it compelling and atmospheric, with a real sense of place, and relished in the characters being so unlikeable.
My question to Christos is:
Do you think the kid deserved the slap? Honestly?
(for the record I did!)

And also thank you.

[ttalloo]

Hi Christos

I loved the book for many reasons, but one of them was the depiction of Greek-Australians, because I was born in the UK to Greek-Cypriot parents, and have always been frustrated at our lack of presence in modern British literature and cultural life (apart from Stavros the kebab-shop owner and My Big Fat Greek Wedding). I really understood Hector and his family's sense of wanting to do better than the natives, of bewilderment at their low standards, because this is something I grew up hearing from my parents and aunts and uncles.

What effect has your ethnic background had on your writing, and in particular on The Slap?

[ChristosTsiolkas]

@Shells

Hi Christos,
I'm interested in the 'but I'm Australian and Australia is not like that' kind of responses you have had to the book. Do you think this would happen in a more established, confident culture? I'm from a small country myself (smaller than Oz) and there's a lot of chippiness. I always perceive Australia as being uber confident in its sense of self, but maybe books like yours rock the foundations of that self belief?

That's a very interesting question. There seems to me to be a vey insular, backward looking conversation in Australia at the moment about what it means to be "Australian" and also, even more ridiculous, what it means to be "unAustralian". I do think that this points to an anxiety in the culture, that we are not very good at dealing with conflict and complexity. I find it an odd response, that somehow culture must be monocultural to be "real" or "authentic". There are many Australian books I read which feature characters, settings, lives vastly different to mine, to my experience. I don't perceive this as not being "Australian".
I don't think Australians have an uber confidence about who we are.