'The Sopranos meets The Real Housewives of Orange County': The publishing of Christos Tsiolkas’s The Slap in the United States

Abstract

Drawing on theories and methodologies associated with the field of textual criticism and scholarly editing, as well as those associated with the field of book history, this article examines the publishing of Christos Tsiolkas’s novel The Slap in the United States. All aspects of the publication process are surveyed—including design, marketing, and screen adaptation—but this article devotes its greatest critical attention to the editorial process. Ultimately, it contends that reading a US edition of The Slap is a substantially different experience from reading an Australian edition. This groundbreaking argument is the result of several unique or rare critical decisions. This article is unique, firstly, in the scope of its examination of the publishing of an Australian book in the United States—considering editorial, design, marketing, and screen adaptation. Second, it is rare for its close analysis of a previously overlooked category of editorial variation between editions. Finally, this article is uncommon because its analysis of editorial variation is focused on a book that received editorial attention that is reflective of a contemporary industry standard, rather than an outlier case. What remains unknown, however, is how typical Tsiolkas’s The Slap is of US editions of contemporary books originally published in Australia.