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Dead Europe (2000)

by Christos Tsiolkas(Favorite Author)

3.19 of 5 Votes: 4

languge

English

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review 1: I was wavering between three stars and four then realised that this is not a book that calls for a moderate response. When I thought about it in the context of the time during which it was published I felt more generous. There is a juvenile melodrama to the book that can be a bit eye-rolling, but when I think about my own state of mind in those first years after the World Trade Centre attacks, when the Western world was cowering in fear under the righteous reign of Dubya, I realise I too felt that way. It's a novel easy to find fault with - it's provocative for the sake of it shit-blood-semen phantasmagoria is overblown, as are the characters who are full of hate, are in a state of shock, are screaming or aroused - but it's also bracingly brave. I'm not sure its analysis o... moref xenophobia, religion, politics and identity is especially acute - I'm neither learned enough in those areas nor especially interested - but it's certainly brazen and admirable for at least discussing the taboo. I felt unclean whilst reading Dead Europe but as the book so clearly points out, the business of being human is a messy one. It's probably inaccurate to say I "really liked" this book as the four stars indicates, but I'm an admirer and I'm glad it exists.
review 2: I felt like I wanted to take a shower after reading this book. I have no problem with depiction of sex, be it hetero or homosexual. But this was gratuitous and taken to the extreme as a plot device, perhaps in the absence of being able to finish the story any other way. The final few chapters apparently the protagonist turned into a pansexual vampire, which wasn't necessarily presaged by the fact that his mother may have had some supernatural powers in a previous existence in Greece, before she emigrated to Australia, or by his own gay history. Generally speaking, Tsiolkas made a total hash of drawing together some interesting historical and political story lines and blurred them with sex sex sex sex. I cannot imagine that this book was merely directed at the gay market (that would be an insult) as I think that Tsiolkas fancies himself as an author of note more broadly than just the gay genre, and I agree, on the basis of The Slap. On the basis of Dead Europe, however, he writes really icky pap. NB if you find the idea of cunnilingus with a menstruating woman in an overflowing toilet on a train off-putting, please don't read this book. less

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