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The Slap
By Christos Tsiolkas
Allen & Unwin, 683pp, $32.95
AT a suburban shopping complex in Brisbane on a recent "pupil-free" school day, my six-year-old and I were standing at a busy sushi counter waiting to order. The woman in front of us was trying to pay and gather her lunch, as well as to control her two extremely unruly children. They were boys of about three and five years apiece and she was falling apart. The more she tried to quieten them the more violently they fought against her: they slapped at her, tore her hair and kiddie-punched her in the belly. When they threw themselves on to the ground, screaming and raging, one of them managed to kick her in the mouth.
My boy was goggle-eyed and so was everyone else. We wanted to lend a hand but no one dared intervene. Who among us would have felt comfortable trying to offer calming words, or worse, to lay a finger on these kids? Probably some of us were thinking, "A quick smack in the pants is what this pair of brats need," but no one was foolish, or brave, enough to act.
To act is the ill-advised step Harry Apostolou takes in Christos...