Pairing Books with Movies: The Dinner

The Dinner
by Herman Koch
★★★★☆

What a whirlwind novel! The whole story is told from the point of view of Paul, a middle aged man on his way to dinner with his wife, his brother Serge and his sister-in-law. The quartet is meeting at a fancy restaurant and as dinner progresses we learn the reason for the gathering. 

Without including any spoilers I can say that the book is dark, but so good. It plays with the ideas of nature vs. nurture and sibling rivalry in a fascinating way. Serge is expected to be the next Prime Minister and his fame attracts additional attention to their table. As Paul’s patience shortens and each new course is served the tension mounts. I loved the details of the book. The interactions with the waiter, the descriptions of the food, all of it added to the pleasure of reading.

It reminded me a bit of We Need to Talk About Kevin in the way that an unreliable narrator is talking about the present day and also flashing back to past action in the story. We learn things in bits and pieces. The reader has no idea if Paul is skewing the story to show his family in a better light. We also don’t fully understand his wife’s position on everything at first. 

The relationship between the siblings is both tense and primal. We don’t ever really think our siblings have changed from those individuals we grew up with. We see our siblings in a completely different way than the rest of the world does. We know their secrets and their weaknesses. In some ways we see them more clearly, but we also bring our own immature prejudices to the relationship because we have a shared history when we were both sensitive and vulnerable.
There are books where the characters are not likeable and that ruins it, but I think often that just means the writing isn’t as good as it should be. This novel is full of unlikeable characters but that had no impact on my enjoyment. 

BOTTOM LINE: I honestly couldn’t put it down. I read the whole thing in one day. Highly recommended for whenever you’re in the mood for a dark twisty look at family relationships.


Pairing Books with Movies: The Good Son (1993) is a perfect pairing with The Dinner. It stars Macaulay Culkin and Elijah Wood as two young cousins who become friends but then one of them starts to show signs of violence. It’s creepy and shares some similar themes with the book.

Top Ten Most Unique Books I've Read

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for the Top Ten Most Unique Books I've Read.

1) The Diving Bell and the Butterfly – A nonfiction memoir painstakingly written by a man who is paralyzed in a car wreck. He blinked out every letter he wanted written.

2) Room – The horrific nature of this novel is tempered by the way it is told. A kidnap victim has a child while captive and the reader sees the story unfold through the innocent eyes of a 5-year-old.

3) Ella Minnow Pea – This clever epistolary novel uses fewer and fewer letters throughout the book as certain pieces of the alphabet are banned.

4) The Arrival – A graphic novel that manages to convey a gripping emotional story of immigration without using a single word.

5) Anything by Jasper Fforde – From his literary detective in the Thursday Next series to the world of hierarchical colors in Shades of Grey, Fforde creates the most fantastic societies.

6) We Need to Talk about Kevin – A book about a killing at a school that makes the reader question nature vs. nurture. This one is unique because at the end you’re still not sure whose side you’re on.

7) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Our narrator has some form of autism, probably Asperger’s, which gives him a very distinct view of the world.  

8) The Sparrow – Is it a novel about space travel, religion, xenophobia, culture divides? It’s all of the above and I’ve never read anything else like it.

9) A Clockwork Orange – The characters speak in a slang language of their own devising.

10) The Book Thief – The book is narrated by Death, enough said.

Top Ten Books I Hope People Still Read in 30 Years

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for the Top Ten Books Written In The Past 10 Years That I Hope People Are Still Reading In 30 Years

1) The Book Thief – Seriously people, go read this, then in 30 years make your grandkids read it.

2) John Green’s work – Green has a way of connecting readers to characters that will never lose its punch. I hope his work still reaches new generations of teens when he’s an old man.

3) The Graveyard Book – I hope this one becomes a classic just like the book that inspired it, The Jungle Book.

4) Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – I can’t think of the better book that dealt with the trauma that 9/11 caused. I think that it will be a good representation of the confusion and pain people were feeling at that time to future generations.

5) Interpreter of Maladies – Lahiri’s writing is timeless, as are her themes of blending cultures and coming to terms with living in a new country.

6) Persepolis – This one is 2000, but I’m counting it. I hope people are still reading graphic novels in general. It’s such a wonderful genre and I hope it’s still popular in 30 years.

7) The Harry Potter series – I have a feeling these will be around for a very long time.

8) We Need to Talk About Kevin – Not only is this an incredibly powerful look at the struggles of parenting, it also deals with the acts of violence in schools. We had far too many of those happen in the past 15 years, most notably Columbine and the copycats that followed, and sadly I think that’s something future generations will be curious about.

9) The Year of Magical Thinking – This is the most intimate book on grief that I’ve ever read. Grief is timeless and I think this would resonate with someone who lost a loved one no matter when they read it.

10) The Time Traveler's Wife – I love this book and I hope people never stop reading it.

*Photo from here.