We are presently in a time where various and many evils are being perpetrated, and perhaps this wasn’t the right time to read this book, but once I’d opened to the first page I could not stop.
It’s a book of families, of genetic backgrounds, of secrets. But what makes it exemplary is the way it grabs you right round the throat and pulls you in, keeps you from looking away as the horrors multiply.
The narrator, Paul, takes us along on a tense evening spent with his twin brother and their wives. Paul’s brother, Serge, is a popular politician, contemplating a run for the leadership. Paul has been off on leave from his job as a history teacher. There’s bad blood, envy, between them. So far, so usual. But in the background there’s the hint of malevolence left uncontrolled. Both twins have 15 year old sons, and those boys have been up to something.
What that is comes to light over dinner, a ridiculously expensive and expansively detailed dinner at one of those restaurants where you are supposed to be pleased to receive two squares of ravioli for your $50, the sort of place where only the very special can get a table last minute, where Serge eats often.
I am still talking like the narrator, Paul, which is not a good thing because his bottled rage is not a good way to feel. He’s an indelible character, though, and I know he will be inhabiting my mind for rather too long in this, the summer of our discontent.
The writing is tight, even the lengthy descriptions of the waiter’s pinky finger seem necessary and work towards creating tension. Melting ice cream keeps the time.
It’s this sort of writing that makes me want to put my head down and weep over my own much inferior scribbling. And then to look over Koch’s work to see how he does it, how he can take you on such a ride and have you both reeling in horror and nodding along with the families...
Stunning.
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All I can gauge from reading the reviews here is that 90% of people will say a book is poorly written and rate it 1 star is because "the characters are unlikable".
God forbid they stumble upon some gruesome crime fiction or something written from the perspective of an anatogonist. ( )

What is this supposed to be? Is it supposed to be relatable? Realistic? Is it supposed to make sense? Should I believe that three out of four parents would not care that their children are criminals? Should I believe that Paul has put multiple people in the hospital without consequences? I truly don't understand.

Two stars because at first the writing was compelling. ( )

In The Dinner, Herman Koch invites us to an excruciating dinner at an insufferable restaurant with four pretty repellent people discussing what they are going to do about a horrible crime that they are aware of.

There are some surprises along the way but, without giving away too much, Koch’s ending casts so much doubt on what went on before that you don’t know what to make of the book at all really. Personally, I found the ending bewildering and it ruined what little pleasure I found in the book. ( )

Original, dark, unreliable narrator . . .yeah, definitely up my alley! Unfortunately, I kept thinking to myself, "wow, this could have been brilliant." Honestly, the premise of the plot was just really good . . .but I couldn't help but think of it in the hands of say, Stephen King. King would make the rather pedestrian protagonist both more likable and scarier. He would take this exact same plot and take you on an emotional roller coaster.

Koch, on the other hand, takes his brilliant plot idea and overlays it with a solid storytelling voice and actually some sharp wit that keeps you turning the pages. And that was good enough for four stars from me. But just barely. I was interested and entertained, but not impressed.

The story is about two brothers who meet up in a restaurant with their wives. It becomes clear that the relationship between the brothers is strained and slowly the causes of the strain are revealed. Some of the issues are narrated forthrightly and others need to be unearthed a bit by the reader as the story progresses.

Readers can get behind characters who do bad things . . .but it takes a lot of writerly skill to develop the empathy in the heart of the reader that is sustained throughout. This book actually reminds me a little bit of a book I started and have yet to return to called [b:The Slap|5396496|The Slap|Christos Tsiolkas|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1330062364s/5396496.jpg|5464024] . . .which took on some similar issues on a smaller scale and with a less deft hand.

So I am glad I read this one, and I enjoyed the time I spent with it, but I don't think I'll be telling my friends to pick it up.

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