Booker-longlisted novel The Slap is 'most divisive in years'
Panel's chairman defends portrayal of 'curdled love' as reviews range from excitement to criticism of 'unbelievable misogyny'
Alison Flood
The Guardian, Saturday 31 July 2010

Christos Tsiolkas. Photograph -  Zoe Ali for the Guardian

Christos Tsiolkas's Man Booker-longlisted novel The Slap opens with a bang when a man at a suburban barbecue hits another parent's child.
But while some readers including, evidently, the Booker judges speak excitedly of the Australian author's bravery in tackling uncomfortable truths, others criticise the word-of-mouth hit as "offensive" and say it is full of "unbelievable misogyny". The Slap is turning out to be the most divisive Booker novel in years.
Although reviews from newspaper critics have been positive – "riveting from beginning to end," said the Guardian ; "Tom Wolfe meets Philip Roth," said the Los Angeles Times – readers posting reviews online have far more mixed opinions.

"Dull, boring and offensive," wrote one Amazon reviewer. Another criticised its "constant obsession with bodily functions, sex, and the f-word"; another wrote that "it had no heart, such terrible cynicism … I feel soiled after reading it".
The writer India Knight said she hated the book. "The whole novel has this ludicrous, comedy-macho sensibility – you get the feeling that if he'd been forced to read 'literary' fiction, Raoul Moat would have gulped it down in one sitting," said Knight.
"It's also unbelievably misogynistic, and I say that as someone who loves Flashman and Philip Roth ... There is no joy, no love, no hope, no beauty, just these hideous people beating each other up, either physically or emotionally."
The Slap is a bestseller in Australia, and UK sales are already rumoured to be colossal.
A publishing insider said the novel had sold 23,000 copies even before the Booker announcement, an almost unheard-of figure for new literary fiction from a relatively unknown author. The novel also won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize.
Neill Denny, editor-in-chief of the Bookseller, said that there "hasn't been a divisive book on taste grounds" in the Booker lineup for years.


Alison Flood's full piece at The Guardian.