Anyone read The Slap (Christos Tsiolkas)

[iwantavuvezela]

Just finished reading this ..... loved it - anyone else read it?

yes, half-way through
I hate everyone but I'm still reading

Yes, just finished it. Never mind giving Hugo a slap, I could have slapped almost everyone else at that barbecue, starting with Rosie and Gary. I shudder to think how Hugo is going to turn out being taught that every emotion of his is legitimate and that discipline is a dirty word.

And as someone of Greek-Cypriot descent, I found it fascinating that the immigrant experience of Greek-Australians was so similar to mine (although with a bit less drug-taking, infidelity, violence!)

Ooo I want to watch this thread, we have this book for book group this month but so far it seems everyone hates it - I'm yet to start.

Iwantavuvezela why did you like it so much?

There was a lot about the book i liked! (Although I agree that some of the characters make themseleves hard to like!)
I liked his clever cultural references throughout the book (knowledge of music; drug cluture; tv shows; subtle references to avian flu, experience of immigration etc - it made it very contempary for me)
I felt anxious reading it as some of the characters are "quite near the edge, and their behaviour" and i liked the way he built that up through the book. I found it quite subtle in places, and I loved how he showed the inner workings of relationships, vulnerability of people throughout.

I rated it! really enjoyed it, the charactars were real, and the story had a good pace to it too. I did not "hate" the characters, well bar a couple...They were human and flawed. I liked his writing style and this is one of the best books Ive read for a while

I've just finished it. Aptly named I thought because, quite frankly, I thought every character in the book deserved a slap.

didn't finish it, got bored after the kid's mother

you're all going to tell me it gets really good after that, aren't you?

Am watching this thread as we're reading this book in our book club later this month. Am loving loving loving it so far, I think Tsiolkas is a genius (have almost finished) but don't want to say more in case other book club members (some are MNetters) read this . More later this month.

Is that the one where the kid gets slapped at a party? I have heard that it is very funny.

Funny? No, the last thing I would say about it is that it's funny.

it definately isn't funny

it is, however, very very annoying

TheFoosa: curious to know why you found it annoying?

I'm a short way in and already irritated! Too many characters introduced at the beginning purely to set the scene for the slap. I will persevere but glad I didn't save it for 'special' holiday reading.

there was too much swearing and shagging , which I',m not normally averse to but it was just so charmless

Read it, loved it, found it edgy and had an air of menace throughout, like a thriller without a plot if that makes sense?
Rather enjoyed hating the characters so much too (bizarrely not Hector!), but I wanted to violently slap Rosie and Hugo am afraid, and I am a pacifist!

fab book

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

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

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 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?

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

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

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?

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 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