Anyone read The Slap (Christos Tsiolkas)

[iwantavuvezela]

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

It was ok to read, not dire, but my copy was riddled with typos which I crossly assume originated from the author (e.g. The Sugarbabes, even my mum knows it's not the Sugarbabes). I always find that really distracting and faith-shaking.

Other thing that annoyed me was the exhausting level of detail - she raised the nut to her mouth. She closed her teeth until a piece of nut broke off. She chewed the nut, bringing her molars together and squashing it. When she had swallowed the nut she raised the glass to her mouth. She put her lips to the rim... AAARRGH!

My problem with the sex was not that there was a lot of sex in it but that all the female characters were given identical views of, and language about, sex, and I thought that showed laziness and wasn't credible.

I found the ending really weak. There was so much foreshadowing of further disaster which ratcheted up the menace and then a bit of a damp non-resolution. I was sure that Richie would be accused of paedophilia for allowing Hugo to go to the loo with him and why did Hector admit to a random affair (or was he admitting to the affair with the teenager while sanitizing it?). How could Richie's view of Hugo not be altered by the spitting/kicking incident? Why would he say goodbye?

I have met a few horrid, earth mother types. It is strange how fast the peers of their children sort them out.

Oh I really loved this - I thought of all the people I'd really like Aisha and hate Rosie, but actually, it was the other way round.

Aisha was the cold, grasping bleugh, yet given her background I could see why Rosie thought pouring everything into her son was the right way to go - because her own life had been so unremittingly awful and self destructive - even though she was totally wrong, wrong, wrong and had literally bred a disaster.

Agreed, the Ritchie chapter had a big (the festival) section that was rubbish, but I liked the rest. The worst was Harry. Ugh. No understanding of him or anything challenging there except his right to (fictional as it was) oxygen, I'm afraid.

Really disappointed. Wanted to be swept but wasn't. Started well. Petered out. Thought reviews overly complementary.

I really wanted some deeper thinking by characters.

Having lived in Oz I can say it is truly a fair reflection of Oz (or at least how I experienced it!) especially the hideous racism.

Hated it.

Full of typos, and the opportunity for a great twist was lost time and time again IMO.

Reading it to the end felt like a chore and was a triumph of hope over adversity.

Liked it. Liked it because I have Greek Knowledge and all that stuff was so true.

Didn't like the female characters sex stuff - interesting to discover afterwards that he is gay, made me think he just didn't know what he was talking about with women and sex and it showed.

Bran LOVED it.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but...

I disagree with bran

yy to poor female character description.

Glad I found this thread.

It's not often I give up on a book, but this is CRAP. I'm half-way through and if one more woman is up for it again... It's ludicrous.

All the characters are relentlessly charmless. The men make me feel sick and the women are empty.

If this is Melbourne then I'm not going!

One of my older children read this and thought it utter rubbish. Too much sex, and boring writing and predictable. I'm not going near it - sticking with my David Mitchell.

Just finished this - don't think I'll be reading anything else by him. After all the hype and the booker long listing I was anticipating something much better than this.
Disliked almost all the characters (could just about tolerate a couple).

It said nothing to me about anything, I found it pointless, and the sex scene were tedious in the extreme, and repetitive - too many thick cocks. (that goes for the characters as well).

Oh thank godness I've found this thread! I thought it was just me who just didn't like it. I agree that too many thick cocks and C*S that weren't needed and to be honest I didn't really get the characters, just found that he went so far and then like me reading it had bored himself...

I not sure I can even give this to oxfam books

Stylelostinlabour - Oxfam books will probably find themselves inundated with copies

Just finished this and just HAD to come and see what Mumsneters thought of it!
I couldn't stop reading it but can't say I enjoyed it.
The characters were almost all awful and not people I could really relate to. Richie was nice enough and Hector's Dad was quite OK.
I just can't imagine any woman actually thinking of her own genitalia in the terms used used here. For me c*t is a really nasty insult not something I would ever use to describe part of myself - totally unbelievable female characterisation for me.
Also have to say that as an Australian this book was set in as foreign a setting as any I can imagine. I did not recognise this world at all.
I generally think of Melbourne as a more conservative city (I'm from Sydney) but apparently they're all drugged up, farting, wanking, smoking, alcoholic, racist, chauvinists? Hmmm, the ones I know all seem quite nice, but maybe that's why they moved to Sydney? ;-)

weird, i was just going to post had anyone read this.

i just finished it too, and really enjoyed it. just loved the down to earth feel.