As 2005 rolls around, so does the ten-year anniversary of Loaded, Christos Tsiolkas' debut novel. Although heralded as an `important', `must read' novel, it probably also generated a lot of criticism for its `dirty realism' - a term for `a school of writing which is ... set in an urban cocktail of compulsive sex, drug taking, boredom and meaninglessness.'

There is no doubt that Loaded has been, and will be, received with mixed reactions. Like the book or loathe it, it is still as relevant to Australia's young adults today as it was ten years ago. It has been described as an insight in to `not ... what it's like to be young, Greek and gay in Australia today [but] about what it's like to detest being young, Greek and gay in Australia today'. It comes as no surprise then that Ari, the novel's central character, is nineteen, Greek, gay...