Dead Europe

I loved Christos Tsiolkas' The Slap. Found it so well written and engaging that I made an effort to find something else by the author. In London I found Dead Europe. The blurbs didn't excite me but his writing was pretty strong in The Slap so I gave it a shot. Wow. The book is long and crazy. I think I actually like the metaphor and what he was trying to accomplish but I think the sloppy porn quality of the story kind of sucked the life from it turning it into something bizarre and car-wreck instead of the powerful gut punch for which he was obviously aiming. I finished the book and would give it a hesitant thumbs up but not so much.