Book 7 - The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas

A man slaps an out of control 3 year old boy at a barbeque in suburban Melbourne. The boy's mother is furious, even more than one might expect given the circumstances, and decides to take the man to court. The on-lookers have their own opinions about who is in the right and as a result, there are rifts created (or perhaps simply highlighted) in families and longstanding friendships are tested. Each subsequent chapter of the book focuses on a different protagonist, introducing us to their character and life situation. Actually, the eponymous slap doesn't play as pivotal a role in the rest of the book as one might expect, it serves more as a focus for other events and ideas.
The central conceit of the book is an interesting one, and we could all relate to the mixed feelings we experience when someone else has to discipline our child because they have behaved badly. However,the question of whether hitting a child can ever be justified wasn't really explored in any great depth. Instead, the book is more of a character study , which would be fine except that most of the characters are so deeply unpleasant it is difficult to feel any real empathy or sympathy for them. The men are vain and obsessed with sex, often with a violent side to their nature, whilst most of the women are fairly 2-dimensional or just very annoying (for example, Rosie, the mother of the slapped child). The friendship between the 3 main women didn't seem believable to most of us, given their different characters and lifestyles.
In its favour, the book is a page turner and an easy read, but overall, the consensus was most certainly a thumbs down.
However, Ulrika's butternut squash soup was delicious again  - thank you very much!

Book 6 - Pig Tales by Marie Darrieussecq

So we stayed off mainstream for this next book - here is the Amazon synopsis:


Franz Kafka meets George Orwell in this dark, dystopian tale. Set in Paris in the near future, the story revolves around a young woman who works as a beautician and masseuse, and for whom happiness is derived from perfumes, shampoos and generally hedonistic pursuits. One day she realizes she is slowly (and quite literally) becoming a pig. Life as a neophyte porker, she discovers, isn't all that bad, though it does contain some unique dangers. She remains extremely popular with her massage customers, who take unusual glee in adopting her barnyard ways. Unfortunately, it is difficult for a pig to find true love in a human world; abandoned by her lover, her days blur into an endless stream of swine-like debauchery. Then she meets Yvan, a young corporate type who sometimes becomes a wolf.Pig Tales, a Prix Goncourt finalist and overnight sensation in France, is Marie Darrieussecq's first book.


Having learnt not to try and make too much sense of our books (from the Outgoing Man) we all probably approached this a little differently.  Most of us found it a straightforward read and quite gripping.  The story was very bizarre but  we all enjoyed it.  


It was probably interpreted on many levels - as a humorous story, as a shocking tale of a world getting more and more mad, as a sad story of male treatment of women, and as a moving story of a woman rejected by her family having to turn to prostitution.  Although the book was largely about the antics of this pig/madame and her clients it was very tastefully written in its descriptions.  It certainly left us all thinking about it and it was well worth the read.  Generally the thumbs up from all literary ladies present!


Great butternut squash soup provided by Ulrika.