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The Slap

3.06 of 5 stars 3.06 · rating details · 9,982 ratings · 1,770 reviews

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 c...more

Hardcover, 485 pages

Published November 2008 by Allen & Unwin Australia

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Nov 23, 2012 Paul rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels

Thank you Christos Tsiolkas... you finally made my mind up for me and I have flung your horrid novel away from me in a graceless convulsion which mixed repulsion and depression in equal parts, with a dash of glee.

Because for many pages I was desperately seeking a casus belli. Something I could put my finger on. I was a closet Slap-hater at this point. I couldn't quite admit the horror of this novel to myself. I needed to find something definite, a line in the print where I could say

thus far an...more

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Jan 24, 2013 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: australian, literary-fiction, drama, 10-aussie-books-to-read-before-you, autographed, 2000s

At a suburban barbeque, one slap will change the lives of these people. Christos Tsiolkas unflinchingly looks at domestic life in the Australian suburbs in the twenty first century. The slap and its consequences cause everyone to question their own families and the way they live, their expectations, beliefs and desires. A gripping novel of loyalty and happiness, compromise and truth from the very start to the end.

You’ll either love it or hate it; Christos Tsiolkas’ controversial novel The Slap i...more

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Jan 09, 2013 Mark rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: really-loathsome-villains

Having seen this spoken of so highly and having read the initial idea of how one instant can change so many lives i thought i'd give it a try. i was disappointed. Tsiolkas has an appalling view of humankind.

The way people think of each other and treat each other and stick with each other for the most ludicrous of reasons in his universe is depressing in the extreme. The characters are all either racist, sexist, drunken or sluts or indeed, in a few cases, all of the above.

The idea of tracing the...more Having seen this spoken of so highly and having read the initial idea of how one instant can change so many lives i thought i'd give it a try. i was disappointed. Tsiolkas has an appalling view of humankind.

The way people think of each other and treat each other and stick with each other for the most ludicrous of reasons in his universe is depressing in the extreme. The characters are all either racist, sexist, drunken or sluts or indeed, in a few cases, all of the above.

The idea of tracing the lives of witnesses to the slap in question would have been interesting if a) they had been believable and not monstrous caricatures b)You felt any fellow feeling for them at all c) the slap had had an effect on their lives, which reading the novel it didn't. Tsolkias attempts to use it as the hook on which to place the unravelling or quaking of various relationships and there is a certain cleverness to the way the stories interreact and relate but the slap is of no real significance except for the totally unbelievable reaction of arrests and court cases.

The language is laughably foul. I don't know many elderly greek men admittedly but is it likely they would greet another old friend at the funeral of another with ' How are you you old cocksucker? '. The f and c words litter the dialogue and their internal thinking. Almost every page has one. The racism and brutality of relationship is horrible. I have no problem with earthy language and vicious dialogue if it is necessary for character or even atmosphere but i am very dubious here.

I don't think there is a single person who I would be interested in getting to know. Tsolkias does give you a certain insight into the child's mother's upbringing. Her parenting skills are ridiculous and unrealistic but its her neediness and abuse which gives at least a glimmer of ' ah, I can see why' and partially redeems the storyline.

Actually maybe he should write the sequel. Has Hugo, the brat, risen above his dreadful start? Has he managed to break from the circle of madness. So I correct myself; I would not like to meet any of these self-obsessed, self-centred adult idiots at any time in my life but perhaps Hugo could redeem them all by actually turning out well. maybe one slap might change the world or at least this putrid corner of depression(less)

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Jan 29, 2012 Jay Kristoff rated it 1 of 5 stars

I likened reading this book to sitting down in front of a television, watching two weeks of bad Australian teledrama without any preamble, then standing up at a random point in the story and wandering away.

There is no real introduction. There is absolutely no climax and no closure. This is a snippet from the lives of a singularly miserable cast of misogynists, adulterers and straight up train-wreck human beings, without a single redeemable character among them.

The incident of 'the Slap' is not...more

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Aug 02, 2010 Patrick Johns rated it 1 of 5 stars

I do not consider The Slap to be a great piece of writing - I feel it was created to provide mass appeal. I found the quality of writing a little patchy, and in places offensive.

The basic premise is an interesting one - the "incident" at the party and how it affects the lives of the people involved, which in turn leads to a description, history and character study of a group of loosely interrelated people. The big moral question of whether the actions and reactions following the "Slap" were nec...more

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Apr 03, 2013 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

A man at a weekend barbecue slaps someone else's child in anger, and the act reverberates through his circle of friends and family.

I'm a bit mystified as to why this book has such a low rating here on Goodreads. But there were a couple of things I really admired about the book; uncoincidentally, those same theories might explain why some people seemed to dislike the book so much.

First of all, Tsiolkas takes a nonjudgmental attitude toward his characters. They not only do things we probably don'...more A man at a weekend barbecue slaps someone else's child in anger, and the act reverberates through his circle of friends and family.

I'm a bit mystified as to why this book has such a low rating here on Goodreads. But there were a couple of things I really admired about the book; uncoincidentally, those same theories might explain why some people seemed to dislike the book so much.

First of all, Tsiolkas takes a nonjudgmental attitude toward his characters. They not only do things we probably don't admire much, but they do some genuinely awful things, too. Yet nothing terrible happens to them; they go about their lives without getting the karmic slap with a two-by-four that a lot of readers not only want but have come to expect (see e.g. East of Eden). I suspect this drives that same group of readers completely nuts.

What I suspect angered readers even more is the one character that people seem to despise without even quite realizing what's creating such violently negative reaction: the mother who not only doesn't wax rhapsodic with every breath about how motherhood is the best thing she's ever done, but actually detests motherhood and probably detests her child, too. This book contains that character and then some in Rosie, the mother of the child receiving the slap. (Check the reviews on Charlotte Mendelsohn's "When We Were Bad"; another book that got horrible ratings that you can't quite figure out -- similar character, same explanation. Although that book also wasn't helped by the fact that a couple of people seemed to also go insane at its use of Yiddish and Hebrew words. A totally different subject that I won't talk about or I'll go insane.) Rosie hates being a mother and also hates her kid, a vile little brat who is eminently hatable (unsurprisingly, given the rotten parent hand that life dealt the little shit).

But again, Tsiolkas doesn't condemn Rosie, nor does he paint her as a monster or make her see the error of her ways by the last page. She continues on unchanged, and Tsiolkas gives the impression that she'll do so long after the book has ended. He also very much takes his time in revealing her character -- another thing I admired about the book.

To me, these things make the book nuanced; to a lot of readers, I guess, they make the book immoral.

I would probably normally give this one four stars instead of five, but the rating is so shamefully low that I bumped up my own in the benighted hope that the overall rating would tick up slightly. (less)

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Aug 01, 2011 Dave rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Good - An easy enough read with interesting topics of debate (whether it's appropriate to hit a child, fidelity, drugs), and a modern/diverse cast of characters. I read somewhere that it's like a long episode of neighbours,but souped with with lots of swearing... pretty accurate.

The Bad - The title of the book. The opening chapter - characters are introduced at a very fast pace so you've not a clue who is who. Language used isn't amazing, cliches, lots of pointless swearing (Too much use of...more

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Aug 08, 2009 Sean Kennedy rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 08, 2011 Banafsheh Serov rated it 5 of 5 stars

A group of people are gathered at a suburban Barbecue. During the afternoon an incident between one of the guests and a four year old result in consequences that directly, or indirectly, affect all who are present.

Told as a collection of short stories through the perspective of eight characters, all with different background, age, ethnicity and value systems, The Slap is a provocative, unflinching novel that explores our inner most beliefs and the conflicting issues we face. I enjoyed having a d...more

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Sep 30, 2011 Nicola rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own, overhyped

The Slap wasn't really anything like I was expected. From the title and the description, I expected the plot to be focused around the aftermath of Harry slapping his friends' child. Instead, it really just focused around the relationships of all the acquaintances and their personal lives. The Slap was mentioned a few times throughout the book but it really felt like it was in the background. I found it very hard to like any of the character as they were all incredibly selfish and hate-filled but...more

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Jul 15, 2012 Orsodimondo rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: australia

FUCK THE PAIN AWAY
Christos Tsolkias sventola la sua esca, uno schiaffo, lo schiaffo del titolo, quello di un adulto a un bambino di quattro anni, e noi ventre a terra a seguire come un branco di segugi questa finta preda, come se fosse il mcguffin in un film di Hitch.

E c’è anche un’altra esca che ci porta via e distrae dal cuore dell’opera: l’esca della società multicurale, il melting pot.

E intanto, mentre noi perdiamo tempo dietro a questi due falsi pilastri del romanzo, a esaminarli e rivoltar...more FUCK THE PAIN AWAY
Christos Tsolkias sventola la sua esca, uno schiaffo, lo schiaffo del titolo, quello di un adulto a un bambino di quattro anni, e noi ventre a terra a seguire come un branco di segugi questa finta preda, come se fosse il mcguffin in un film di Hitch.

E c’è anche un’altra esca che ci porta via e distrae dal cuore dell’opera: l’esca della società multicurale, il melting pot.

E intanto, mentre noi perdiamo tempo dietro a questi due falsi pilastri del romanzo, a esaminarli e rivoltarli e prendere una posizione in merito, Tsiolkias ha un altro progetto, ben più vasto, e costruisce un racconto che parla di altro: parla dell’Australia del terzo millennio, paese che per sua stessa natura è un melting pot, dov’è la novità e la sorpresa? – parla di gente, middle class urbana e suburbana essenzialmente, bambini, adolescenti, adulti e anziani – parla di otto persone, Hector e sua moglie Aisha, il cugino Harry, il padre Manoli, la madre dello schiaffeggiato Rosie, Anouk, Connie e Richie, e attraverso loro, i loro punti di vista e le loro personalità, molte altre persone entrano in gioco – parla semplicemente della vita, e naturalmente, della vita.
Succede tanto in queste pagine, succede di tutto, cose molto più importanti dello schiaffo.
Non c’è da stupirsi che nell’Australia del 21° secolo il melting pot sia totale, il multiculturalismo abbia dilagato, e finalmente vinto: gente di tutte le età, di etnia e nazionalità diversa, con convinzioni politiche diverse, questa gente è connessa, intrecciata, sposata una con l’altro, e anche una contro l’altro, e tutto va bene, e tutto, ovviamente, non va affatto bene. È un ‘come eravamo’, è un ‘come siamo’. Greci, prima di tutto, come l’origine del nome di Tsiolkias lascia intuire, e poi australiani bianchi e australiani neri, inglesi e aborigeni, indiani, italiani... Ci sono momenti di rara intensità, come quello in cui si descrive il guardare indietro nel tempo e si capisce che il tempo si sta prendendo gioco di noi, quello in cui si capisce che la vita è troppo veloce e la cazzo di morte invece troppo lenta, quello in cui è chiaro che dio è uno stronzo, non è onnipotente, non è buono. Bugie, false verità, ipocrisia, tradimento, debolezze, accanto all’amore e all’amicizia e alla sensibilità, come è normale, come è nell’ordine delle cose. I bambini non fanno una gran figura nel romanzo di Tsiolkas, sono lo specchio di adulti mediocri: a uscire fuori meglio di tutti sono gli adolescenti e gli anziani.
Forse questa gente del nuovissimo continente è difficile da comprendere e sentire vicina per chi proviene dal vecchio continente, dal paese del papa re: il finale con tanto di anfetamina sparata in vena è una celebrazione, la festa di fine e inizio, l’happy ending del racconto, Richie continua a sentire che è il giorno più bello della sua vita, che le cose stanno cambiando in meglio, che la sua omosessualità ha finalmente modo di vivere e manifestarsi, e gli adulti sembrano consenzienti anche allo sballo chimico, la vita è dura, si sa, un aiutino non guasta, più avanti lo si sostituirà con sesso, alcol, carriera.
Il r&r funziona sempre.

PS
Purtroppo la capacità di racconto e di prospettiva di Tsiolkas non è sorretta da una scrittura all’altezza. Ho trovato diversi momenti di caduta, il tutto peggiorato da una traduzione che non sembra impeccabile.
(less)

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Apr 27, 2013 Booksy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: my-favourite-bookshelf, read-2013

This is in my opinion the best contemporary Australian novel. The themes are as relevant now as when the novel was first published (2008).
It is brutally honest and controversial, written in 8 main character's kind of soliloquies, through which we get to know and relate to each of these characters, no matter how imperfect you may find them.

I found the novel incredibly moving and very very human (the key theme of celebration of life is depicted through thoughts and stories about deaths and sickn...more

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Jan 13, 2013 Nick Costa rated it 4 of 5 stars

I loved this book! I have read many derogatory reviews here, and it reinforces to me that it does present a sort of 'harsh reality' in its depiction of middle class life in the suburbs. It is not flattering, but neither do I think it to be grossly unrealistic; it doesn't sugar coat anything, and it doesn't shy away from anything, it simply says it as it is. I think it is a brilliant, insightful piece of work, albeit, not for the faint hearted. Then again, if you are going to shy away from the is...more I loved this book! I have read many derogatory reviews here, and it reinforces to me that it does present a sort of 'harsh reality' in its depiction of middle class life in the suburbs. It is not flattering, but neither do I think it to be grossly unrealistic; it doesn't sugar coat anything, and it doesn't shy away from anything, it simply says it as it is. I think it is a brilliant, insightful piece of work, albeit, not for the faint hearted. Then again, if you are going to shy away from the issues of domestic violence, infidelity, homosexuality, narcotics, etc, you are probably exactly the audience Tsiolkas is looking to reach.

Below is a review I had to write for academic purposes, I thought i'd include it as a matter of interest:

'The Slap' is a depiction of contemporary life in suburban Melbourne amidst the clamour and grind of suburban domesticity. It is essentially a book about the chasm between political correctness and reality: multiculturalism in it's true form as a digression from John Howard's 'white Australia' paradigm. It provides a critique of this whilst making concession for the diverse array of Australian multicultural life: new age lifestyles, diversity, multiculturalism, marriage, adolescence, homosexuality, religion and politics. It is centered around a conflict between second generation Greek Australians and white Anglo-Saxon Australians as they struggle to find common ground after the incident of the 'Slap' at a family BBQ (whereby an adult slaps a child which is not his own). The division of loyalties is somewhat exacerbated by the characters' varying definitions of family, parenting and morality; and is reified through suburban distinctions. This supports Turner's view of the politics of urban development between suburbs: that inner suburbs prices are inflated by the rich getting richer (an effect of globalisation) forcing the working class out to the suburbs (p. 569), and resulting in unprecedented cultural changes. Harry, (the perpetrator of the slap) is a successful businessman living in the wealthy inner suburbs, who "can't stand the fucking Western suburbs" (Tsiolkas, 2008, p 108) and views Gary and Rosie as "scum" and "vermin" (p 161), "the types who will be renting all their lives" (p. 152). Gary is a failed artist, alcoholic, and a degenerate, married to Rosie, who hides from her failures behind her spoilt son Hugo (the victim of the slap). They eventually move out of Melbourne altogether, to the rural areas, further exemplifying Turner's political and economical suburban division.

Tsiolkas, C 2008, The Slap, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW.

Turner, G 2008, The cosmopolitan city and its Other: the ethnisizing of the Australian suburb, Inter-Asia cultural studies, vol 9, issue 4, pp 568-582.(less)

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May 10, 2011 Ali rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

This was one of the best books I've read in a long time. Filled with despicable but ultimately somehow sympathetic characters, a microcosm of friends and family becomes a commentary on the social make-up of the city of Melbourne, the country of Australia, and perhaps the world. That the story is told from multiple perspectives but still chronologically (ie. the episode around which the plot is centred isn't retold again and again) is genius and the complex, nuanced emotions of, reactions to and...more

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Mar 15, 2011 Simone Ramone rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club, australian

I was really looking forward to this book, but although I'm not certain whether I found it engrossing or just gross.

There were a few things I liked about this book, sadly they were not related to any of the main characters.

The story of the slap itself is nothing and my interest in the principle players was almost nothing as well.

However, some of the sideline characters were great, but that actually only served to frustrate me more.
This book was written about the wrong people. WHY would he want...more

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Jul 17, 2012 Janet rated it 1 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I was really disappointed with the book. I don't know why I wasted my time finishing it aside from the fact that it got such great reviews and I kept thinking that it would all come together in the end. The story of 'the slap' was really nothing to the book at all. The slap takes place in the first chapter of the book and each chapter of the book is a new character who witnessed the slap. However, aside from the 'slapper' and the parent of the child who gets slapped, the slap doesn’t' come into...more

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Apr 30, 2011 Jessica Bell rated it 4 of 5 stars

This isn't any old review. My opinion on this book has sparked an idea for a discussion I'd like to have with you about offensive content in novels. I'd like to know how you react to it. But first, let's get to my review of this book.

This book was written by a very highly acclaimed Australian/Greek author. I have to say, that I admire him and his blatant honesty. And this is the first book I've read of his. I find it hilarious how so many people who have read this book have given it bad reviews...more This isn't any old review. My opinion on this book has sparked an idea for a discussion I'd like to have with you about offensive content in novels. I'd like to know how you react to it. But first, let's get to my review of this book.

This book was written by a very highly acclaimed Australian/Greek author. I have to say, that I admire him and his blatant honesty. And this is the first book I've read of his. I find it hilarious how so many people who have read this book have given it bad reviews and low ratings because they believe that the characters were horrible and the language was horrible and 'why would anyone want to write about such uninteresting people?' It really makes me laugh, because clearly, the people who have these opinions have totally missed the point. Opinions like these, are what I like to call, 'surface opinions.' Surface opinions, as the term suggests, do not attempt to dig any deeper than what can be seen (or read, in this case).

The point of this book, in my opinion, is to highlight the pettiness, cruelness, complete self-centeredness of humankind; the attributes we fail to recognize in ourselves, or deny even exist. We are monsters, people. Deep down there is as much bad as there is good in us and this book depicts this realistically. It's void of censorship, void of phoniness, void of pretence. This book is what it is because this is what the world is. Run by a pack of selfish animals. This is who we are, and I think anyone who denies it, is kidding themselves. Even if you do not actually behave appallingly like some of these characters do, take a moment to think: Have you ever smiled at someone, pretended to be polite, and at the same time cursed at their existence? We all have at some time or another. It's human nature. This is what this book represents: human nature. It's honest. It's blunt. It's real.

Great book. I recommend it to those who are not afraid of a bit of honesty. If you don't like reading about the world you live in. Don't read this book. Now to my question:

How do you feel about offensive content in books? If you are disgusted by it, do you ever stop to think, "Gee, there must be a REASON it's like this?" and try to take an objective stance? And another thing, please, please, please, do not assume that the characters in someone's book represent WHO THE AUTHOR IS. This is a big mistake, I believe, that readers make. The author is most likely trying to depict a certain person, or stereotype. Perhaps the author, too, is disgusted by their characters' behaviour, but they wouldn't do their book any justice by censoring these things, would they? Take a moment to think about that too. Look deeper. And don't make assumptions.

Thoughts?

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Mark Kyle wrote: "I think that we as people are full of horrible traits, but we're so much more complex than that. You don't hate the people you see every...more
Aug 07, 2011 03:18pm

Stephen Hayes After reading the first take (Hector), I thought the book was going to be dull and suburban, about dull suburban people. When the viewpoint changed I...more
Jun 28, 2012 05:30am

Jan 25, 2012 Goldie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was swept along, kicking and screaming, by the writing and the premise of the story. The kicking and screaming (and the reason this is a four star rather than a five star review) is because of the highly offensive language. Yes. It's probably exactly what you would expect to hear, but ick, nonetheless. Still, every time I wanted to put this work down, Tsiolkas showed the essential humanity of even the gruffest character, and I was drawn back in.

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Apr 09, 2013 Jane Evans rated it 1 of 5 stars

I am reading this book, it is hideous! Badly written, awful language, nasty attitudes (particularly towards women) far too many drugs (surely not all adults and kids are at it?) Is this life in Oz? I sincerely hope not! Will I ever reach the end? I don't know if I care anymore...

UPDATE: 0.5 star, and only because it came to an end! Thankfully. I truly lost the will to live whilst reading this book. Just awful!

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Jan 06, 2009 Margot rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is about 'family' and what goes on under the surface. A great Xmas read if you happen to be with your family, which I was! It's a very good read and he is an inspiring writer. Tough and uncompromising and surprising. I keep returning to it.

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Aug 01, 2010 Mish rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: australian-authors, fiction, favourite

I’m probably one of the few people in my group of friends that actually finished this book. I don’t think I have ever read a book that has left me with such raw and mixed emotions before. I was totally drained! There were at times when I wanted to fling the book against the wall in utter disgust and there were others where I felt such sympathy for the characters inner turmoil that I wanted to embraces them and tell them it was all okay. This was a very hard book to read. But the thing I really l...more

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Oct 20, 2012 Laura Boon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: australia

Brilliant, it's the best example of point of view I've ever read. However, it left me feeling sullied, especially on behalf of me and all other women.

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Jun 21, 2012 Elly rated it 2 of 5 stars

I devoured this story and I really do praise the ‘un putdownable’ quality of the book. It definitely could have been a book that challenged ideas of family and corporeal punishment and explored the way different cultures react to these things… and I commend the author for at least partially achieving this and making me think about how I regard corporeal punishment in regards to children. However, in saying this, the book was mainly left with cheap caricatures of different ethnicities and religio...more

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Mar 16, 2011 Amanda rated it 1 of 5 stars

From very early on I just didn't care about any of the characters, they were all awful!! I finished it, but hate that I wasted my time on this book and these horrible people.

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May 07, 2013 Vegantrav rated it 3 of 5 stars

This novel is a gallery of portraits: pictures of people from various walks of life in suburban Melbourne, all connected by family ties or friendship and by the titular incident: the slap of bratty child at a backyard barbecue.

The story runs hot and cold. The passages that describe the drama and the arguments, especially the direct confrontations between friends and between family members are completely captivating as the characters mercilessly attack each other verbally. The hatred and the spit...more

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Apr 07, 2013 Roz Morris rated it 1 of 5 stars

Lazy. My major problem is this: it is apparently narrated by eight separate people... but they all sound exactly the same.
Briefly, The Slap begins as an extended family gathers for a suburban barbeque. One of the children gets out of hand and one of the other parents gives it a slap. There is uproar and the novel explores the ripples afterwards.
The narration is close third person, so although the ‘I’ pronoun isn’t used we’re following the thoughts and feelings of each individual. Eight sections...more Lazy. My major problem is this: it is apparently narrated by eight separate people... but they all sound exactly the same.
Briefly, The Slap begins as an extended family gathers for a suburban barbeque. One of the children gets out of hand and one of the other parents gives it a slap. There is uproar and the novel explores the ripples afterwards.
The narration is close third person, so although the ‘I’ pronoun isn’t used we’re following the thoughts and feelings of each individual. Eight sections, eight narrators. But they all sound exactly the same.
The characters’ dialogue, both quoted and internal, sounds like it was written by one person. No effort has been made to create different people with their own vocabulary, thought patterns, speech rhythms or values.

You could argue that this similarity might come from culture and social milieu. After all, they are at the same barbecue. But even so, there would be individual variation from the characters’ different natures. In the simplest terms, some would be introvert and some extravert, yet they all have similar levels of aggression and introspection - ie the emotions and urges behind their speech and thoughts are the same.
Indeed, characters in The Slap have many reasons not to be similar. They have an assortment of occupations, which form their daily environments - a TV scriptwriter, a vet, a civil servant, a businessman. They’re different ages too: narrators span the generations from schoolkids to grandparents. Just these life situations alone should mean they have different thought processes and vocabulary.
Also, the cast is culturally diverse - we have Indian-Australian, Greek, Greek-Australian, Aboriginal-Muslim. Indeed the book has been praised for this, which can only have been an idiotic political knee-jerk because their provenance makes no difference to their internal identity - and internal identity is what we see in a novel.

In The Slap, all the characters speak with one voice and default to one pattern of behaviour.
When upset, which they are a lot, they express it in exactly the same language. They have the same reactions. They want to smash things or people. They often think back over incidents and arguments and wish they had hit the offending person, pummelled their faces, grabbed them by the hair and shouted obscenities at them.
This similarity especially shows in cursing, which they all do plenty of, and with the same words. Readers really notice when all the characters have the same curse personality.

When husbands are getting annoyed about something, the wives all dismiss it with a smile. All of them. These women aren’t identical twins or even ethnically similar; the reaction doesn’t have a cultural reason. It’s just what they all do.
A lot of the men react to outrage by becoming sexually aroused. This might be an interesting way to characterise one individual, but when all of them do it it looks as though the author can’t imagine any other reaction.
Thankfully, all those stiffening members get some exercise. When the characters do have sex, which happens a lot, it proceeds in exactly the same way - same emotional tone, same preferences, same sequence of manoeuvres. A few characters break the pattern here: the teenagers and the grandfather don’t get a roll in the hay, but if they did we can guess how it would go.

Sequences of anger, sex and other kinds of extremis should tear the characters’ masks off. They should show us who they really are.
The same goes for habits when in private. Quite often in The Slap, a character looks at their reflection or a body part and thinks about themselves - an amateurish, stagey cliche. They gaze in the mirror and muse. Or look at a pregnant belly and think. What they do in privacy should be ways to differentiate their souls, even if their backgrounds are similar.
Perhaps characterisation wasn’t the author’s priority. Maybe he was most interested in his themes - which are family, friendship, relationships, society, parenthood, maturity, violence, anger. If so, this was an unfortunate way to do it, as we have eight puppets operated by the author, which adds up to a shallow read.
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Apr 04, 2013 Annie Harrison rated it 2 of 5 stars

I wish I had been slapped. It would have been quicker than ploughing through 483 pages of unconnected nastiness.

The central theme of a slap of a child at a suburban barbecue by an adult is a good one, in this day of political correctness and everyone being nice. The book had tonnes of promise and I wondered why Ian Mcewen hadn't thought of something like this. He would have drawn out the moments leading up to 'the slap' through about half of the book. As it happened in this version, the slap was...more I wish I had been slapped. It would have been quicker than ploughing through 483 pages of unconnected nastiness.

The central theme of a slap of a child at a suburban barbecue by an adult is a good one, in this day of political correctness and everyone being nice. The book had tonnes of promise and I wondered why Ian Mcewen hadn't thought of something like this. He would have drawn out the moments leading up to 'the slap' through about half of the book. As it happened in this version, the slap was merely incidental.

What was the point of this story? Is it meant to be some kind of social commentary on the way we live now? No. I think the author just wanted to write a book instead of a series of articles on rough sex for lads mags.

I was disappointed that the book lacks 'a hero' or someone the reader could root for. All the protagonists are not just flawed characters, they are horrible: Nasty, jealous, violent, dysfunctional, inadequate, unscrupulous, without morals, miserable, desperate, negative foul, mouthed and promiscuous - most of them with drink and drugs issues. There is no love between any of the couples or any love shown to their children, except perhaps, by the hideous Rosie.

We are told that most of the characters are drop dead gorgeous to look at, but most of the physical descriptions are of their genitalia at various stages of arousal.

The characters are indistinguishable from each other in their respective narrative voices. They use two swear words all the time whether young or old and irrespective of who they are addressing. F*** and C***. This should have been a deterrent from page 1, but I kept hoping it would get better.

Being British, could I have learned something about life in Australia or Greek culture from this book? Thankfully not. What about the food or the character of Melbourne? Nope.

I have been watching The Slap series on TV and oddly, this is far better than the book. The author has had an input into the storyline, presumably plugging the disconnected gaps and inadequacies of his text.

The copy of the book which I purchased, is littered with rave reviews. Someone by the name of John Boyne on the front cover states 'One of the truly great novels of the new millennium.' And a badge on the front proclaims 'The Phenomenal International Bestseller'. There must be thousands of people out there who, if they completed The Slap, feel depressed, disappointed, short-changed and are regretting wasting several hours of their lives on this trash. (less)

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Mar 28, 2013 Ann rated it 5 of 5 stars

I had just asked the Universe to give me a book that did not have a disturbed,child-protagonist narrator and boy did this book provide that! Our book club was unanimous in the author's overwhelming talent for understanding and transcribing his characters and while we did not agree to actually liking/agreeing/despising any of them we had to savor the depth to which he goes and the shame we felt with 'hearing' and 'recognizing' the honesty of the unspoken narrative of them. Sure, the discussion wa...more

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Mar 14, 2013 Ange rated it 2 of 5 stars

I could have written this book - a similar incident happened at a gathering in my home, but the plot would have been much reduced - an annoying child is slapped by an unrelated adult, said child's mother confronts the slapper, both adults cry, hug and make up. The End. Against my better judgement, I found both the novel and the TV production of The Slap engaging, with a definite preference for the film. Why? The novel is overrated, stylewise it doesn't have anything special to offer. The languag...more

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Mar 05, 2013 Gary Lawrence rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read this book in early 2012, soon after watching the ABC TV series in late 2011. I was impressed by the dramatisation, and hearing that the book had won all sorts of literary awards, I decided that I would like to compare the original words with it's TV cousin.
They both look at contemporary Australian society in an episodic fashion. In the book the eight major characters each have a chapter where we see, through their eyes, the drama that arises from a traumatic incident at a suburban BBQ. T...more

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About Christos Tsiolkas

Christos Tsiolkas is an Australian author of Greek descent. He was born and grew up in Melbourne and was educated at Blackburn High School and the University of Melbourne where he completed an Arts Degree in 1987. Tsiolkas' first novel, Loaded (1995), was filmed as Head On (1998) by director Ana Kokkinos, starring Alex Dimitriades. In 2006, his novel, Dead Europe won The Age Book of the Year ficti...more

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Quotes from The Slap

“Hugo pulled away from Rosie’s teat. ‘No one is allowed to touch my body without my permission.’ His voice was shrill and confident. Hector wondered where he learnt those words. From Rosie? At child care? Were they community announcements on the frigging television?” — 3 people liked it

“Queria passar mais uns minutos no mundo que não fosse dominado pela hierarquia e o snobismo e a vingança.” — 1 person liked it

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