Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Dinner by Herman Koch

48 reviews

clemrain's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Where do you begin with The Dinner? I suppose it would be with the dinner.

This book takes course through one dinner. An important dinner and discussion between difficult characters that are strong in their beliefs and will act on them. That is a threat. 

The narrator, Paul, is astonishingly written. A wild ride of inner dialogues and anecdotes that are placed in just the right places. Koch uses great pacing and placements of Paul’s recounts. Paul is of the best unreliable narrator’s I’ve read. 

The Dinner is such a real depiction of racism, prejudice and privilege. That doesn’t catch on until it does and then it just settles. I can’t explain it. Koch does such a good job. You really get put into the disillusionment of these people. It’s astonishing. These are some well written and realistic characters though majority of them, I really don't like.

I wish I could read this book in its original language. I wonder how much it would’ve differed. The pacing the wording. Either way, I do think this translation is effective.

The ending

is five stars to me. Of course it ended like that. There is no consequence for people like Paul. It was realistic. Though I wonder a lot what “disease” Paul left unmentioned. I wonder our conclusions as readers are meant to be us facing our own prejudice.

This book is frustrating and for most of it I was just trying to understand what the point was. But there is a point and I wonder if it’ll ever be understood by the people this book is about. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Medical content, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Racism, Death, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Infidelity and Body horror

iggydoane's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism and Racism

A very well constructed book, but my rating/enjoyment was sufficiently hampered by the "reveal" that

Paul has what for all intents and purposes appears to be Aspergers (an outdated term, but the exact wording used is that the syndrome is the surname of a German neurologist, so I see really no alternative) although in interviews he stated that he did not include a name because he knew it was a problematic description, but that asd was the original intent.

ableism aside, for me this detracts from the narrative. I really enjoyed the structure of this book, love an unreliable narrator, could have done without the ableism. The racism is largely used as a tool to sketch out the characters of Paul and company, but as with all racism written by white authors, it deserves scrutiny. The Lohman's adopted African child largely serves as a tool to highlight the moral failings of the characters, and ultimately it is inferred that

his involvement with the Lohmans leads to his murder

ablosa's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Mental illness

Moderate: Racism

emilyyyyyyyy's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

Moderate: Mental illness, Racial slurs, and Racism

hannibanani29's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Alcohol, Hate crime, Violence, Classism, Cursing, Death, and Racism

niliii's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.5

A truly terrible book. .5 stars because at least it was a fast read, though it felt like it took forever.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

Moderate: Bullying, Mental illness, Classism, and Racism

melosamatic's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Misogyny and Homophobia

zestymelon's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Murder, and Classism

Minor: Racism

A very minor character dies by getting set on fire. Racism is more subtext, but very much a part of the book. All of this is intentional commentary

webb_beb's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Medical content

Moderate: Homophobia, Murder, and Racism

hollymich's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Racial slurs, and Hate crime

Moderate: Mental illness, Torture, Classism, Medical trauma, and Medical content