Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Middagen, by Herman Koch

24 reviews

nenaveenstra's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Ik zag op het internet ineens een boel mensen de Engelse vertaling van dit boek lezen, dus ik raakte geïntrigeerd. Hoezo is dit boek zo populair dat het in zoveel talen vertaald is? 

Ik heb daar na het luisteren van dit boek nog steeds geen antwoord op. Het boek is namelijk erg Nederlands. De 'tolerante' houding van deze mensen jegens allerlei minderheidsgroepen is zo typisch, en de manier waarop alles eindigt zou best als racistisch kunnen worden beschouwd. 

Maar goed, ik was wel geëntertaind. Als je begint aan dit boek, heb je geen idee wat je te wachten staat, en de manier waarop alles zich uitvouwde had ik - tot op de laatste kwart, denk ik - niet zien aankomen. Als je eenmaal weet wat er speelt, wordt het boek wel een beetje voorspelbaar. Het was prima.

Overigens; ik zie veel mensen zeggen dat dit een boek is over hoever ouders gaan om hun kinderen te beschermen. Maar in mijn ogen proberen ze alleen maar zichzelf te beschermen. Michel is een kopie van zijn vader. Als Michel door de mand valt, doet Paul dat ook. En hetzelfde geldt voor Serge.

Spoiler

het is niet voor niks dat hij zijn presidentschap wil opofferen. Niet om zijn zoon, maar om zijn eigen reputatie.

(Zoals altijd bij luisterboeken vraag ik me af of ik er meer van had genoten als ik het met mijn eigen ogen had gelezen, maar we zullen het nooit weten.) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Murder and Racism

Minor: Abortion

jannedvd's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

ik was in de wat door de flashbacks

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Violence

3eggomelet's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Murder, and Xenophobia

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Racism

lilmollyjo0301's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Racial slurs, and Murder

anagspereira's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Hate crime, Racism, and Classism

Minor: Violence, Death, and Physical abuse

pamietnikzczytelni's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Racism

clemrain's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Where do you begin with The Dinner? I suppose it would be with the dinner.

This book takes course through one dinner. An important dinner and discussion between difficult characters that are strong in their beliefs and will act on them. That is a threat. 

The narrator, Paul, is astonishingly written. A wild ride of inner dialogues and anecdotes that are placed in just the right places. Koch uses great pacing and placements of Paul’s recounts. Paul is of the best unreliable narrator’s I’ve read. 

The Dinner is such a real depiction of racism, prejudice and privilege. That doesn’t catch on until it does and then it just settles. I can’t explain it. Koch does such a good job. You really get put into the disillusionment of these people. It’s astonishing. These are some well written and realistic characters though majority of them, I really don't like.

I wish I could read this book in its original language. I wonder how much it would’ve differed. The pacing the wording. Either way, I do think this translation is effective.

The ending

Spoiler

is five stars to me. Of course it ended like that. There is no consequence for people like Paul. It was realistic. Though I wonder a lot what “disease” Paul left unmentioned. I wonder our conclusions as readers are meant to be us facing our own prejudice.

This book is frustrating and for most of it I was just trying to understand what the point was. But there is a point and I wonder if it’ll ever be understood by the people this book is about. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Medical content, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Racism, Death, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Infidelity and Body horror

iggydoane's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism and Racism

A very well constructed book, but my rating/enjoyment was sufficiently hampered by the "reveal" that

Spoiler

Paul has what for all intents and purposes appears to be Aspergers (an outdated term, but the exact wording used is that the syndrome is the surname of a German neurologist, so I see really no alternative) although in interviews he stated that he did not include a name because he knew it was a problematic description, but that asd was the original intent.

ableism aside, for me this detracts from the narrative. I really enjoyed the structure of this book, love an unreliable narrator, could have done without the ableism. The racism is largely used as a tool to sketch out the characters of Paul and company, but as with all racism written by white authors, it deserves scrutiny. The Lohman's adopted African child largely serves as a tool to highlight the moral failings of the characters, and ultimately it is inferred that

Spoiler

his involvement with the Lohmans leads to his murder

ablosa's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Mental illness

Moderate: Racism

queenieinabeanie's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

Moderate: Mental illness, Racial slurs, and Racism