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3.33 AVERAGE
3.33 AVERAGE
Having read and enjoyed Koch’s The Dinner, I looked forward to reading his next work of fiction. Like The Dinner, it is an unsettling read but one which I found captivating.
The narrator is Dr. Marc Schlosser, a general practitioner. At the beginning, he is called before a Board of Medical Examiners because of a “medical error” which led to the death of Ralph Meier, a famous actor. Via flashbacks, Marc tells about his meeting Ralph who eventually invites Marc and his family to spend their summer vacation with them at a rented Mediterranean summer house. Marc is infatuated with Judith, Ralph’s wife, and manipulates Caroline, his wife, to accept the invitation. Marc and Caroline and their daughters, 13-year-old Julia and 11-year-old Lisa, stay with the Meiers and their other house guests, Stanley and Emmanuelle, until tragedy strikes.
Marc certainly ranks amongst the most vile of literary characters. He is a narcissist: “I’m more charming than most men (76). He is a misogynist who theorizes that only a “dirty, unwashed dick” with “filthy worthless sperm that smells like a half-finished bottle of fermented dairy drink stuck at the back of the fridge” (56) will have sex with an ugly woman and that “A half rape – women always like that. All women” (243). Though a physician, he does not “worry too much about medical standards. About what is, strictly speaking, medically responsible” (49). He gives his patients “the illusion of attention” (1). He has an aversion to the human body, asserting that “Human bodies are horrible enough as it is, even with their clothes on” (3), so he avoids examining patients except as “you might look at a dead animal in the road” (45). He is a hypocrite who hates men thinking of his daughters in a sexual way, but who joins his male companions in more than admiring three young women, “in fact more girls than young women” (221) and agrees to have his daughter audition to be a teen model in the U.S. His friends are Ralph, a boor with rapacious appetites for food and women, and Stanley, a lecherous soft- core film director whose companion is forty years younger.
The novel addresses a number of issues: the objectification and sexualization of girls, the extent to which a person might go to protect him/herself or to exact revenge. Some of the content will certainly induce discomfort. And there are few answers; even the crime that is committed is left unsolved, so readers who dislike indeterminate endings should stay away.
Though the book is disquieting, I found it difficult to put down. The portrayal of Marc’s psyche is a masterpiece, though at the end the reader may want to take a cleansing dive in a swimming pool.
Please check out my reader's blog (http://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).
The narrator is Dr. Marc Schlosser, a general practitioner. At the beginning, he is called before a Board of Medical Examiners because of a “medical error” which led to the death of Ralph Meier, a famous actor. Via flashbacks, Marc tells about his meeting Ralph who eventually invites Marc and his family to spend their summer vacation with them at a rented Mediterranean summer house. Marc is infatuated with Judith, Ralph’s wife, and manipulates Caroline, his wife, to accept the invitation. Marc and Caroline and their daughters, 13-year-old Julia and 11-year-old Lisa, stay with the Meiers and their other house guests, Stanley and Emmanuelle, until tragedy strikes.
Marc certainly ranks amongst the most vile of literary characters. He is a narcissist: “I’m more charming than most men (76). He is a misogynist who theorizes that only a “dirty, unwashed dick” with “filthy worthless sperm that smells like a half-finished bottle of fermented dairy drink stuck at the back of the fridge” (56) will have sex with an ugly woman and that “A half rape – women always like that. All women” (243). Though a physician, he does not “worry too much about medical standards. About what is, strictly speaking, medically responsible” (49). He gives his patients “the illusion of attention” (1). He has an aversion to the human body, asserting that “Human bodies are horrible enough as it is, even with their clothes on” (3), so he avoids examining patients except as “you might look at a dead animal in the road” (45). He is a hypocrite who hates men thinking of his daughters in a sexual way, but who joins his male companions in more than admiring three young women, “in fact more girls than young women” (221) and agrees to have his daughter audition to be a teen model in the U.S. His friends are Ralph, a boor with rapacious appetites for food and women, and Stanley, a lecherous soft- core film director whose companion is forty years younger.
The novel addresses a number of issues: the objectification and sexualization of girls, the extent to which a person might go to protect him/herself or to exact revenge. Some of the content will certainly induce discomfort. And there are few answers; even the crime that is committed is left unsolved, so readers who dislike indeterminate endings should stay away.
Though the book is disquieting, I found it difficult to put down. The portrayal of Marc’s psyche is a masterpiece, though at the end the reader may want to take a cleansing dive in a swimming pool.
Please check out my reader's blog (http://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).
Ja, leest als een trein. Leuk wel. Maar dat einde, hmm, dat vond ik maar niks.
This book was definitely disturbing - a slow burn but worth it. It was multi-layered and even though I wanted to stop, I couldn't.
A bit dark and angst-y as I like. The main character is quite a piece of work. We all have a bit of him within ourselves.
Life is too short to read books that I hate.
I hated all of the people in this book. Every single one of them.
Nothing happens. The blurbs make this sound interesting, but after 200 pages and nothing happening, I gave up.
I hated all of the people in this book. Every single one of them.
Nothing happens. The blurbs make this sound interesting, but after 200 pages and nothing happening, I gave up.
Súper atrapante. Se pone mejor en la mitad y ahí no lo puedes soltar
This guy is a great writer and the way he tells stories is so compelling. Whenever I had to step away from this book all I could think about was that I wanted to keep reading and find out what the heck was going on. Definitely great if you liked Gone Girl and/or The Dinner
This book literally starts with you meeting this pretentious doctor. He introduces his practice and how he gives his patients the illusion that he cares, when in reality, he knows everything way quicker than the time he spends with them. Dr. Marc Schlosser is basically the complete opposite of what you would hope for in a doctor.
There were a lot of instances where Marc was really annoying to me. And I don’t even know if annoying is the right word. He was just so condescending and a character you were supposed to hate. Like when he would try to judge how he acted by stating that it was due his practice or his work. He was using his unique practice to justify some of the borderline unethical things he was doing in his practice. He just really got on my nerves, but I still wanted to read the book to see how it was all going to unfold.
Throughout the book, Koch used this amazing writing style to describe how the body worked. While these were incredibly descriptive and sometimes really in-depth in terms of body function, I really enjoyed the imagery. The human body is a fascinating topic and I feel like Koch really embraced that in his writing.
My only real complaint is the slowness at the start of the book Koch sets up the relationship between the Schlossers and the Meiers and the subsequent death of Ralph. And with that explanation and background information, the timeline at the beginning of the book is weird. Koch switches between the present after Ralph’s death, the summer leading up to his death, and his time in med school. At times it seems out of place even though it makes sense towards explaining what is happening in the book.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book, especially the writing. This book has been translated into English from Dutch, but it is not noticeable and Koch’s imagery and language is translated beautifully.
There were a lot of instances where Marc was really annoying to me. And I don’t even know if annoying is the right word. He was just so condescending and a character you were supposed to hate. Like when he would try to judge how he acted by stating that it was due his practice or his work. He was using his unique practice to justify some of the borderline unethical things he was doing in his practice. He just really got on my nerves, but I still wanted to read the book to see how it was all going to unfold.
Throughout the book, Koch used this amazing writing style to describe how the body worked. While these were incredibly descriptive and sometimes really in-depth in terms of body function, I really enjoyed the imagery. The human body is a fascinating topic and I feel like Koch really embraced that in his writing.
My only real complaint is the slowness at the start of the book Koch sets up the relationship between the Schlossers and the Meiers and the subsequent death of Ralph. And with that explanation and background information, the timeline at the beginning of the book is weird. Koch switches between the present after Ralph’s death, the summer leading up to his death, and his time in med school. At times it seems out of place even though it makes sense towards explaining what is happening in the book.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book, especially the writing. This book has been translated into English from Dutch, but it is not noticeable and Koch’s imagery and language is translated beautifully.