Reviews with content warning for Violence - The Dinner

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Dinner by Herman Koch

90 reviews

nenaveenstra's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

Ik zag op het internet ineens een boel mensen de Engelse vertaling van dit boek lezen, dus ik raakte geïntrigeerd. Hoezo is dit boek zo populair dat het in zoveel talen vertaald is?

Ik heb daar na het luisteren van dit boek nog steeds geen antwoord op. Het boek is namelijk erg Nederlands. De 'tolerante' houding van deze mensen jegens allerlei minderheidsgroepen is zo typisch, en de manier waarop alles eindigt zou best als racistisch kunnen worden beschouwd.

Maar goed, ik was wel geëntertaind. Als je begint aan dit boek, heb je geen idee wat je te wachten staat, en de manier waarop alles zich uitvouwde had ik - tot op de laatste kwart, denk ik - niet zien aankomen. Als je eenmaal weet wat er speelt, wordt het boek wel een beetje voorspelbaar. Het was prima.

Overigens; ik zie veel mensen zeggen dat dit een boek is over hoever ouders gaan om hun kinderen te beschermen. Maar in mijn ogen proberen ze alleen maar zichzelf te beschermen. Michel is een kopie van zijn vader. Als Michel door de mand valt, doet Paul dat ook. En hetzelfde geldt voor Serge.

het is niet voor niks dat hij zijn presidentschap wil opofferen. Niet om zijn zoon, maar om zijn eigen reputatie.

(Zoals altijd bij luisterboeken vraag ik me af of ik er meer van had genoten als ik het met mijn eigen ogen had gelezen, maar we zullen het nooit weten.)

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jannedvd's review against another edition

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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

1.5

ik was in de wat door de flashbacks

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3eggomelet's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.75

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h0lland's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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la_karina1818's review against another edition

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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

2.0

A novel with a promising concept and set up, but it didn't continue that way forward. The unreliable narrator, the father of one of the boys involved is the single voice narrating all the events happening in the story. I wished that it could have been a lot varied if each person on the table, got to have a point of view in the story. Through the middle part, it is established that

he could be a possible link to his son's sociopathic behaviour due to an unspecified mental illness that he has. I also think that if the mental illness was told to us, it would have been a lot more intriguing, but loads of the juicy details were left out on purpose. For example, the constant repetition of the father's need to always punch people in the face could have been something caused by his mental illness, but to me I just found it annoying.

However, this shifts when

his wife is presented to be the encouraging force behind her son's reckless behaviour, by hiding his role in the murder and later encouraging him to deal with Beau in whichever way he liked

which just changed the viewpoint without the build up of the previous link. The whole conflict revolves around whether the narrator's brother Serge should give up on his political career due to the actions of his son and nephew. This leads the family to

take it upon themselves to stop him from standing down and exposing himself, as his sister in law takes it into her own hands by attacking him.

All of the actions that the characters did had no repercussions whatsoever, which just made it incredibly unrealistic and potrays them as stereotypical villains. This could be due to the commentary made that because of their upper middle class status, they are able to get away with most things and hide them more easily. However, to me the law enforcement and hiding crimes isn't that easy as in real life. I didn't like that at the end

they just put all the blame on the adopted boy, just because he thought it would be fun to threat them to release the video of the attack if they don't give him money.

I liked the structure of the novel, as it revolved around the dinner they had, the whole suspense part of it, which had none whatsoever but around 70% of the book was just flashbacks and memories. The narrator also focused on details that were completely irrelevant to the plot or the characters themselves, which made it quite tedious to read. Overall, it was a story with a nice concept, but everything else was a big flop.

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marykendrick666_'s review against another edition

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challenging 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

4.0

Content Warnings

anagspereira's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-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

4.0

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chlorai's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-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

1.5

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laurenleigh's review against another edition

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challenging dark 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

4.0

This novel takes place over the course of a dinner between two brothers and their wives. The structure was quite interesting, and I thought Koch did a great job of putting us in the mindset of our narrator, one of the brothers. As the night progresses and as items or actions trigger the narrator’s memory, we get insights into the past and the events leading up to this dinner. As the story unfolds, the plot was almost like a thriller, even though the current action happening is just a dinner out. It was well executed, and Koch is a great writer. But I really dislike almost all of these characters. I was constantly shocked by their selfishness and lack of morals. I think it would probably make a good book club pick though, with lots of opportunities for questioning what you’d do in these situations.

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gabgeh's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-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

2.75

An interesting concept; peculiar execution. Slow at times, but creative.

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