Christos Tsiolkas
1 rating since posting on Wednesday, August 9, 2006
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in Everywhere
(submitted by
Strummer
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Overall Rating based on 1 rating |
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REVIEW The Jesus Man by Christos Tsiolkas Greek-Australian author Christos Tsiolkas is seemingly not a person to shy away from the harsher aspects of society, his first novel Loaded (later filmed as Head On) polarised critics, with some labelling the story “Sensational”, while others such as the Sunday Age referring to it as “Drab” and alleging it to be just trying to say fuck as much as possible. The story of Loaded followed Ari, a 19 year old (closeted) Greek-Australian man over a 24 hour period and how Ari acts and reacts to the aspects of society he detests. Tsiolkas expands his vision in his second novel The Jesus Man by focusing on the lives and experiences of a Greek-Australian family and how said family is almost destroyed. Fans of his previous works will be pleased to know that the openly gay Tsiolkas still writes with the same passion and fury, his critique of the experience of migrants in Australia along with his somewhat scathing view in regards to intolerance regarding sexuality makes him, in my view, one of the most important writers in Australia today. The family in The Jesus Man are made up of parent’s Artie and Maria Stefano and their three sons’, the eldest Dominic who is married to Eva, with whom he has had three children. Middle child is the mentally unbalanced Tommy, who is in a relationship with the Chinese Soo-Ling with the youngest son being the bisexual Lou, who is a third year university student and just starting to find his place in the world. The novel starts off following Tommy as he begins what we soon discover to be his down wood spiral, the story also follows Lou all the while interjecting with the plights of other characters. This style works well as it leaves the reader with a strong impression of the dynamics of this family. Tsiolkas also does well by expanding what could be perceived as the limited roles of Ari’s parents in Loaded by fully fleshing out the characters of Maria and Artie. The heads of the Stefano household are beautifully created characters, with Maria in particular being one of the most human characters to be written for some time, cursed with all too human weaknesses yet fiercely political and opinionated, one is left with the impression that Maria with her passionate left wing views is a barely disguised Tsiolkas, especially with the author thanking the Maritime Union of Australia in the acknowledgments for giving him his optimism. While the story of the Stefano family makes for engrossing reading, Tsiolkas certainly doesn’t make it a comfortable ride. With a large portion of the story focusing on Tommy, Tsiolkas lays out the detachment he feels from his family as well as from society as a whole from the word go. Tommy’s raging inner monalogs against his family verge on heartbreaking as you know that despite having so many things in his favour, things will not end well for the hapless Tommy. After the seemingly inevitable happens, the story picks up with Lou as he observes the rest of his family cope with the tragedy, as well as his own attempts to comprehend what happened to his brother. Picking up with the story of Lou, brightens the book immediately, because while Lou has many dark aspects to his own life (a trait he shares with his brother), the youngest Stefano brother is infinitely more optimistic and it is this optimism that makes the second part of The Jesus Man an absolute joy to read. It installs such a sense of hope that you know that despite some devastating blows that are still to come for Lou and the rest of his family, that they will get though it all. Given the title of the novel, it comes as no surprise that Tsiolkas tackles religion and the detrimental effect it can have on society. With the dynamics of the Stefano household, the faith of Maria dominates the household, this is despite that her husband Artie and their three sons are open about the fact that religion hold’s little sway over them, but for Maria her faith is her foundation, the feature that has sustained her throughout the many disappointments in her life. Tsiolkas delves deeply into Maria’s past, offering the events that have shaped her in bits and pieces, what is remarkable about this is despite of deep unhappiness in regards to her life, which is explained by way of her general dislike of Australia and her avid desire to return to Greece – something that she only does after her son’s death, Maria remains hopeful. She maintains a deep love for the rest of her family and despite mocking from her husband and surviving children, she retains her faith, a faith that despite playing a role in her son’s death, continues to sustain her. A similar sentiment can be said for Artie, within his back story it is laid out the harsh life that he has endured and like his wife Artie has found solace in faith, but unlike Maria, Artie has been sustained by the faith and love of his family. What I feel Tsiolkas is trying to put across with this, is a notion that conventional religion is not necessary the best method from which to draw faith and that there are other aspects of life and society from which to draw strength from that would be a lot healthier for many people. While it isn’t the crux of the story, as it was with Loaded, the issue of sexuality is still dealt with in what could be described as typical Tsiolkas frankness, what I appreciated about The Jesus Man was the way Tsiolkas deals with both heterosexuality and homosexuality on a fairly even par, but this equality across the sexual divide is continued in the pessimism that the characters feel towards sex. As with Loaded, the themes of sex being unpleasant is continued in The Jesus Man, to put it bluntly the characters in Christos Tsiolkas book do not do sex easily. But Tsiolkas doesn’t simply put it in terms promiscuity verses chasteness, instead he places the characters in more honest and realistic terms that go against the misguided notion that sexuality is something that is easy to get a hold of, put simply it’s not and while none of the members of the Stefano family and more particularly Lou are vestal virgins, it is something that he finds difficult to get his head around - Strummer , posted 05/11/07 |
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