My cousin recommended The Dinner a while back, so I was
looking around for it for a while. However, Dutch books are pretty expensive
compared to their English counterparts –which I find crazy since I live in the
Netherlands yet they keep their own books pricier over other language books-,
and I was determined to read the novel in its original Dutch version. Luckily,
as I was scouring through boxes of books on the market one day I came across a
copy for 2 Euros, and I immediately picked it up. That was already a few months
back. I finally got round to reading it. Review and summary after the jump.
A summer's
evening in Amsterdam and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant. 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 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, and as civility and friendship disintegrates, each couple show
just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love.
I’ll be honest and say directly that I haven’t read a Dutch
book in quite a while. It may be almost 7 years since last time I read anything
non-English. I’m glad I did though. The book reads quite easily and I am
positive that the included Dutch colloquialism helps it along. That is not to
say however, that I enjoyed the book. Koch is indeed worthy of his praise as a
writer; the prose is well-written and the narrative moves along smoothly for
the most part. The problem starts with flashbacks. I've read novels where
flashbacks seemingly happen and end without causing any disruption to the
story. This book is not one of those. Every flashback goes into so much-perhaps
frivolous- details and happens at moments during the dinner that are so
unexpected, it’s hard to wrap your head around the connection the narrator is
trying to make. The narrator himself, is perhaps the worst person ever. While I
would never have dinner with any of the four main characters, our narrator is
of an irritating, irrational, and downright crazy caliber all on his own. I
took solace in that his holier-than-thou demeanor is completely shattered by
the end of the novel- though perhaps not to him-. Everyone has those people
they dread going to dinner with. Well, let me tell you, these people are the worst.
However, looking at it as an outsider, give an intriguing point of view. I understand
the appeal of the novel, but some of the style and the characters just didn't
do it for me.
You can buy The Dinner
here
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