This month my book club chose to read THE SLAP by Christos Tsiolkas. Okay, okay, I chose it. I heard about it first at Book Expo America earlier this year and was immediately intrigued. In these politically correct times, what happens when an adult slaps someone else's misbehaving child?
Told from multiple people's perspectives, which side you fall on quickly becomes clouded as you learn that both the "slapper" and the parents of the "slapee" are all fairly despicable people.
I would have been perhaps even more interested in the ethical dilemma if they had all been "good" people.
Alas I didn't write the book.
And sadly (with such a discussable book) this was a month where no one from my book club was actually able to make the meeting.
But I would not be stopped. The book had to be talked about it. Thankfully, (or something), when I returned home from BEA this year with my free copy of THE SLAP. My daughter (a college freshman) erm... borrowed it. And didn't give it back. But I knew she had read it, so while I was visiting her in Boston last weekend, and as we walked from shop to shop in search of the perfect winter coat, we had moveable Mother/Daughter book club of sorts.
It was interesting how our perspectives were different. It turned out that I was more forgiving of the teenage characters - excusing their bad choices because of their ages -- and she was more forgiving of the horrific parents not having experienced parenthood and only guessing at how hard or easy it must be.
Her perspective influenced mine to be sure and made the whole experience of the book better and more complete.
THE SLAP is set in middle class Australia, so I found the explicit language and use of drugs (by ALL the characters) to be a little jarring, not shocking, just different than what you would see and hear in the US. I chose to put my reactions to that aside and just accept it in order to focus on the real themes in the book, but thought I should warn you in case you decide to read it with your group. Which, by the way, I highly recommend. And plan to talk long into the night on this one my friends... and perhaps to be surprised by the reactions you get across the group.
-- Dana Barrett, Contributing Editor
