Herman Koch's The Dinner
Translated from the Dutch, this book is garnering comparisons to We Need To Talk about Kevin, which I've never read, but is probably accurate. I've also seen it labelled as a kind of thriller, which I don't think is really fitting in terms of narrative tension or content. The action all takes place at a dinner as narrated by one man, who is out with his wife, his brother (a douchey politician), and his brother's wife. And something is up with their children, but that's revealed later, gradually. There are plenty of flashbacks/memories to fill in the gaps, so saying that it all takes place at a dinner is maybe not entirely accurate. Anyway, maybe this is a spoiler, but all of these characters are unbelievably horrible people, and this book was riveting in that car-crash kind of way, where you can't look away. I'm not sure how to grade a book like that, but I can see why it's an international bestseller and probably will be popular with book groups. B?
2 comments:
I recently bought this book thinking it might be similar to "Carnage", a movie full of people horribly miscast in their roles but still with a decent story to tell. I was surprised to see your mention of "We Need To Talk About Kevin". I did read WNTTAK, in fact it's one of my favorite books. I had a personal interest in that story which means I may not have been objective about it. BUT if you've got the time, you might be interested in adding it to your To Be read At Some Point pile.
Oh, I know it's supposed to be great, and I've read and liked other books by Shriver, I think I just need to, like, psych myself up to read it. Also, I've been spoiled for the big twist, so I'm not sure how reading it would be now.
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