Anyone read The Slap (Christos Tsiolkas)

I've just read this (twice in a week!). On first reading I found it compelling; the opening was really pacy and energetic and I was incredibly impressed. It's a really interesting picture of Australian society, though whether it qualifies as 'the Great Australian Novel' like the book blurb says is probably more for Australians to judge. It's a fairly depressing outlook, anyway.

Aha!

And, what is it about this book and singlets? Everyone wears them! I don't even know what one is!

Agree that they are a hideous bunch of people with the exception of the teenagers. Paints a dim view Australia, doesn't it? Or was it Tasmania ?

Anyway, I loved it, a truly absorbing read.

I'm no on page 320. It is quite rude. Perhaps I am boring but despite being about the same age as the females in this book and having children, like many of the main characters, I rarely get totally drunk, take the odd valium, do random spontaneous rude things to my husband in the kitchen or to anyone else in any other random place, get strange men buying me drinks when I go out with female friends (hasn't happened for a loooong time). Ah well. Perhaps I should move to Australia.

I am kind of enjoying this book now but still think it is no great shakes. It's a bit contrived and artifical. Unless I am truly missing something (see above!).

it IS SO RUDE!!! i cant imagine a ruder book i haev read for a LONG time

sauce!

Agree, BBL. I read it after reading the reviews, and while I thought it was an utterly compelling read (I read it in one day and a very long night!) I don't think it's comparable to books on previous Booker longlists.

I read an interview with the author recently, and I tried to get tickets to hear him at the Edinburgh Book festival but he was sold out.

On page 100 - can't believe this is on the Booker long list. It's no work of great literature. I'm going to read it to the end though.

It had particular resonance for me because a few days before i started it, an elderly lady slapped ds! So, I was v interested in the reactions of the characters.

I'm about 80 pages in and really not feeling moved to finish it.
I agree with those that want to slap everyone in it.
What a hideous bunch of people.
And it is NOT well written. It's way too expositional and therefore no subtlety - no shades of meaning.
Booker long list??
WTF?
(DP asked if I was going to throw it across the room _ I lie in bed tutting loudly whilst reading )

Just finished it- found it a bit frustrating towards the end.
I wanted to hear what Gary's thoughts were- and felt the meltdown Hector had was bizarre.
Definitely worth a read though.
Am moving on to the one by the writer of American Wife.

Oh this is on my amazon wish list...

But then I'll read anything more or less. Just read the Passage and now reading Rachel Cusk. I love David Mitchell and Haruki Murakami (someone mentioned above as 'genius writers').

I'm about halfway through and really enjoying it...puts me off Australia.

I'm nearly at the end and started off thinking they were all easy to loathe, but then realised that they were just people, with good and bad - the only one not developed enough is Gary. It is really interesting - the EBF, the cultures, the reactions to what happened etc.

Maybe I was being harsh on the characters: towards the end some of them had redeeming qualities and they had struggles in their lives.

I have read a few interviews with Tsiolkas and he comes across as a nice bloke

I think he writes well and it was a technically accomplished book

I didn't enjoy it though

I hated the book and I like almost every book I read. I would not have persevered were it not our bookclub read this month.

I too enjoyed the format where each chapter was written from a different point of view and yet continued the story chronologically, which must be quite technically difficult to achieve without seeming forced, but if those characters are "real" then they live in a very different universe from mine - a much nastier, dirtier, unkinder world; each and every character has the same sex -obsessed, self- obsessed, utterly selfish personality which to me smacks of a poor author who is portraying only his own world view. I would NOT invite Tsiolkas to a fantasy dinner party, and would be highly dubious of anyone who found this book true to life!

Latest recently published reads I HAVE enjoyed a lot include Small Wars, the new Sadie Jones (author of The Outcast), Skippy Dies and The Death of Bunny Munroe (hysterical and yet blackly world view chaning).

I think genius may be overplaying it but I did like the book a lot - I liked the fact that you got so many perspectives, I liked nearly all of the narrators and some of the other characters too and I thought it gave a really interesting window on the lives of people around my age and circumstances (early 40s, kids, living in a city, from a Mediterranean background).

I thought a lot of it was very perceptive especially about the tribal loyalties of different groups. It's basically a play-off between the Greeks who are an ethnic tribe and the rest of the characters who have chosen to make their own tribe through friendship - which is more illogical way to form ties?

OK well maybe 'genius' was an exaggeration although I do insist that he's very very talented, a damn good writer.

genius, really?

now, I'd say David Mitchell, Haruki Murakami, Ray Bradbury, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Hilary Mantell, Rose Tremain, Sarah Waters are all a damn sight closer to genius-dom

I don't know, the swearing & sex didn't bother me at all. I felt there was a range of experiences described in the book. In fact, was pleasantly surprised by the way an (openly gay) man was able to describe in such depth & richness the experiences of women, men, straight, gay, old, young.

I feel Christos Tsiolkas is very very talented.

We read this, btw, in our book club & everyone seemed to love it & agreed that Tsiolkas is a genius.

Would be interested in other opinions?

I found it a compelling read and couldn't put it down, although it left me feeling sort of dirty. It's on the Booker long list.

I'm with you TheFoosa - utterly charmless and all the narrators had basically the same voice = one of the few books I couldn't bring myself to finish

Have been tempted before - think I might having browsed this thread!