Reviews with content warning for Classism - The Dinner

Reviews tagging 'Classism'

The Dinner by Herman Koch

33 reviews

kailaelders's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.75

The first twenty chapters really dragged for me. They were full of Paul's exhausting condescension and judgement of everybody around him. He comes across as deeply insecure, misogynistic and violent from the start, although the extent of that violence is gradually revealed to be more and more literal and not just his intrusive thoughts. The central conflict, once it was finally revealed, did pique my interest, but I found the subsequent chapters to have another slow period before things started moving forward again. All the characters are insufferable and in some cases incorrigible, and by the end you're really rooting for their demise or at least some kind of justice. I think the story was intriguing but the way it was packaged just wasn't worth it for me.

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elisalasater's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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rosa96'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? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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domenicar's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-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

3.0

The main characters are obviously despicable, but that is intended and the point of the book. If it is done well, I don't need loveable characters to enjoy a book. I am not sure if it was the case here.

First of all, I have never seen more racial slurs in one book. I am not sure whether it was to highlight the awfulness of the characters or the author's edginess. All in all, I feel like the point could have been made without them and they made me enjoy the book less.

I also briefly considered DNF'ing this book, because it was painfully slow-paced. It was meandering for ages to finally arrive at reveals that were mostly fairly easy to guess and/or anti-climactic, especially towards the end.

This is the first book I've read from Herman Koch and despite everything, I generally liked his writing style and would probably try another book of his in the future.

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