THE SLAP (Christos Tsiolkas) - February 17/15

This actually reminded me a lot of Tom Perrotta's work, since it revolves around suburban characters and their exploits. The structure, eight chapters, eight characters, ensures that the book essentially feels like a series of short stories, and as such the book's effectiveness vacillates throughout. (The last story, about the gay kid, went on far too long, for example.) A good read, though, and I'll be looking for more of the author's work. *** out of ****