The Dinner by Herman Koch

This is a review of The Dinner by Herman Koch.  I found this book to be quite disturbing and dark.

Two couples meet over dinner to discuss horrific events perpetrated by their children and what they should do about it. One of the couples is a politician and his wife (Serge and Babette). Serge is running for prime minister of the country. The other couple is an unemployed teacher and his wife (Paul and Claire). Serge and Paul are brothers.  They each have a fifteen-year-old biological son. Serge also has an adopted son that is around the same age.

Paul is the one telling this story that takes place over a dinner at an extremely overpriced very exclusive restaurant. The brothers and their wives are barely civil to each other. During the telling of the story Paul goes off on long rambling tangents about random things that I felt were very unnecessary to the story. We learn that Paul used to be a teacher and that he had some type of breakdown and apparently has a very vague mental disease that he has stopped taking his medication for. This disease he learns can be inherited by any children that he has. He already has a child by this time. They never reveal what the disease is but say that it makes him forgetful and prone to fits of violent rages if he doesn’t take the medication. Paul continues his rambling throughout the entire book.

Approximately, about halfway through the book, we learn about the horrific crimes committed by Serge’s and Paul’s children where they brutally abused and murdered a homeless woman. Serge wants to announce what the boys have done at a press conference as well as drop out of the race for prime minister. His wife doesn’t want him to do either one and neither do Claire and Paul. After the meal, Serge and Babette go to a coffee shop where Claire and Paul are supposed to meet them. Claire also encourages her son and his cousin to kill Serge’s adopted son because he is supposedly blackmailing them over the attack. Claire goes to the coffee shop where she brutally attacks Serge and injures him very badly before Paul gets there. She goes to jail and Serge goes to the hospital. Serge ended up having multiple surgeries and scars and ends up losing the election for prime minister because of the brutal attack perpetrated by Claire.  Claire’s son and Serge’s son get away with the killing of the homeless woman and also the killing of Serge’s adopted son.

My recommendation: This book was just brutal, not very well written, and just not a good book. Definitely skip this one.