Tsiolkas uses an event to illustrate the workings of a neighborhood and the relationships within. There is a picnic at a neighbors house, there is a child, Hugo, who has no boundaries and a profound lack of discipline at home. At the picnic he has a temper tantrum related to another child and kicks an adult, who promptly slaps him. It is an act that divides the neighborhood along a number of lines.
Hugos' parents have no idea what they are doing when it comes to parenting--Hugo is in charge. he is still breast feeding at four, and he does so literally on demand. Hugo's father at one point openly competes with Hugo, sucking on the other breast, and saying they are his. There is a lot of pathology in suburban Melbourne, it turns out.
Through the viewppoints of eight different neighbors who winessed the slap, we learn a lot about love, sex, marriage, and the fury and intensity that lurks just below the surface in every community. Fabulous.
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