Fiction – paperback; Atlantic Books; 311 pages; 2012. Translated from the Dutch by Sam Garrett.
Appearances can be deceptive and so it is with Herman Koch’s rather dark and delicious novel, The Dinner, which looks like a simple story that unfolds over the course of a family dinner, but which turns out to be so much more than that.
A five-course menu
The book, which is set in Amsterdam, is divided into five parts — Aperitif, Appetiser, Main Course, Dessert, and Digestif — across 46 relatively short chapters. As you might expect from its title and the naming convention of the sections, it’s set in a restaurant — one of those fancy, upmarket nouvelle cuisine type restaurants, where there is more white plate on show than food. Or, as our often witty and slightly sneering narrator puts it when his wife’s appetiser arrives:
The first thing that struck you about Claire’s plate was its vast emptiness. Of course I’m well aware that, in the better restaurants, quality takes precedence over quantity, but there are voids and then there are voids. The void here, that part of the plate on which no food at all was present, had clearly been raised to a matter of principle.
Over the course of the meal, we become familiar with the two couples sitting around the table, each of whom has a 15-year-old son. There’s an undeniable tension between them from the start, mainly because the narrator, Paul Lohman, and his wife, Claire, would have much preferred to eat in a more down-to-earth establishment, a local café, but they have already agreed to meet Serge and his wife, Babette, at the fancy restaurant because that’s the kind of place they like to eat at.
Serge, it turns out, is not only pretentious and a bit of a wine snob — “all this I-know-everything-about-wine business irritated the hell out of me” — he’s a renowned (and popular) politician. In fact, he’s the leader of the Opposition in Holland and is expected to be the country’s next Prime Minister.
But there’s more to this initial tension than mild envy: it turns out to be a ferocious — and unspoken — clash between parenting values, because their teenage sons have committed a rather horrendous crime and each couple wants to deal with it in a different way. The subject, however, isn’t one that can readily be discussed over pink champagne and goat’s cheese salad…
An unexpected and compelling read
I have to say that I didn’t quite know what to expect from The Dinner, but it turned out to be a highly original, often uncomfortable and totally compelling read, by far the most unusual book I’ve read in a long while. It’s not quite a black comedy, but I did laugh a lot, mainly at the narrator’s sneering, judgemental tone and witty one-liners. The further I got into the story, however, the more my laughter simply felt wrong, because this is the kind of book that tilts your whole axis and tests your empathy for certain characters to the absolute limit.
It’s a hugely entertaining read, but there’s a lot of social commentary here, some of which is clearly tongue-in-cheek — for example, the whole pretentiousness of Western cuisine and food writing — and most of which is not. I’d like to use the term “hard-hitting” to describe it, but that’s too overused — a cliché if you will — and it doesn’t quite convey the creeping sense of unease I felt as I got closer and closer to the ending.
The Dinner is a disturbing morality tale of the finest order, the kind of novel that makes you marvel at the writer’s ingenuous plot, filled as it is with unexpected turns and eye-opening revelations, all carefully structured and perfectly paced to keep the reader on tenterhooks throughout — think Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, but less showy and more intelligent. It’s bold, daring and shocking, but it’s also bloody good fun.
Reading Matters 
This is a great review of this book- probably the best I’ve read. I’ve been on the fence about this one for a long time, so have never bothered to read it, but now I will think again!
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This book is one I have been thinking about reading for a while. I thnk maybe I will give it a try.
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I’m so glad you enjoyed this book. I love the darkness of a novel like this. Herman Koch has a new book coming out this year (by new I mean translated into English) and I’m hoping it is just as dark.
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Wonderfully put. This book certainly does make you feel uncomfortable at laughing at the humour early on.
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Thanks for letting me know about the new book. I will definitely keep my eye out for it.
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It is dark and interesting and has terrific plotting. The author really knows what he is doing in this book, yet I never felt manipulated.
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Thanks for the nice comment, Naomi!
I have had the book in my pile for quite some time. I can honestly say it was worth the wait. It is very readable and enjoyable.
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I immediately warmed to Paul and loved his sneering tone and attitude, but the further I got into the book the more I realised he was rather abhorrent. I was shocked what I discovered near the end.
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I had the same response that you did. I was a little wary when I picked up the book (would it be too gimmicky?), warmed to it with the delightful sarcasm about the meal and then became engaged in a very different way as it got darker and darker (and the characters more and more off-putting). A few months after reading it, I would say it is one of those rare novels where the writer really has paid attention to what he wants to deliver to the reader — in its own way, it is a reading version of a multi-course meal with the different experiences that it offers.
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This was one of my favorite books of 2013. The tension was intense. And i loved the way my view of the characters changed as the story went on.
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The more I think about it, the more I think the structure of the novel is superb. I love how it’s arranged around the different courses of an extended meal and how at the end of each course you find out a mini bombshell that makes you reassess everything you thought about the characters up until that point. It’s never predictable either. I felt blindsided the entire time I read it. And by the end I felt so dirty I wanted to go and have a shower!
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The tension is palpable throughout… I kept expecting a massive punch-up at some point. And yes, the best bit about the novel is the way your view of certain characters changes the more you find out about them…
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I loved your review and think it very fair and honest. However, I didn’t feel the same way about the book and didn’t like any of the characters from the first page. I did feel the tension but also thought the parenting displayed was woeful….. perhaps as a parent I put myself in their shoes and hope I wouldn’t be found so wanting. The best part for me about the book was the way the author told us what Europeans (particularly French I guess) thought about the Dutch. Here in Australia we have no idea about the subtleties of European opinions of each other – I found that fascinating!
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I think that’s the whole point of the novel, Kate, to shock the reader by the type of parenting on show. It is certainly what makes the story so original and dastardly — and one of the reasons why I loved it. (I do enjoy an immoral character behaving badly in a novel.)
As for Europeans hating each other, the Continent has been a hot pot of war and genocide over the centuries. It’s all to do with so many different languages/rich cultures living side by side and fighting over territory etc, the legacy of which can last for generations. Even in places like Ireland where people have the same colour skin and generally speak the same language, there are deep divisions between Catholic and Protestant, for instance. Similiarly, the British hate the French, the French hate the British, and most everyone hate the Germans! 😉
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