A slap in the face of middle class morality

A slap in the face of middle class morality

Christos Tsiolkas launched straight into how his latest novel is a return to the simple love of writing for him and yet there’s nothing simple about The Slap.

Nuanced, complex and ultimately endearing, The Slap is a portrait of secular Australian society, with its middle class warts and queer underbelly all on show.

The Slap opens on a seemingly normal suburban scene at a barbecue. One of the guests slaps an unruly child, who is not his own. A legal battle ensues, causing those who were present to evaluate their ideas of right and wrong and how that notions have been shaped by their age, culture and background.

Based on an incident at his mother’s house, Tsiolkas said it was a simple moment which still captured a lot.

It stayed in my head as an interesting moment, for what it says about cultural change. What it says about generational change and what it says about the world in between this little boy’s experience in suburban Melbourne and where my Mum’s come from.”

Raising questions about parenting, Tsiolkas also opens the doors for further questioning of those other middle class institutions: the nuclear family, marriage and monogamy.

I’m 43 and my partner Wayne and I have been together a long time and our families are quite close. I have many nieces and nephews that I’ve seen grow up from being babies into adults. So kids have always been a part of my life and there was a period about a decade ago when I did feel a real sense of loss that I wouldn’t be a biological father, but I realised over that period that there is something really important about the uncle and aunt role, and the mentoring which comes from that.

I’m so supportive of my lesbian and gay friends who are parents but sometimes I think we’ve lost sight of the other important roles we can play in our culture. I remember when I first started coming out and I was reading queer literature, at the time there was so much being written about non-biological notions of family and community and that seems to have dropped away. And I’m not saying that either way is better than the other. They’re both important discussions but I do want that older kind of politics to re-emerge.

info: The Slap is currently in bookstores, including The Bookshop, Darlinghurst. Cost: $32.95

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