The Dinner

“... 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 ✨