The Slap in Aussie Readers

Jul 20, 2010 Patrick Johns rated it did not like it

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 ne ...more

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Aug 01, 2010 Mish rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: australian-authors, 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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Apr 06, 2011 Bree T rated it it was ok

Shelves: australian

So The Slap is one of those books that seems to divide people. I’ve heard people gush over it, exclaim about the brilliance of the writing and characterisation. I’ve also heard people profess to loathe it and others say that they couldn’t even bear to get through it. Then it was commissioned for a mini-series by the ABC (our sort of BBC) and because I like watching Aussie content on my television when I can, I thought I’d better get my butt into gear and actually read the book first.

The Slap has So The Slap is one of those books that seems to divide people. I’ve heard people gush over it, exclaim about the brilliance of the writing and characterisation. I’ve also heard people profess to loathe it and others say that they couldn’t even bear to get through it. Then it was commissioned for a mini-series by the ABC (our sort of BBC) and because I like watching Aussie content on my television when I can, I thought I’d better get my butt into gear and actually read the book first.

The Slap has a wide cast of characters – 8 people take their turn in narrative and I have to admit in the beginning it wasn’t exactly easy to keep everyone and their relationships to each other straight. It begins with a barbecue, given by Greek-Australian Hector and his Indian-Australian wife Aisha which brings together their family, friends and work colleagues in what seems like a get-together with a melting pot of cultures – Greek, Indian, Lebanese, English and an Aboriginal-turned-Muslim.

As we’re getting to know the cast of characters through the eyes of Hector, our first narrator, his cousin Harry slaps a child for bad behaviour – a child that isn’t his. This group of people, who all know each other and have clearly socialised together often through their differing relationships with Hector and Aisha will be splintered apart when the child’s furious parents call the police and press charges. From then on it seems you’re on one side or the other – there is no middle ground.

While there’s a moral question of slapping a child, and one that isn’t your own, this novel is also about middle-class suburban and urban relationships and dynamics and the various effects that this event will have on them. It’s about the problems that these people face every day – parenting issues, marital issues, social issues, money issues, racial issues.

So I mentioned that this book seems to be divisive. A love it or hate it type work. I actually fall pretty much square in the middle of these two camps. I certainly didn’t love it and I don’t even think that I liked it. I also didn’t hate it, or even dislike it. I read it in a day and it’s quite a hefty novel, close to 500 pages so there are compelling story lines within it. My biggest problem with it lies within the characters.

So many of them are unlikable, just plain rage-inducing. In the interest of saving time, I’m only going to talk about the one that actually irritated me the most – Rosie, the mother of the child that is slapped. You get a bit of a background on the child before the slap and it’s clear he’s undisciplined, over-protected and coddled and it’s only a matter of time before something like the slap happens to him. Brandishing a cricket bat at another child, he is slapped by the father of that child when his parents make no move to discipline him. Rosie uses this incident in highly inappropriate ways – she talks endlessly of it to the child, making him relive the moment the ‘nasty man hurt him’. She still breastfeeds him, despite him being almost 4 years of age and she uses breastfeeding as a reward for bad behaviour. He is comforted every time he does something wrong with his mothers breast and her over-indulgent ways. Her husband, by contrast, is an alcoholic tradie/labourer under the delusion that he’s really a frustrated artist who exposes his nearly-four year old son to pornographic magazines. They’re a loathsome couple who are clearly raising a loathsome child and you kind of want to slap him yourself. Almost all of the rest of the characters are incredibly unsympathetic and unlikable and frustrated me throughout the book. The few that weren’t were almost superfluous to the plot and I questioned why they were even there and what they contributed, if anything, to the narrative.

Supposedly a discourse on the lives of typical middle-class Melbourne I was hard pressed to find it all that realistic. Or if it is, my life is grossly abnormal (and also, incredibly boring). There’s bucket-loads of drugs – everyone is taking them. There’s drinking, including plenty of underage drinking endorsed and encouraged by adults, and also, outrightly facilitated. I did plenty of my own underage drinking but never at one of our many parties did the parents point out their liquor cabinet and then leave the premises for the entire night! Most of the characters are guilty of adultery at some stage or another – one keeps a mistress, another 42yo male has had a semi-affair with a 17yo girl who actually works with his wife. Basically it’s an awful lot of really abominable people doing abominable things both in general and to each other. Some of the characters had been friends for twenty years and you have to wonder how.

There was one component of the novel that I did really relate to! I’m married to a first generation Australian whose parents were both born in Sicily and I do have to admit that I saw a lot of my in-laws in Hector’s Greek parents, especially when they turned up to the barbecue with bucket loads of food and promptly took over the cooking and preparing! My mother-in-law has often lamented the fact that none of her sons married ‘good Italian girls’ and that my husband is divorced from his first wife, which mirrors Hector’s mothers attitude towards Hector’s marriage to the Indian-Anglo Aisha and the fact that Hector’s sister is divorced. The immigrant culture rang very true for me and in fact, may have been the only thing that did, including the passionate devotion to family above all else.

While I didn’t particularly like this novel, I could actually go on in this review for another couple thousand words. It brings up a huge range of topics and issues to converse upon and I feel like if I’d read this book for a book club, the meeting after would’ve been worth filming! There are so many things that could be debated and although I’ve had brief discussions on twitter with people I know who have also read it, 140 characters per tweet is not really enough! It’s clearly written in a way to provoke a reaction, no matter what that reaction may be. I almost feel like the type of reaction is secondary – the primary goal here was just getting one, whether it be glowing praise or derision. It’s a discussion piece of a novel for sure.

I’m still thinking about it, and new things are still popping up in my mind for internal debate. That says a lot, I think. ...more

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Jun 20, 2010 Dee-Ann rated it liked it

Shelves: australian-authors, recommended-by-friends, group-read

The writing of the book was compelling, btu I did not like the story or the characters and I especially did not like the swearing and brutality of the thoughts of the characters. It was very confrontational, and I dont like the drug scenes.

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Oct 16, 2011 Jenny rated it did not like it

Shelves: 2011

Should never have bought this - wouldn't have, only the series started on ABC and piqued my interest.

The book: Largely rambling and dull. I skimmed huge chunks and it wasn't hard to keep up. Beats me why this won a major award. ...more

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Aug 11, 2010 Byronboy rated it really liked it

Christos Tsiolkas' gift for character development in his books makes for an engaging read.
As the story weaves in and out of the families involved in this saga, it's hard to put down.
For readers unfamiliar with Australian fiction (and yes, there is such a beast!) this is an excellent entree. The only distraction for me was the rather weak fleshing out of the gay character who plays a significant role in the denouement of the story, and as a result it is unclear what the motivation in his actions ...more

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Sep 15, 2010 Pam rated it it was ok

did not like this book much but will give two stars. The story is very 'homegrown' and quite rough going on the inner sanctum of family life the actual incident is really a excuse to pry into questionable behaviour . ...more

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Jun 26, 2012 Tracie McBride rated it liked it

Although undeniably well written, it was difficult for me to truly enjoy this book because I couldn't sympathise with the characters. ...more

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Nov 09, 2010 Tomoko rated it really liked it

Shelves: aussie

It's a garlicky book. Either you'll love it or hate it. My first attempt of reading I skipped some of the character chapters just so I know what the outcome was for the said dispute. Took me a few days to get back into it and I reread some pages, finished the rest, and after a few days of digesting its contents I must say that I'm quite happy with what Tsiolkas has written.

Sure there were a lot of cussing and crude dialogues but that's how my friends and family would interact. Like it or not, h ...more

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May 24, 2011 Petra rated it it was amazing

Great book to read and discuss for anyone in a Book Group.

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Sep 05, 2010 Rhoda rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club, favorites

Very interesting story and I liked that it was written from so many different perspectives. I found some of the language unneccessarily crass and not representative of most of the people that I know (I'm Australian!). Many of the characters were not very likeable, but they were interesting. Definitely a thought provoking book and one that will generate plenty of discussion. ...more

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Sep 13, 2011 Louise rated it liked it

Shelves: 1950ce-onwards, challenge-reads, australiana, print-to-screen

An interesting book. Everyone has met a devil-spawn like Hugo, with parents like Rosie and Gary - but would you slap someone else's child?

In places, this book was longer than it needed to be with some overblown descriptions. Streamlining these passages would cut at least 100 pages from the narrative. However the characters are real and the daily situations believable. ...more

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Oct 05, 2010 Tracy rated it liked it

I can't see what all the fuss is about - doesn't portray suburban Australian life very well and seems to blow everything out of proportion - however, if you want a semi-porn book this is for you.

Read the full www.ourbookclub.net.au review at The Slap
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