The Dinner

See all of my reviews at www.nacholibro.wordpress.comI've seen sooooo many negative reviews about this book, and for the life of me, I can't figure out why. I stumbled on the audiobook randomly when I was browsing OverDrive for something new to listen to. I downloaded it before I read any reviews, and settled in for what ended up being one of the most disturbing and clever displays of fiction I've read in a long time.Maybe my experience with the book was different because I listened to the audiobook. Clive Mantle was perfect in his portrayal of Paul, and I often felt as though I was sitting at a table with Paul as he recounted his story - each word carefully measured to suggest a level of realism I very rarely encounter in fiction. Because the story is translated from Dutch, and Dutch fiction tends to be a little wacky anyway, I'm wondering if some of what makes this book amazing got a little lost in the printed translations and I didn't notice because the audio version is so natural. I can certainly see how some of the critical reviews I've read (the dialogue being unbelievable) could hold true in a printed version. I may pick up a copy to see if my opinion changes at all.On its face, The Dinner is about two couples coming together over a meal to discuss what's to be done about the terrible crime their sons have committed. But this book is SO. MUCH. MORE. than that. Paul is about as unreliable a narrator as they come, and the first quarter of this book had me chuckling right along with his sarcasm and dry wit. I was instantly on his side. I knew exactly what he meant when he told me how annoying it was when pompous and pretentious people ate at run down cafes to be around 'ordinary people' - to appear as if they're just as ordinary - as if it were a sport or a game. How far down into the slums can we get ourselves tonight, Bartholomew? You know those people. EVERYONE knows those people. And we collectively kind of hate those people. So, as I said, I was instantly on Paul's side when he described his brother Serge and Serge's wife Babette as exactly those kinds of people.There isn't much as far as the plot is concerned that I can say without giving away all of the brilliant touches that Koch brings to the proverbial table here. Paul is our direct line to the night, everything filtered through his eyes and mind, including any memories and flashbacks. There isn't a single instant where we know what someone else is thinking - we can only infer from what Paul tells us. We can assume that he knows his own wife, Claire, very well, and so feel we can trust him when he tells us that a look from her conveys a certain emotion or thought.At some point in this book - I can't remember exactly where, which is what's so brilliant about it - I realised I was no longer on Paul's side. My loyalties had shifted entirely to Serge and his wife and it happened without my knowledge or my choosing. Koch has a remarkable subtlety to his writing and exposed each new layer of the story exactly when he needed to - the length of the audiobook (about nine hours) suggests you may not get much in the way of complexity because there just isn't enough time to suss everything out, but you do. The characters are multifaceted and fiercely drawn, sometimes to the point of being exaggerations of the emotions they're experiencing.I really have nothing negative to say about this book, except that I wish I could erase it from my memory just to have the pleasure of reading it for the first time again.