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A review by katiejane
The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
3.0
Listened to the audiobook narrated by Alex Dimitriades.
I'm many years late in getting around to reading this popular novel. It's a social commentary of a very particular time and place, told through the eyes of 8 different characters.
It was published 16 years ago, in 2008, and set in Melbourne. I was 30 then and living in Bondi, not Melbourne, but many of the elements of these very flawed characters, their relationships and lives at that time rang pretty true to me. And I appreciate authors who let their very ordinary characters' most unflattering and despicable thoughts and desires come to the surface.
I enjoyed the writing, humour and observations, but I lost interest in the middle for a while where I felt it lost momentum, and it became a bit of a chore to get through. The BBQ scene was so dramatic that I was expecting some more dramatic plot points to follow - they did come, but not till right at the end.
There were also just a few too many characters / POVs for me, and it limited how invested I could get in some of the characters. So the novel was a bit hit and miss for me, but overall I think it was a pretty big achievement.
I'm many years late in getting around to reading this popular novel. It's a social commentary of a very particular time and place, told through the eyes of 8 different characters.
It was published 16 years ago, in 2008, and set in Melbourne. I was 30 then and living in Bondi, not Melbourne, but many of the elements of these very flawed characters, their relationships and lives at that time rang pretty true to me. And I appreciate authors who let their very ordinary characters' most unflattering and despicable thoughts and desires come to the surface.
I enjoyed the writing, humour and observations, but I lost interest in the middle for a while where I felt it lost momentum, and it became a bit of a chore to get through. The BBQ scene was so dramatic that I was expecting some more dramatic plot points to follow - they did come, but not till right at the end.
There were also just a few too many characters / POVs for me, and it limited how invested I could get in some of the characters. So the novel was a bit hit and miss for me, but overall I think it was a pretty big achievement.