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y separately published work icon The Jesus Man single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1999... 1999 The Jesus Man
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The Jesus Man tells the story of one family, trapped between conflicting identities - while the parents were born Greek and Italian, the three sons, Dom, Tommy and Louie, have grown up as Australians. Haunted by their history and increasing inability to relate to each other, Tommy inexorably descends into a cycle of violence, pornography and madness.

'When he commits a terrible crime, his family must try to come to terms with the terrifying stranger he had become, and the hell that living had been for him.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Atlantic 2016 ed.)

Notes

  • Dedication: for Shane Laing, in faith; for Jessica Migotto, in trust; and for Wayne van der Stelt, in gratitude and in love.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Milsons Point, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Vintage Australia , 1999 .
      image of person or book cover 4422428829283121729.jpg
      Extent: 403p.
      Reprinted: 2011 , (ebook)
      ISBN: 0091839424, 9781742745053 (ebk), 1742745059 (ebk)
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Atlantic Books ,
      2016 .
      image of person or book cover 6478358849332960539.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 386p.p.
      ISBN: 9781782397250, 1782397256
Alternative title: Ο άνθρωπος του Ιησού
Transliterated title: Ho anthropos tou lesou
Language: Greek

Works about this Work

Charting Tsiolkas’s Literary Development through Adaptations Liz Shek-Noble , 2022 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , vol. 46 no. 1 2022; (p. 72-84)

'Christos Tsiolkas has occupied an increasingly central position in the contemporary Australian literary and cultural imagination. Starting with his novel Loaded (1995), Tsiolkas’s fiction engages with subject matter that speaks to his personal experience as both a gay man of Greek heritage and a writer concerned with larger social and political issues affecting a multicultural Australia. Examples of recurring themes in Tsiolkas’s fiction include the irreconcilability of Greek and Australian identity, racial and class intolerance, emergent sexual consciousness, and the conflict between familial obligation and individual expression. In contrast to these arguably “reader-friendly” themes—that is, themes that are accessible to a wide and non-specialist audience—Tsiolkas’s early novels (LoadedThe Jesus Man, 1999; and Dead Europe, 2005) possess a subversive edge in how they explore obscenity and social transgression. However, the publication of Tsiolkas’s fourth novel, The Slap (2008), signalled a new phase in his career, in which the formal rawness of his prose and his uncompromising representation of extreme corporeal states gave way to a simplicity in his written expression that mirrored the growing topicality of his subject matter. This change in purpose mirrors the shift in both the reception of Tsiolkas the writer and of his fiction. Prior to The Slap, Tsiolkas was viewed as a “cult figure” who, though of some critical interest, neither captivated the attention of a mainstream audience nor was celebrated by the literary establishment as an “Australian” writer whose fiction reflected purportedly national interests. However, the critical and commercial success of The Slap has ensured that both Tsiolkas and his subsequent fiction have been (re)cast as pivotal sites of commentary on contemporary Australian class and racial politics. Put another way, Tsiolkas’s “increasing visibility … as a public intellectual, if not a literary celebrity”, has resulted in changes to the form, language and subject matter of his novels, and also the ways critics receive and understand his career.' (Publication abstract)

The Blurred Space : Reading the Body Politic in Christos Tsiolkas’s The Slap and The Jesus Man Pete Walsh , 2022 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , vol. 46 no. 1 2022; (p. 31-44)

'The politico-historical settings of Christos Tsiolkas’s novels The Jesus Man (1999) and The Slap (2008) compromise the expressions of self manifested by his transcultural characters. The failure of Howard-era multicultural policies combines with the economic rationalising of the culture wars and the xenophobic hysteria spread by Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party to haunt those marginalised by the Eurocentricity of Australian culture. As a result, the transcultural characters of The Jesus Man are forced to externalise an augmented version of their performative selves, compromised as they are by such cultural homogenisation; in The Slap, the failure of neoliberal multicultural policies manifests in the anxieties experienced by the characters. The characters of both novels are forced to confront these sociocultural, historical and psychological conflicts in a space laden with historical tensions, cultural erasure and political uncertainty. This article argues that Tsiolkas’s real-world fictional settings problematise the performance of his multicultural characters in ways that unsettle hegemonic constructions of Australian culture. In particular, I contend that from this tension, a blurred space emerges that offers a way forward for transcultural subjects: it is a liminal space in which cultural syncretism is encouraged, cultural performance is delimited, and hegemonic cultural norms are mitigated.'(Publication abstract)

Christos Tsiolkas's Style Mark Azzopardi , 2021 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 21 no. 1 2021;

'This article takes up a specific feature of Christos Tsiolkas's writing, his style. Focusing on Tsiolkas's fourth novel, The Slap, this article argues that Tsiolkas’s style is an inarticulate style: a style that does not always use the right word at the right moment, that employs language for narrative utility rather than its own sake, and that sporadically departs from standard usage and correctness in ways that do not appear artistically motivated. My argument is that The Slap is notable among contemporary fiction in that what I consider to be Tsiolkas’s worst sentences are the most revealing of his inclinations as a novelist. Consequently, I depart from what has become a standard formula in Tsiolkas's reception, that where Tsiolkas succeeds as a writer he succeeds in spite of his style. Finally, this article also contributes to recent debates about the purpose and vocabulary of Australian literary discussion: how critics debate the work of a prize-winning author, how criticism and praise operate in critical judgements, and the significance of style in evaluations of literature.' (Publication abstract)

Work in Progress : Multicultural Writing in Australia Wenche Ommundsen , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Modern Australian Criticism and Theory 2010; (p. 243-257)
Repeat Offenders George Dunford , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , Spring vol. 69 no. 3 2010; (p. 142-148)
Coming Soon 1999 single work review
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 21 March 1999; (p. 21)

— Review of The Jesus Man Christos Tsiolkas , 1999 single work novel
Hubris is Not a Dirty Word Anthony Macris , 1999 single work review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 25 May vol. 117 no. 6175 1999; (p. 115)

— Review of The Jesus Man Christos Tsiolkas , 1999 single work novel
Misery and Self-Destruction Raised to a High Art Form Tegan Bennett Daylight , 1999 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 22 May 1999; (p. 9)

— Review of The Jesus Man Christos Tsiolkas , 1999 single work novel
Hard-Core Saga of Fraternal Frustration Cameron Woodhead , 1999 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 29 May 1999; (p. 8) Creme de la Phlegm : Unforgettable Australian Reviews 2006; (p. 343-345)

— Review of The Jesus Man Christos Tsiolkas , 1999 single work novel
Hymns of Human Rage and Quirky Love Ian McFarlane , 1999 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times Sunday Times , 20 June 1999; (p. 18)

— Review of The Jesus Man Christos Tsiolkas , 1999 single work novel ; The Letter Girl Andrew Masterson , 1999 single work novel
Loaded with Meaning Stefan Kussy (interviewer), 1999 single work interview
— Appears in: Muse , March no. 182 1999; (p. 7)
Politics, Faith and Sex Patricia Cornelius (interviewer), 2005 single work interview
— Appears in: Overland , Summer no. 181 2005; (p. 18-25)
Christos Tsiolkas and the Pornographic Logic of Commodity Capitalism Andrew McCann , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , May vol. 25 no. 1 2010; (p. 31-41)
Putting Tsiolkas's works into a wider context of international writing, the essay is concerned with 'the fictional tradition that either deploys the pornographic, or evokes what might be called a pornographic sensibilty, in order to articulate forms of political and aesthetic radicality' (32).
Repeat Offenders George Dunford , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , Spring vol. 69 no. 3 2010; (p. 142-148)
Work in Progress : Multicultural Writing in Australia Wenche Ommundsen , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Modern Australian Criticism and Theory 2010; (p. 243-257)
Last amended 11 Jun 2020 15:03:04
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