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A review by semiiii
The Dinner by Herman Koch
2.0
Huh...
I guess I'll start by saying I appreciate the new viewpoint this book gave me - I haven't really read a book from the villain's perspective before. It was interesting to start the book thinking Serge and Babette were the wrongful characters but to quickly understand how sociopathic Claire and Paul actually turn out to be.
My issues with the book:
1. Having this all take place in a public restaurant took me out of the book several times. I understand that it raised the stakes by not being in a private location, but if you were trying to meet your family to discuss sensitive familial matters, would you REALLY think a public place would be the best setting? Every time someone blew up I was stunned that other people in the restaurant weren't able to hear them talking about murder or see that one of the women at the table was visibly disturbed.
2. There were two moments that didn't make sense to me. Firstly, what was the purpose for comparing the restaurant owner with the neighborhood pedophile? Just to show an occasion when Paul lost his temper and attacked someone? I had to read the paragraph several times to understand that Paul did not attack the waiter but that it was a memory he was recalling. Secondly, why did the author make Claire sick? We never really came back to it and it felt very disconnected from the rest of the story.
3. Overall, I think Koch had many great ideas about these characters but sloppily threw together to make this story. Not only are there pieces of narrative very loosely tied together, but there felt like too many rabbit holes of thought that were touched on but not properly seen through. Conversations of familial happiness, the complicated relationships between parents and their adopted children, classism, capital punishment.
So many moments of this book felt loosely tied to other pieces of the story but not put together in a strong enough way to really enjoy the story.
I guess I'll start by saying I appreciate the new viewpoint this book gave me - I haven't really read a book from the villain's perspective before. It was interesting to start the book thinking Serge and Babette were the wrongful characters but to quickly understand how sociopathic Claire and Paul actually turn out to be.
My issues with the book:
1. Having this all take place in a public restaurant took me out of the book several times. I understand that it raised the stakes by not being in a private location, but if you were trying to meet your family to discuss sensitive familial matters, would you REALLY think a public place would be the best setting? Every time someone blew up I was stunned that other people in the restaurant weren't able to hear them talking about murder or see that one of the women at the table was visibly disturbed.
2. There were two moments that didn't make sense to me. Firstly, what was the purpose for comparing the restaurant owner with the neighborhood pedophile? Just to show an occasion when Paul lost his temper and attacked someone? I had to read the paragraph several times to understand that Paul did not attack the waiter but that it was a memory he was recalling. Secondly, why did the author make Claire sick? We never really came back to it and it felt very disconnected from the rest of the story.
3. Overall, I think Koch had many great ideas about these characters but sloppily threw together to make this story. Not only are there pieces of narrative very loosely tied together, but there felt like too many rabbit holes of thought that were touched on but not properly seen through. Conversations of familial happiness, the complicated relationships between parents and their adopted children, classism, capital punishment.
So many moments of this book felt loosely tied to other pieces of the story but not put together in a strong enough way to really enjoy the story.