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Loading... The Slap (original 2008; edition 2010)by Christos Tsiolkas
Work InformationThe Slap by Christos Tsiolkas (2008)   
Booker Prize (245) » 7 more No current Talk conversations about this book.   ) Amzzz | Jan 20, 2024 |  The basic premise of this one seemed like it could be a setup for something good. One shocking incident whose consequences ripple out across different people's lives in different ways, in eight sections each told from the point of view of a different person who witnessed it... that's got potential, right? The problem is these people are all unbelievably awful and I resent having just spent nearly 500 pages in their company. It's not even that they're unlikable, as such. Unlikable characters can be fine. But if you're going to write them, by god, there needs to be something about them to make them worth reading about. They can be compelling in a train wreck kind of way, or provocative in their terribleness, or disturbingly sympathetic even when you don't want them to be, or at the absolute least they can get up to some entertainingly horrific things. But these folks? Nope, nothing of the sort. Their unlikability is entirely of the petty, banal, profoundly dull kind. And, hey, even that can work, if you're saying something interesting and resonant about the petty banality of people. I'm pretty sure that's what this one is trying to do. And there are moments where that almost works, little fleeting glimpses of some kind of possibly worthwhile commentary. But mostly it's just deeply tedious, with neither the characters nor the author feeling like they have anything actually insightful to say, despite their constant droning on about men and women and kids and relationships and The State of the World Today and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I spent a few days once in Melbourne, Australia, where this is set. I thought it was a lovely city, possibly one of the nicest I've ever been to. But I swear, less than a hundred pages in I was fantasizing about someone dropping a nuke on the place just to rid the world of these people. It would be a great shame, yes, but quite possibly worth it. Rating: 2/5, and that's actually being super generous. (  ) bragan | Jul 10, 2023 | This novel places its merits on its characters, not on its writing or even its ability to tell a great story. I found none of its characters interesting or worthy to read about. Manolis was perhaps the only character I began to warm to, but as soon as I did, like every other character, a sordid, sexual deviancy was thrown in. And then there was the character of Richie, who was not only boring, but whose chapter in the book could have easily been thrown out and it wouldn't have mattered. Two thirds of the book is made up of drugs (I'm sorry but not every person of every age and every demographic takes drugs), sex and the description of male anatomy, the whole 'slap' incident was nothing more than a weak excuse to write chapters from every, boring character's view. I kept putting it down, and was unable to engrossed by it, and in all honesty, its vulgarity, lack of substance, and skill did not speak of 'braveness' nor 'brutal honesty' but rather of something completely common and uninspiring. A plucked sentence: This finally, was love. This was its shape and essence, once the lust and ecstasy and danger and adventure had gone. Love, at its core, was negotiation, the surrender of two individuals to the messy, banal, domestic realities of sharing a life together. Page 406. (  ) spiritedstardust | Dec 29, 2022 | ) MrLloydSpandex | Sep 30, 2022 | Not the 'must read' that people might tell you but very satisfying and outside my usual genre of sci-fi fantasy. ( ) benkaboo | Aug 18, 2022 |
Belongs to Publisher SeriesHeyne Allgemeine Reihe (43727) AwardsNotable Lists
The bestselling cult author of Loaded and Dead Europe turns his blowtorch onto the belly of middle-class suburban Australia and its notions of child-rearing and acceptable behaviour.At a suburban barbecue, a man slaps a child who is not his own.This event has a shocking ricochet effect on a group of people, mostly friends, who are directly or indirectly influenced by the event.In this remarkable novel, Christos Tsiolkas turns his unflinching and all-seeing eye onto that which connects us all: the modern family and domestic life in the twenty-first century. The Slap is told from the points of view of eight people who were present at the barbecue. The slap and its consequences force them all to question their own families and the way they live, their expectations, beliefs and desires.What unfolds is a powerful, haunting novel about love, sex and marriage, parenting and children, and the fury and intensity - all the passions and conflicting beliefs - that family can arouse. In its clear-eyed and forensic dissection of the ever-growing middle class and its aspirations and fears, The Slap is also a poignant, provocative novel about the nature of loyalty and happiness, compromise and truth. No library descriptions found. 
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.914Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.25)
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