The Dinner
2009 • 304 pages
Ratings57
Average rating3.3
15
Ratings57
Average rating3.3
It’s a summer’s evening in Amsterdam, and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant for dinner. Between mouthfuls of food and over the polite scrapings of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of polite discourse — the banality of work, the triviality of the holidays. But behind the empty words, terrible things need to be said, and with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being sharpened.
Each couple has a fifteen-year-old son. The two boys are united by their accountability for a single horrific act; an act that has triggered a police investigation and shattered the comfortable, insulated worlds of their families. As the dinner reaches its culinary climax, the conversation finally touches on their children. As civility and friendship disintegrate, each couple show just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love.
Tautly written, incredibly gripping, and told by an unforgettable narrator, The Dinner promises to be the topic of countless dinner party debates. Skewering everything from parenting values to pretentious menus to political convictions, this novel reveals the dark side of genteel society and asks what each of us would do in the face of unimaginable tragedy.
Source: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/221991/the-dinner-movie-tie-in-edition-by-herman-koch/9780385346849
Reviews with the most likes.
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.
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.
