< Shoos aristocat away from thread before posting spoiler-y review >
When I read the first chapter I thought "Oh yes, she really can write". A light, deft touch and the ability to skewer a foolish character with a few well-chosen words. It was genuinely funny too.
The hating came, I think, from the malice that the characters had towards one another. Liffey was a naïve idiot but I couldn't work out why everyone hated her so much. Mabs' nastiness towards her children was disturbing. I sort of get what the author was doing but I found myself thinking that if the book had been written by a man rather than an iconic feminist, I would have thought it misogynistic - the authorial voice showed such contempt for Liffey in particular.
I'm also not good at books where chaos descends on well-meaning characters (says a lot about me I think). People have described in reviews crying with laughter at the awful flat tenants. I could see that they were funny but I spent the whole time thinking "No! Those horrible people! All those lovely things!".
For me, this was a book about the very thin veneer of civilisation that floats on top of the seething pit of irrational hungers and impulses that are Nature (I can't do the silly sideways N thing). It made me feel rather dizzy......
Imperial, I'm not sure whether it's the done thing to name the author, very happy to tell you more over pm