A brutal crime sits at the heart of Tsiolkas’s raw 1999 novel, now published in the UK for the first time. It follows a Greek-Italian family in Melbourne through the 1980s and 90s, as unemployment rises, acid house emerges and racism taints pubs and politics. Oldest brother Dom, a carpenter who grows weed on the side, is close to his youngest sibling, handsome, curious Lou. But middle brother Tommy stands apart, and when he loses his job as a printer, he shuts off from the world and gorges on pornography and food. Most of the first half of The Jesus Man follows Tommy in a repetitive parade of porn shops, dole offices and arguments, sullen monosyllables masking an internal monologue that shouts out in anger and lust. When the narrative moves on to Lou, who is trying to make sense of his family and his sexuality, the realisation that The Jesus Man can be interesting rather than just horrible comes as something of a shock. Things don’t get any sunnier – there’s a desperation at its heart that rarely lets up – but this dark, flawed novel eventually acquires a real emotional weight.
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