The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas

(yes it’s the one I cut into three pieces)
485 pages
Genre: Family Saga
Tone: smutty realism
Rating: NMP
Fav lines: Nup didn’t have one
First Line:
His eyes still shut, a dream dissolving and already
impossible to recall, Hector’s hand sluggishly reached
across the bed.

Synopsis: Hector and his wife Aisha invite friends and family to a BBQ and in the course of the backyard cricket match one small child is disciplined by an adult – not his parent – via a slap on the bum. The fall out from this event, told from the the perspectives of eight adults, is the plot of this book.

What do I think? Firstly, no one should take the disciplining of a child out of the parent’s hands even if said parent isn’t doing a good job unless, of course, they are putting the child’s life/health/well being in jeopardy. This is the main social taboo dealt with in The Slap. The others; teenage sex/drug use, adultery, smoking, homosexuality, wife beating, the nanny state, mixed in with the hot button issues of racism, dysfunctional relationships, culture clash & religion combine to create a world with which many will identify.

I didn’t like one single character in this book which made it a hard read for me. I don’t like graphic sex, expletive language or melodrama either, hence the low rating. This is not what the world is like for me and I’m grateful. This book has won a swag of awards…

Winner, Overall Best Book the Commonwealth Writer's Prize 2009

Winner, ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year 2009

Overall Book of the Year 2009Winner

ABA Book of the Year 2009

Winner, ALS Gold Medal 2009

Winner, Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2009

Shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Prize 2009 & the Colin Roderick Award 2008

so maybe it’s me who’s out of touch but you know what I missed most when reading this book? Australian ideology. Where is the she’ll be right mate laconic sense of humour, where is everyone deserves a fair go? When did we start taking ourselves so seriously?

Maybe I’m too old to read this new young stuff. I just wanted to get them all together in a room and say get over yourselves and get a bit of perspective…a kid got slapped at a barbie, the adult apologised, it happens, that’s life move on – don’t make me wade through 485 pages of filthy swearing, unattractive sex, unpleasant internal monologues only to fizzle out to everybody living unhappily ever after in soap-opera Australia in the end.

I would not have read this if it weren’t for bookclub so bookclub is doing it’s job - forcing me outside my comfort zone. It did generate some interesting discussion many really enjoyed it – they must think like the judges who have rewarded this book so handsomely. Hey it’s not the first time I’ve been in the minority!

cover attraction

Maria's not posting cover attractions on Wednesdays anymore - but I'm sticking with it because I love this meme hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page. Pop over to The Printed Page from time to time to see if you can catch some gorgeous cover attractions over there.

New to mt TBR Moral Relativism Steven Lukes

I was attracted to this book by its cover. I don't know much about Moral Realativism but Wikipedia says it 'is the position that moral or ethical propositions do not reflect universal moral truths (neither objective nor subjective). Instead, Moral Relativism makes claims relative to social, cultural, or historical circumstances.'

Doesn't that sound interesting for our times? Well I think so and it's on my reading list now.

Edit: With apologies to Wanda, when I say Marcia isn't posting Cover attractions any more the emphasis should have been more on the 'on Wednesdays anymore' rather than the 'not posting'. Marcia's still posting cover attractions she's just doing them randomly as they appeal to her rather than always on a Wednesday click here for the goss straight from the blogger’s mouth

hosted by MizB @ Should be Reading.
* Grab your current read & let it fall open.
* Share 2 “teaser” sentences, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
* Share the title of the book… remember... **************************avoid spoilers please****************************

back to The Slap for this week's teaser...and just so you know my first two random options were too raunchy to put up on this blog. Really do we need that much sex in one book? - not my cup-of-tea at all, actually find it a bit monotonous and therefore boring, good job we’re not all the same – wouldn’t it be a lacklustre world!

His face brightened and he turned around to face them.
Watch the road, Aisha wanted to scream at him. p 376

Musing Monday is hosted by Becca of Just One More Page. Pop over and read lots of interesting comments & post your own. This week Book-note Becca asks...Do you take notes while reading – either for your reviews or for yourself? How/where do you make these notes (on the page, post-its, scrap paper, notebooks etc)?

Becca she doesn't take many notes now but I don't believe her. Let me tell you she is never without a note book, is totally addicted to buying them and cannot resist the urge to ‘write it down’ while she thinks of it so I’m a little sceptical about ‘just stick in a post-it for any interesting passages to come back to later.’

That said I’m hopeless at note taking. Becca will tell you that I take notes in margins, in any blank spaces on the cover or the fly page and much to Becca’s chagrin I do it in pen. As my recent vandalism of books with a knife shows I am not at all precious about books which comes as a surprise to me because I thought I was.

I do love them passionately but I also am happy to make them mine with notes, tearing them into sections or altering them and I suppose this is where my dishonouring of the book as a distinct entity began. Altered books is a derivation of scrapbooking that I have grown to love. Once you’ve given a book new life by altering it you never look at the same way. The fist one I did was rescued from a reject bin at reverse garbage. It was a beautiful Catholic prayer book with rice paper pages and guilt edging. I remade it into a keepsake for a friends 40th. The first time I cut into those beautiful pages I went weak at the knees but the end result was a new lease on life for a book too beautiful to recycle to pulp.

Books should be living things. Notes, artistic rendering, inscriptions only increase the living of a book I say go for it ...note it up! (maybe not so much of the cutting into pieces though I may not do that ever again).>

Reading or the book

What’s more important? This week I have done two things that, in hindsight, prioritise reading over the book.

The first is not so radical…I loaned out a virgin read. Yes that’s right I lent a friend a brand-new (my latest acquisition in fact), straight-from-the-new bookshop-never-been-read book. I was telling my work friends about Time of my Life by Allison Winn Scotch and one of them was really interested in reading it with her book club. When I saw it all pristine, perched precariously on the summit of Mt TBR I thought I should take it in for her. Everything rebelled. It’s mine, it’s new, it’s never been read …then I thought… that’s ridiculous! It’s beautiful, it has a great premise, it should be read. So I took it in for Annette to read and I feel better knowing that someone else will enjoy it while I’m whittling down Mt TBR a bit.

The second thing may freak you out a bit. The BookFreaks (my bookclub) are reading The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas. Three members of my family part of BookFreaks and generally we pass the book amongst usually starting with me (the purchser) but at 483 pages I’m struggling to finish it in time pass it on and the poor third person in line will be still reading it in the car on the way to bookclub with NO hope of finishing. My solution? cut the book into three and give each person a section to get started. This book lends itself to reading like this because each section tells a different point of view of the same event. I broached the topic at work today over lunch to a vastly mixed response. Becca leapt straight into apoplexy, while Renae did a bit of excited laughing and hand clapping and Sarah told us all to get over being so precious about books - ‘they’re tools ‘she said ‘use them as you will.’

So after discussing this with MGM, and being roundly condemned for even thinking of it (and he’s not even a reader!), #1 and I decided to go ahead … if you’re squeamish avert your eyes…

It’s like the little boy on the cover can see the knife!

me at my MOST attractive

 

 

here we go knife to book!

 

Oh No!!! I did it! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               
                                          A bit for me, a bit for #1 and a bit for #2

#1 in shock ‘Did my mother (the librarian) really just do that’ ?!? 

This way three people will read a book instead of one. Was it worthwhile? I don’t know yet. This book is distasteful, so far there is no character with whom I can relate or even like,  but it does deal with some hot button topics. It will generate some heated discussion along age and possibly gender lines in which, thanks to my vandalism, all AllanFreaks can now participate.

what do you think am I a sacrilegious vandal or inspired rebel?

BTT is a long running bookish meme. To join in pop over and read the 100's of interesting comments.

this week the question is: If you could ask your favorite author (alive or dead) one question … who would you ask, and what would the question be?

This is a no brainer for me, I'd be asking Edith Wharton 'what were you thinking!'

****************The Age of Innocence Spoiler alert***********************

why doesn't Newland go up to see Ellen at the end of The Age of Innocence?

We wade through all that drama, their lives intersecting, the will I/won't I, all the sexual tension and THEN he finally has his chance with her and he doesn't even go up to her! really!!!

I've read this book twice and the ending many times. I've had a go at wrting an ending I could live with myself (it was a task set in a creative writng class at uni) and I admit that I couldn't do it and maintain the character's integrity but, hey I'm NOT Edith Wharton! I'm absolutely convinced she could have pulled off a meeting and happy-ever-after for Ellen and Newland.

So that's what I 'd be asking her.

I love this meme hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page. Pop over to The Printed Page to view some gorgeous artwork.

 

 

                                         eerie ,no?

Teaser Tuesday

hosted by MizB @ Should be Reading.
* Grab your current read & let it fall open.
* Share 2 “teaser” sentences, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
* Share the title of the book… remember... **************************avoid spoilers please****************************

Her skirt is torn and twisted around her hips
a smear of dark sand on the fabric.
Scuffed footprints, shattered glass
and a cigarette but
that could have been here for days
or minutes…
Who in my town could do this?

cold Skin Steven Herrick p124

Musing Monday

Musing Monday is hosted by Becca of Just One More Page. Pop over and read lots of interesting comments & post your own. This week Babe-in-the-woods-Becca asks...

Are you planning on participating in the upcoming 24 Hour Read-a-thon (either as a reader or cheerleader)? Have you made any preparations for the event? And, veterans out there, any tips you’d like to share with the newbies?

As much as I like the idea, sad to say I can not see how I could do 24 hours of a read-a-thon as either participant or cheerleader (even without #4) for these reasons…
1) I need my sleep.
2) 24 hours away from my life = days of preparation before hand and weeks of catching up afterward.
3) kids to feed, taxi to run, Sunday School to teach, responsibilities to front up to.
4) and probably most importantly, I’m celebrating my 25th wedding anniversary with a night in the city and a show on the 24th October I think MGM might object to me taking my books along this time.

Hope all read-a-thoners enjoy the experience!

Death Sentence

I love this meme hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page. Pop over to The Printed Page to view some gorgeous artwork.

 

Don Watson has a new book out called Bendable Learnings. I heard him interviewed on 702 and he was so articulate about a subject that intrigues me (language and it’s evolution) that I requested this weeks cover attraction straight away.

Death Sentence: The Decay of Public Language. The cage is made up of words, I love it already

hosted by MizB @ Should be Reading.
* Grab your current read & let it fall open.
* Share 2 “teaser” sentences, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
* Share the title of the book… remember... **************************avoid spoilers please****************************

He was right. Harry would have killed him years
before if they'd been in partnership together.

The Slap Christos Tsiolkas p89

love a good list

Musing Monday is hosted by Becca of Just One More Page. Pop over and read lots of interesting comments & post your own. This week book-list-lover Becca (double marks for double aliteration) asks…This past week, Borders re-released it’s 100 Favourite Books of All Times. Do you vote in these kinds of polls when they arise? Do you look through the list, or seek out books featured?
I have never contributed to the making of these list (have no idea how to go about this at all) but I have wondered, when reading said lists, just who does decide what goes on the list. Some times it's more like ....really? that's someone's favourite book (or actually the majority's fav. book) how can that be!

But like Becca I do love a good list (not quite as obsessivley perhaps) and while I don't check the changes from year to year I do like to cross off the ones I've read, even if they are the same ones I crossed off last year. There are few things as satisfying as crossing off items on a list. If I ever find myself in need of inspiration about what to read next I'll refer to the Dymocks or A&R lists but that doesn't happen as often post We Read. Blogging has opened up a whole new world of inspiration.

I love this meme hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page. Pop over to The Printed Page to view some gorgeous artwork.

 

I’m having a bit of a Girl with the Pearl Earring week this week. It popped up on Tuesday for my teaser and here it is again for my cover attraction.

Don’t those eyes just draw you in and say ‘I’m here in this book – let me show you…’ According to the  Girl with a pearl Earring website Chevailer had a print of Vermeer’s painting in her bedroom and those eyes said to her ‘this is my story, tell it’. Vermeer’s art features in Chevalier’s story & even though I’m not very far into it yet but I can already recognise the scene of Delft as Chevalier described it and Vermeer painted it in View of Delft (also featured on the cover) and Griet’s every day head-dress (not the one she’s wearing here)  in Young Woman with a Water Pitcher.

AND I love the way Chevalier drops us into the story as The Woman with a Pearl Necklace is being developed by Vermeer.

hosted by MizB @ Should be Reading.
* Grab your current read & let it fall open.
* Share 2 “teaser” sentences, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
* Share the title of the book… remember... **************************avoid spoilers please****************************

When her eyes fell on the palette knife a shiver ran through me. I  took a step forward at the same time a  she moved to the cupboard and grabbed the knife.
The Girl with the Pearl Earring Tracy Cheavlier p215.

If wishes were horses…

Musing Monday is hosted by Becca of Just One More Page. Pop over and read lots of interesting comments & post your own. This week book-begging Becca follows up from last weeks MM…

Last week we talked about keeping a wishlist. Why not pull out that list and show us some of the books you’ve been eyeing off?

0ooo MM is going to be dangerous for my TBR health this week I can see now…I’ve already added Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse John Joseph Adams (Editor), which looks intriguing, from Becca’s list.

And after a quick trip to my new wish-list (started as a result of last weeks MM) here are four books I’ve had in my hands at the bookshop, r-e-a-l-l-y wanted but didn’t get (usually for reason purely fiscal)…

 The 19th Wife David Ebershoff

  Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera

Beloved Tiny Morrison

Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society Mary Ann Shaffer

If wishes were horses, poor men would ride

I love that expression. It speaks to the need to actually do something rather than just wishing for it to happen. Last week’s MM was about wish-lists, and after reading all the MM comments I have done something by developing my own wish-list...pay attention family...

Saved on my c drive – there for all my family to read – is a new folder called 'Mum's wish-list'. In this folder I'm saving pics of books I come across whilst blog-lurking & bookshop/library travelling. One idea I got from reading last week's MM responses was to add notes referring me to how/where I found any book that goes into my wish-list (eg Matt led me to Rose Variations by Marisha Chamberlain through a FF comment).

I have an idea for a master spreadsheet fermenting in the cooking pot of my mind. It would bring my ‘TBR’, and my TBP (To be purchased) together. If I add my ‘have read’, ‘reviewed’, ‘TB reviewed’ I’ll have everything all in the one place – it has potential doesn’t it…

I started this blog with the idea of keeping track of what I’ve read and what I want to read and now I have a list purpose-built for taking to the bookshop/attaching to the fridge come present time too (I’m not so naive as to think my family will actually check my c drive!). Blogging is unexpectedly helping me to get one area of my life under control and, in the chaos that is my life, some measure of control is very satisfying.

Fabulous Firsts

* Copy/paste the question and button.
* leave a comment and link to your post.
* Join in with the intermittent puzzle, (look for the answer the following FF). First correct answer = 1 pt.    A prize will go out on FF 1st anniversary ! (track your progress on my sidebar)…

Okay I’m home from work so here we go…

Becca of Just One More Page recently she gave me a page about first lines photocopied from a book she’d been reading, Book Lust by Nancy Pearle, a book which combines two of Becca’s fav. things – books and lists. Pearle captures the way I feel about first lines. I love that…when someone else puts into words exactly what’s on your own mind.

Sometimes, Pearle says, great first lines ‘promise much but deliver little’. She makes a promise, when she lists eight books with enticing first lines that they are also ‘perfectly wonderful all the way to the last line.’

And, of course, I haven’t read any of them (in fact much to my chagrin I have only even heard of two), I just have to add them to my TBR, I think #2 is my favourite…or maybe #8.

here’s her list and their fabulous firsts

1. The Paperboy Pete Dexter “My brother Ward was once a famous man.’
2. After Life Rhian Ellis “First I had to get his body into the boat”
3. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (I know of this one but haven’t read it) “I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.”
4. A Primate’s Memoir: A Neurscientist’s Unconventional Life Among the Baboons Robert Sapolsky “I joined the baboon troop during my twenty-first year.”
5. Endless Love Scott Spencer (everyone my age knows this book through the movie) – look it up it’s a long one
6. The Man in the Window Jon Cohen “Atlas Malone saw the angel again, this time down by the horse chestnut tree.”
7. No One Thinks of Greenland John Griesemer “ ‘You’ll want to scratch,’ said the nurse
8. The Towers of Trebizond Rose Macauly “ ‘Take my camel, dear,’ said my Aunt Dot, as she climbed sown from this animal on her return from High Mass.”

So what about you…which is your favourite from this list? do any of them warrant going on your TBR? have you read/recommend any? 

puzzle: five point up for grabs!

• What book famously begins with what the narrator is not going to do...bang on with ‘all that David Copperfield kind of crap.’
• What is the iconic narrator’s name?
• Who wrote it?
• Who wrote the book referred to in the opening sentence?
• Which American punk band has a song about the book?

last month’s puzzle winners: Holly feels grief (Vicki 1 pt) for Gerry (Vicki 1 pt) because he has died (Becca i1pt)

under construction

* Copy/paste the question and button.
* leave a comment and link to your post.
* Join in with the intermittent puzzle, (look for the answer the following FF). First correct answer = 1 pt.    A prize will go out on FF 1st anniversary ! (track your progress on my sidebar)…

Friday Firsts will be here later today – am rushing to work right now (am late already – not a good sign for a Friday), so pop back later for FF and the FF quiz…

Quiz Score board (not updated on the side bar yet) Vicki’s in the lead with 3 points, Nise has 2, Sandra and Becca both on 1 pt – pop back later for your chance at five points.

gotta G0ooooo