The Dinner
Ratings134
Average rating3.2
I enjoyed this book. A fresh setting with clarity, I know some have said it meanders too long but I didn't think so. my only critique wd be occasionally things or dialogue came out of nowhere or out of character
“... How we could make him aware of his responsibility without, at the same time, damaging his childish innocence.” I'm baffled but the complete ignorance these parents have.
My rating doesn't stem from the parents or the crime that occurred. It's from the writing style. Since this is a translated book, I'm hoping something got lost in translation. The biggest problem I had while reading was the timeline transitions. We'd be at the dinner table one minute and in a memory the next without a noticeable indication, or at least I never noticed it while reading. I think with this type of narration perhaps an audiobook would be the way to go. I, however, read this physically so I cannot say for certain.
⚠️ I'm going to go into spoilers now, fair warning. ⚠️
I detest these parents, but I have a feeling that's what the author was going for. The way these parents acted towards their children, you'd think they were quite young, like 5-7 years, not 15 years! I was baffled by the way these parents were speaking about the situation, as well. Treating murder like dropping a glass dish, oops sorry!?!? I wanted to throw my book away! The way the children treated the homeless was not an accident, not something to be kept quiet. They murdered one out of hatred and arrogance. Threw trash and objects at them and then set them on fire! Then physically assaulted another one, without any prior antagonizing. These 15 year old boys knew what they were doing. This was never an accident, nor should it ever have been treated like one. Serge was correct in saying they needed to bring this to light. They don't have “childish innocence” anymore when they intentionally physically assault others.
Paul and Claire are vile parents. I'm not shocked their child turned into a murderer. I'm guessing that Paul was diagnosed with psychopathy, so I figured Michel would have it too. The way Claire was just so nonchalant about her child murdering someone was what shocked me the most. But after reading the ending with the documents, it all made sense. I can appreciate a person who sticks by their partner, no matter what. One thing I can say with certainty is that Claire loved Paul. But dear god they were terrible parents. I mean, Paul was constantly showing Michel violence is okay. On three separate occasions, Paul recounted physically beating, or threatening, a person in front of Michel. It's a great thing Claire and Paul decided to only have one child.
Honestly, I wish I would have loved it because it was giving the same vibes as the show Adolescences. It just didn't quite hold up as strongly because of the age of the boys. I just hated how young the parents were making them seem. They are closer to be adults than they are to being elementary age. If they were younger, I think I would have believed why the parents wanted to keep it quiet more.
Anyway, I'd still recommend checking this one out, but maybe give the audiobook a chance. It was still very entertaining, I read it in one sitting.
Final rating: 2.5 stars ✨
On the one hand, the writing is top notch. It's witty, punchy, and, at times, downright funny. On the other hand, I found all the main characters to be entirely unworthy of sympathy, which made it difficult for me to care about their outcomes. I understand Koch's desire to portray them as violent creatures under a facade of decency, but if I don't care about them, what's it all for? Eh, maybe it's because they were Dutch.
An enjoyable read. I didn't know much about this before I started reading it and that I think helped my enjoyment. I think if I knew more about the plot I would have found it a bit more mundane and thus would have a rated it a bit lower.
I thought I would leave a bad review because the first half of the book really bored me. I do think certain things could have been cut down but it ended up being really unsettling which reminds me of lots of A24 films. So it was very well done with the way it made you feel gradually more and more unsettled.
The best and most interesting part of this book is that it takes the most normal, ordinary situations and makes disaster look...inevitable.
About a man pushed to his absolute limit, and a boy who learns from his father how to deal with that. Who learns that violence and secrets are okay and even natural.
The writer does a great job of conveying our main character, Paul, as someone we think is open-minded or “woke” at first, while harbouring a terrible secret. And only the story and events told in his own voice, made to sound understandable or even normal, reveals to us, bit by bit, how not normal, how incomprehensible, some of his actions are. His voice, increasingly paranoid and mean-spirited, takes us on a journey into his mind and heart.
Well worth listening to, as well. This book does very well in audio format.
I absolutely hated this book. It was overpowered with unnecessary details and I couldn't relate to it or any of its characters in any way. The only thing that I found interesting was the food, but it would make more sense if the story was supposed to be about food since it wasn't even that became irritating after a while.
Not a book I recommend. On my cover, it mentions that it's an unputdownable book, quite the contrary, I would put it down and not pick it up again. Sorry.
I really enjoyed this book. It pulled me in right away and kept me turning the pages. Highly recommend!
I didn't find the book clever, I didn't find the twists that shocking, I am confused as to why this is labeled a thriller.
Could not identify with anything or anyone in this book.
The narrator was really whiny plot twist he is not just a complaining asshole, he also is mentally ill. Not only that, All 4 of them were horrible and self serving. Wow. Shocker.
This book did nothing for me.
1 star because I can't give half stars and because the author managed to make everyone unsympathetic, I guess that is an accomplishment.
This book was a unique book to me. Not in the way in it's ending but the way it was written. I do like Herman Koch's writing style and the way the story weaves between the past and present. Although the ending was a little shocking, it didn't really surprise me. The writing to me did make up for this. I liked the stream of consciousness with the mixture of the scene. Overall this is a great suspense book and I will be looking into more of Herman Koch's writing.
Wow. This book is so dark?? I felt so uncomfortable after I finished reading it, but I do think it's worth the read.
Everyone is comparing this book to [b:Gone Girl 21480930 Gone Girl Gillian Flynn https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1406511734s/21480930.jpg 13306276], so I feel like I need to read Gone Girl now, even though it's not something I would normally pick up.This book is also being compared to [b:The God of Carnage 3070605 The God of Carnage Yasmina Reza https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347752275s/3070605.jpg 3101619] (I've only seen the movie) which is pretty apt, in that it's the story of two couples coming together to talk about their kids, and it gets increasingly tense/weird. I wouldn't call The Dinner a farce, though. It also reminded me of [b:We Need to Talk About Kevin 80660 We Need to Talk About Kevin Lionel Shriver https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327865017s/80660.jpg 3106720] (again I've only seen the movie - but it's on my to-read list!).I hate all of the characters. Not one of them is sympathetic in any way except maybe Babette. I love the unreliable narrator. I was definitely on Paul's side at the beginning, and I loved how much I started to hate him as I learned more about him. He's kind of a Walter White that way.This book probably needs some suspension of disbelief, and I didn't necessarily like that Paul gave no details about his life - for example, what his mysterious mental illness was. To me, it seemed obvious that Paul is a psychopath, or else has a personality disorder like borderline, which can be treated with medication. Though, personality disorders can't be detected in utero, so I just pretended that in the universe of the book, they can be. Which was an easy suspension of belief for me, but may not be for others.it seemed like a mostly unnecessary tool.Other than those little things, this book was creepy and disturbing and I love that.
Loved the pacing and the dark psychology. I rarely like a book where I hate all the characters but this is an exception.
Wow...I am not sure what i think of this book. I would start by saying this book is about prejudice, pretentious restaurants, the death penalty, violence, homelessness, adoption, illness, and more. None of it is pretty to look at but the novel is well constructed and though provoking ... for sure.
Un bon roman qui m'a un peu rappelé l'excellent “Defending Jacob” que j'avais lu et adoré en début d'année. Le découpage en 5 parties au rythme du dîner (apéritif, entrée, plat principal, dessert, digestif) est un peu artificiel, d'autant que la partie la plus longue (“plat principal”) donne lieu à de nombreuses diggressions avec des flash-backs qui sans être inintéressants donnent l'impression d'être présents pour prolonger le suspense. Les personnages sont détestables mais on se laisse prendre au jeu par le récit.
There were moments where I was truly shocked but there was something in the writing style that really irritated me. The comparisons to Gone Girl will prompt me to read that and hope for 4*
I was a bit disappointed at how the story ended, but the story line kept my interest throughout. The issue of morality is raised when the sons of Paul and his popular and well-to-do politician brother break the law in a major way. The parents are left to decide if and how to protect their boys and their own futures from becoming mud. This issue will definitely leave readers thinking about how far they might go to protect someone they love.
Some books have characters you hate, and some books have characters you hate but still identify with and root for. This book was one of the former, and it's why I hated the book itself so much. There are many comparisons to Gone Girl - OK, yes, the characters are unlikable and the narrators are unreliable. But the people in this book aren't even entertaining or charming, or even interesting. (Their crimes aren't even creative for God's sake!) They're just bad people. Still, it was interesting enough to get me to read the whole thing, so that's something.
I gave it a 3.5 stars. It was a good book, sometimes there were parts that I found that was a bit toolong. Some of the characters I didn't really care about, but overall it was a good read.
I thought this book was, well I'm not going to tell you exactly what I thought it was. That would distract you from the point. The point is I read this book and I enjoyed it. Isn't that more important? Enjoying something? Anything? I don't mean the empty enjoyment empty-headed morons talk about when they say they enjoyed the afternoon. They can't even remember half of what they did and only say they enjoyed it because they have no better sense. No I mean I read it in less than 24 hours because I couldn't put it down. That it proved thoughts and stirred emotions and desires to find out what happened next.