The Slap, Aug. 14th, BBQ at Catherine's

THE SLAP Very sorry about this, they've messed with the site, no matter how many spaces I try to put in they are not showing up on the post. Will have to make do with periods til I figure it out..................................................................... Christos Tsiolkas was born and grew up in Melbourne and was educated at Blackburn High School and the University of Melbourne where he completed an Arts Degree in 1987. He edited the student newspaper Farrago in 1988......Tsiolkas' first novel, Loaded (1995), was filmed as Head On (1998) by director Ana Kokkinos, starring Alex Dimitriades.[2] In 2006, his novel, Dead Europe, won The Age Book of the Year fiction award. In 2009, his fourth novel, The Slap, won the Commonwealth Writers Prize 2009 for best novel in the South-East Asia and South Pacific area.He is openly gay,and a Richmond Football Club supporter....................................................... Points for discussion................................................................................................................................................................ -As a reviewer points out, despite being set in Australia, this story could just as easily take place in Canada or the US. Do you think this is true? (Foul language thoughout, drug use,one character was doing bongs since age twelve).................................................................................................................................................................. -Do you think that this book is true to life or just sensationalism?(In a review: It’s worth contrasting, for example, the prevalence of drugs in the story with the extant reality in society. I checked after reading the book and only about 10% of the population has tried hard drugs: speed, cocaine, ecstasy, LSD. In The Slap it appears the majority of generation X and all of generation Y are getting into the party players now and again. Personally, I find it difficult to believe that 90% of the population hasn’t tried hard drugs because everyone I know has dabbled to lesser and greater extents.)................................................................................................................................................................. -From a review: "I was totally turned off by the book with the vulgar language and unnecessary adultery. It's almost like the author thought he had to include that to make the book seem more interesting".............................................................................................................................................................. -Melbourne multicultural- ethnicity seems to be part of every description of all characters in the book................everyone looks down on everyone wih a different background from themselves. Aborigines seem to be looked down on by everyone............ mussies,lebos, Australians,wogs.......................................................................................................................................................... -From a review: Aisha stays with Hector because she thinks the two of them look so good as a couple, even though their sex life consists of him ramming himself into her as a painful pseudo rape thing.............. do people actually stay in crappy marriages for this reason?................................................................................................................................................................... -Aisha and Hector talked about there being, men, women and women without children. What do you think?.................................................................................................................................................................... -How necessary is Anouk to the book, what is her role?..................................................................................................................................................................... -Do you have any idea what these mean? ibw'd, bogan, arvo, daggy, lebos, mussie, wog, doona, she slammed the "medways" shut..................................................................................................................................................................... Borrowed discussion points ...................................................................................................................................................................... Suggested discussion points for The Slap • Were Gary and Rosie right to press charges? • What would you have done in Harry’s place? • What role does the shifting point of view play in your experience of the novel? • Which of the characters did you most identify with? • Which of the characters most irked you? • Would you have supported Rosie or Harry if you were in Aisha’s shoes? • Do you think that Aisha and Hector should stay married? • Why did Connie fabricate the story about Hector? • What do you think The Slap says about contemporary Australian life?..................................................................................................................................................................... To what extent do you have to like the characters to enjoy the book? As I’ve said already, I didn’t particularly like many of the characters in the book, but once I got through the rather confusing first chapter I found the book hard to put down and enjoyed the frightening skill of the writer, if not the content of his characters. To what extent do you need a driving plot to enjoy a story? The Slap is not one of those “what’s going to happen next” books, really, and I must confess I’m not really that interested in racy plots so long as the characters are well drawn. The characters seemed to breath on the page and I was transfixed by Tsiolkas’s ability to detail the complexities of men and women who often appeared, upon first impressions, to be fairly two-dimensional............................................................................................................................................................... Which characters did you like the least, and which did you feel most empathy for, and why?...................................................................................................................................................................... The book has been called a condemnation of the middle-class, but the book seemed to be a bit broader in its brushstrokes of condemnation. Is Harry middle-class, is Garry? What defines Australia’s middle-class these days anyway? Is it simply measured by a person’s relative wealth? Are their cultural and educational aspects to this vague, illusory term, or is it purely a material distinction?