For those not in Australia or just oblivious the online debate that is raging amongst ABC viewers about the series, some plot summary action- though for those watching the miniseries be warned there may be minor unavoidable plot spoilage. Greek Australian Hector and his Indian-Anglo Australian wife, Aisha, have a barbeque for their friends and family. At the barbeque, Hector's cousin, Harry, slaps Hugo, the spoilt misbehaving three year child of Aisha's friend, Rosie, and her alcoholic husband, Gary. The child is slapped hard across the face but immediately prior to the slap Hugo was throwing a fit after being dismissed in backyard cricket game, swinging a bat at Harry's eight year old, Rocco, and kicking Harry in the shins. The slap and resultant legal action then resonate through the novel as each chapter follows the later events in the life of someone who was present at the barbeque starting with the events at the barbeque as focused on Hector, then moving to Aisha's unmarried Jewish friend Anouk who wants to be a novelist but currently works for a TV soap and is shagging the show's star, to Harry the self made man, to Connie the 17 year old assistant at Aisha's vet clinic who has been flirting with Hector, to Rosie the hippy mother who dotes on her son and ignores her husband's obvious alcoholism, to Hector's father Manolis who is grappling with getting older, to Aisha who is dealing with the effect of the slap on her marriage and the possibility of divorce, and finally to Connie's best friend and the son of a nurse at Aisha's vet clinic, 17 year old Richie, who is coming to terms with his homosexuality.
The initial suggestion of the title and then the event of the slap is sure to be off putting to some and the mass debate that went on via facebook and twitter after the first episode of the miniseries was none too surprising. Physical discipline of children is a controversial topic especially when the person dishing out the discipline isn't the parent. It is not just an issue of how to discipline but also if you discipline your kids at all. Tsiolkas's intent in writing the novel was to cause this kind of discussion and he succeeds. I personally am going to try to not weigh into the debate too heavily just to preface what I'm going to say by stating that I may not be a parent but were I one I would advocate the parental discipline though likely not of the physical variety. I found The Slap appropriately confronting in parts. I didn't care for Tsiokas's over use of the 'c' word as it is a word I find a bit too guttural for regular use and though it can be employed well if only used briefly for effect (in Ian McEwan's Atonement for example) but it just went a bit over board for me as the characters are middle class suburban adults and only Harry struck me as the kind of individual who would use it that often. I did applaud the point where Aisha recoiled at her husband's use of it. This complaint aside it is a brilliant novel. Sure the characters are largely unlikeable- in particular though at the epicentre for the slap, Harry, Gary, Rosie, and Hugo- but I find unlikeable characters interesting and the characterisation of Anouk, Aisha and Richie (the characters I most liked) I found quite sympathetic in their sections. I think I reacted most strongly against the character of Rosie as the novel's other contenders for least likable were Harry and Gary who I expected to dislike and Hugo who is just a child. For me, the presentation of Rosie wasn't overtly harsh (nor was that of any of the other characters), it was just overtly truthful and I found her extreme earth mother with no discipline lifestyle, her wilful ignorance of her husband's alcoholism and the growing development of a borderline Oedipal relationship with Hugo unbearable. It has been said a lot but I agree that this novel may be one of the most important Australian novels of recent times, if not ever. It perfectly envisions middle class insecurity on many issues and its dealings with the issues of race, wealth, marriage and family are largely spot on. Tsiolkas's prose is almost sublimely honest (except for the previously mentioned complaint). It will definitely be too confronting for many but if you can stomach confrontation and are watching the miniseries I strongly recommend reading the book. If you like complex middle class stories of unlikeable people, then like me you will probably find it very un-putdown-able and I'll stop now before I accidentally give any more miniseries spoilers.
A few words on the miniseries thus far (well not this week's version of the Connie chapter as I was at work late on Thursday and am yet to catch up on iView), all in all it is a good interpretation of the text (Melissa George as Rosie, in particular, is beyond perfect casting) but has made some weird changes to the book. I'm still yet to figure out why they made the barbeque Hector's 40th as it is just a barbeque and he is 43 in the novel; why they made Rocco 11 or 12 instead of 8; why Anouk's novel is about her, Aisha and Rosie when the plot isn't mentioned in the book; why Aisha isn't Indian. On more significant plot points why they made Connie hate Hector at the end of the first episode (she doesn't in the book, she just gets angry at being dismissed) and why they made Hugo behave so badly at the barbeque that he appeared to be a bit educational disabled (he is "normal" three year old in the book and he doesn't pull up flowers or destroy CDs at the party). I can understand why they might have needed to make Anouk's mother alive (she has already passed away following a battle with breast cancer before the action of the book) and why Rocco ran away (he didn't in the book) as episode padding. My one worry is that when I see the last episode that may have pushed the Connie and Hector thing a bit far- she doesn't see him in the book after the action of the barbeque. Still holding out hopes that it will largely be a good adaptation.
Next up still not The Tenant of Wildfell Hall as not only did I finish The Slap today, I also read Jane Austen's Persuasion in one sitting.
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