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A review by miffybooks
The Dinner by Herman Koch
4.0
This book really doesnt seem miffybooks bunny profile pic core but phew I loved it
What a twisted fucking book oh my god! I am so blown away by how Herman Koch develops Paul's character. It starts with him coming off as just a grumpy, upper-class complainer and through the course of the book you slowly realize he's more and more unhinged. The progression of his character is so subtle! There are so many times where I was like "how could he think that! that doesn't make sense at all!" but by the end of the book, everything Paul does, as well as the effect he has on his family, makes perfect sense.
This book is incredible at building suspense. Just like with Paul's character, the events and details in the story start incredibly mundane, but there's constant, ever so slight escalation after every page. Every time I sat down to read this I found it so hard to put down which is a feeling I wish I felt more with books. By the end, I felt chills in the best way possible, like discomfort had slowly crept up on me and I only realized the feeling once I closed the book.
Other than a few moments where the organization got confusing, I didn't have many complaints with this. I thought the characters were super well constructed, even if all of them were incredibly (and intentionally!) unlikeable. I thought this was great! And hopefully not a foreshadowing of what the people of Amsterdam are like...
What a twisted fucking book oh my god! I am so blown away by how Herman Koch develops Paul's character. It starts with him coming off as just a grumpy, upper-class complainer and through the course of the book you slowly realize he's more and more unhinged. The progression of his character is so subtle! There are so many times where I was like "how could he think that! that doesn't make sense at all!" but by the end of the book, everything Paul does, as well as the effect he has on his family, makes perfect sense.
This book is incredible at building suspense. Just like with Paul's character, the events and details in the story start incredibly mundane, but there's constant, ever so slight escalation after every page. Every time I sat down to read this I found it so hard to put down which is a feeling I wish I felt more with books. By the end, I felt chills in the best way possible, like discomfort had slowly crept up on me and I only realized the feeling once I closed the book.
Other than a few moments where the organization got confusing, I didn't have many complaints with this. I thought the characters were super well constructed, even if all of them were incredibly (and intentionally!) unlikeable. I thought this was great! And hopefully not a foreshadowing of what the people of Amsterdam are like...