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3.33 AVERAGE
3.33 AVERAGE
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Like a Dutch John Cheever but even darker. Easy to read all the way through in one weekend, but will take much longer to digest, I'm sure.
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really enjoyed this book. I liked the writing style (or should I say the narrator's speaking style).
I found the plot gripping and noticed my pulse actually racing at some points in the story. It made me uncomfortable at some parts but in a way that I found interesting and had to keep reading. My boyfriend commented that he noticed I had trouble ripping my eyes away from this one - I found myself reading it in during every snippet I could - commercial breaks, lulls in conversation, before bed and before getting up for the day..
I would recommend it.
I found the plot gripping and noticed my pulse actually racing at some points in the story. It made me uncomfortable at some parts but in a way that I found interesting and had to keep reading. My boyfriend commented that he noticed I had trouble ripping my eyes away from this one - I found myself reading it in during every snippet I could - commercial breaks, lulls in conversation, before bed and before getting up for the day..
I would recommend it.
I've read The Dinner by Koch twice and found it highly entertaining, so I was excited to receive this as a gift. Koch has a way of creating highly unlikable, believable characters that are hard to put down. This novel was even more of a wild ride than The Dinner, and I sped through it greedily.
The unreliable narrator is a doctor, a physician, a man I would never want to have as my doctor or even reading my chart. He's vile, and I strongly disagree with many of his beliefs. But I want things to work out for him, and as you read you'll understand why.
This is another one I hope to revisit in the future, and may many more of Koch's works get translated to English.
The unreliable narrator is a doctor, a physician, a man I would never want to have as my doctor or even reading my chart. He's vile, and I strongly disagree with many of his beliefs. But I want things to work out for him, and as you read you'll understand why.
This is another one I hope to revisit in the future, and may many more of Koch's works get translated to English.
I think I preferred Koch in audiobook format. Reading it gives you more of a chance to focus on how twisted and dark his worldview is. I did not prefer it.
This review and others can be found on Cozy Up With A Good Read
I remember hearing everyone talk about Herman Koch's The Dinner when it came out last year, it was one of those books that you wanted to talk about to everyone but they needed to read it or else you would give too much away. So when I heard that another one of his books was being translated, I knew I would jump at the chance to read it. Summer House with Swimming Pool, is another book that will leave readers reeling and wanting to talk about it with anyone that has already read it.
This book is a lot like the first one, where there is an event that is alluded to and as a reader you see some of the fallout from this event, and then the story goes back to the past and shows what leads up to this drastic thing. This is another story that really needs to be experienced and is hard to review because I don't want to give away major plot spoilers.
I can say that Herman Koch is amazing at creating characters that you are meant to dislike, each one of them has their own issues and really do not have redeeming characteristics. But these are the things that really make the story so intriguing and had me picking up the book whenever I could. This book is very controversial and makes you think about what path you would take if you were in that situation, it is one of those things a person can judge but can never really say what it is like until they experience it for themselves.
If you haven't read anything by Koch yet I definitely suggest a binge read (hopefully more of his books will be translated over the next few years). They deal with disturbing subject matter, but the way Koch writes pulls readers into the story and keeps a strong hold on you until the very end.
I remember hearing everyone talk about Herman Koch's The Dinner when it came out last year, it was one of those books that you wanted to talk about to everyone but they needed to read it or else you would give too much away. So when I heard that another one of his books was being translated, I knew I would jump at the chance to read it. Summer House with Swimming Pool, is another book that will leave readers reeling and wanting to talk about it with anyone that has already read it.
This book is a lot like the first one, where there is an event that is alluded to and as a reader you see some of the fallout from this event, and then the story goes back to the past and shows what leads up to this drastic thing. This is another story that really needs to be experienced and is hard to review because I don't want to give away major plot spoilers.
I can say that Herman Koch is amazing at creating characters that you are meant to dislike, each one of them has their own issues and really do not have redeeming characteristics. But these are the things that really make the story so intriguing and had me picking up the book whenever I could. This book is very controversial and makes you think about what path you would take if you were in that situation, it is one of those things a person can judge but can never really say what it is like until they experience it for themselves.
If you haven't read anything by Koch yet I definitely suggest a binge read (hopefully more of his books will be translated over the next few years). They deal with disturbing subject matter, but the way Koch writes pulls readers into the story and keeps a strong hold on you until the very end.
I've read books of the same author that I found were better.
It's easy to read; short chapters, relatively short sentences.
Sometimes the author used too many details to describe things, even to the point it got gross.
Good was that I wanted to know what happened, so I kept reading, even though I wasn't too excited about the book.
It's easy to read; short chapters, relatively short sentences.
Sometimes the author used too many details to describe things, even to the point it got gross.
Good was that I wanted to know what happened, so I kept reading, even though I wasn't too excited about the book.
It took me awhile to get into this - maybe 100 pages or so - but then it builds nicely, with suspense and a hundred different story threads diverging and coming back together. Dark and entertaining and endearing, somehow.