If you live outside of New Zealand and Australia it is quite likely you will never have heard of The Slap.
You are the lucky ones, in Mrs Readalot's forthright opinion. You are not missing anything.
Oops, has she ruffled your feathers already? Are you a Slap Fan?
(TV or Book Slap?)
Either one, Mrs R has tried them both and now wants those wasted hours back.
Sorry if you love The Slap. Mrs Readalot has just one question... WHY???
OK, maybe we are getting ahead of ourselves, perhaps we should start at the beginning. I'll let Mrs Readalot explain and you can take out all your Slap-lovin rage on her...
Mrs Readalot Says...
First came the ads. "Whose side are you on?"
People talking about the horror of someone slapping a kid who wasn't even theirs at a party... Yep, that's pretty shocking alright.
This is the premise for both the Book and the TV show. At first I went, Ohhh yeah, give it a go. Could be interesting...?
I sat through the first episode, and the second. I liked none of the characters, I thought they all needed a Slap. By episode three I was over it, hit the Off button and moved on.Then a friend offered me The Slap in book form. I was bookless and desperate and she'd never steered me wrong before, introducing me to both The Time Travellers Wife and Water for Elephants, two of my all time favourites. So I thought, Hey the TV version is never as good as the book; they've probably butchered a really good story.
And I gave The Slap another chance to win me over.
It's a great big thick volume; each chapter told from a different person's perspective about how their lives and relationships are upset by the slap at the party.
I went in with an open mind, even though the TV version didn't do it for me.
I hated it.
Oh, I wouldn't fault the writing style, or the storytelling per se. And it's a really interesting concept. But I hated every single character.
I thought all of them were selfish, two-faced narcissists with not a redeeming feature among them. I could not find a scrap of sympathy for a single one of the people in the story. I wasn't on anyone's side. To me they were extreme; they didn't seem real or everyday or average in any way.
All of them were cheaters, drug users and slappers in one way or another. (Every single one a potty mouth too - I get so sick of reading books full of the F Word.)
The book's blurb says its a tale about flawed humanity in suburbia...
But the question I kept asking myself was, Who are these people?
Every adult casually smokes pot and snorts cocaine. Every teenager's drug use is casually condoned by their permissive parents. As a parent that horrifies me.
Who are these people??? Are they really the average suburban Australians?
Is casual recreational drug use really that common in suburban Melbourne?
Horrors. I am extremely sheltered and naive then.
No, I didn't enjoy The Slap.
Flawed characters and struggling humans I have no problem with - I can relate! But this bunch of nasties and their twisted interactions did not make an enjoyable read for me.
But hey, you might love it. Obviously there's a large group of people who this book appeals to, because it's been made into a TV show, is a bestseller and has even won awards. Go figure.
Mrs Readalot gives The Slap ♥♥♥♥♥
Have you seen or read The Slap? What did you think? Whose side were YOU on?
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If you are a keen reader, we'd love you to join in with our bloggy bookclub.
How it works:
- Book Club members take turns choosing the Book of the Month and hosting the linky
- You can choose to read & review either the Book of the Month or a book of your choice
- Anyone can join in the linky fun - you don't have to be a signed up member
- Members are kept up to date via email, so nobody misses their chance to link up or host
- Linkies go up on the host's blog at the beginning of the month and remain open all month
THIS MONTH: September Bookclub is hosted by Meredy at Count it All Joy
NEXT MONTH: October Bookclub will be Hosted by Leonie from Kiwi at Heart. Leonie has chosen The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho OR Friendship Bread by Darien Gee - choose one to read and review (or just review your own book choice)
THE ALCHEMIST: This story is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. But what starts out as a journey to find worldly goods turns into a discovery of the treasures found within. Lush, evocative, and deeply humane, the story of Santiago is an eternal testament to the transforming power of our dreams and the importance of listening to our hearts.
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