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The Dinner, Part 1

When I first thought about what type of book I wanted to read, I wanted something different than the two previous books I had read. Sure, the Namesake was a good book, and the Great Gatsby was definitely an important and meaningful novel to read, however I wanted something with different characters, darker characters and an overall different mood within. When I was learning about the different books that we had the option of reading, and I heard that these characters in the Dinner were dark, I knew this would be the book that was right for me.

The first two chapters were slow paced, nothing very extreme happened, but I believe that this was done to show the characteristics of all the characters and to see how they act towards one another. The novel takes place at a restaurant, as two siblings and their wives have dinner, hence the title ‘The Dinner’. I soon noticed that the main character, Paul Lohman had a strange relationship with his brother Serge by the way he talked about him. I got a sense that he was jealous of his brother for some reason. “There was one thing I didn’t feel like that evening. I didn’t feel like being there when the owner or on-duty manager greeted Serge Lohman as though he were an old friend; or seeing how the waitress would lead him to the nicest table on the side facing the garden.” (9) The way Paul talks about his brother makes him seem like he is jealous of how people seem to love him. Initially I figured that Serge must be famous, or some type of celebrity, but it is soon revealed that he is actually a respected politician. The way Paul talks about his brother is a familiar feeling to me and most likely everyone. When someone you dislike seems to get everyone's attention, it can be very frustrating. The first conflict presented is sibling rivalry between Serge and Paul.

The mystery then begins.. Paul recalls a story of himself sneaking into his son's room, something out of character for him to do. He takes a glance at his son’s phone but then soon exits the room as he hears his son coming. What exactly is he looking for? Right then I began to conspire about what his son and nephew could have done. My first guess was that they had maybe broke into someone's house or something of that nature, but it soon became clear to me that it was something much more extreme. As we go back to present time of the four at the restaurant, I noticed that Paul is extremely specific about everything in his life, like who sits where and he likes to know exactly what the plan is. I found myself connected to this because I always like to have a routine I follow, and I like things to be a specific way, where as my brother (like Serge) does not care about things like that.

Paul comments on his brother's relationship with his wife, Babette. He describes her as very beautiful and seems to have a positive opinion on her, but not the relationship. “The way you don’t put aside a bad book when you’re halfway through it, you finish it reluctantly; that’s the way she’d stayed with Serge- perhaps the ending would make up for some of it” (37) He describes the relationship as somewhat of a failure, but does not really go into detail of why he thinks that. Paul is seemingly a very uneasy to please person. He has an opinion on everything and started to get on my nerves a bit. However Serge is also an uneasy to like character in my opinion. They both are not easy to like in their own ways. Paul talks about Serge’s adopted son, and seems to think that he did this for attention. “It gave him a face; Serge Lohman, the politician with the adopted African son.” 59

The whole dinner table interactions are extremely awkward and tense, whether it's between the two brothers, Serge and Babette or even background characters like the waitress. Now back to the mystery of the book.. I really like how the book is building up the mystery, it makes me anticipate what's coming next but also is fun to hypothesize what the crime could be, but I soon found out the disturbing answer to this. Paul notices that he has his son’s cellphone with him and goes outside to return it to him. As Paul goes outside of the restaurant, he takes out his son's cellphone, and it was time to find out what he did! He plays a video on the phone, and unfortunately the crime was much worse than I had thought. His son and nephew filmed themselves beating up a homeless man to the point of his death. “Beside the homeless person’s head, Rick’s face appeared. My brother’s son grinned at the camera. ‘Take one’ he said. ‘Action’. Then with no warning, he struck the man on the side of his head with the palm of his hand, on the ear” (111) I was really shocked that they did something this extreme. So there we have it, our first two completely messed up characters in this novel. The two kids seem to have absolutely no remorse for their actions and I am anticipating justice being served.

I think this book presents the idea of, how far will you go to protect someone you love. Will the two children get put in jail? Will the parents try to protect them? It is interesting to think about what I would do in a situation where someone I love does something terrible. I am very excited to see what happens next as the dinner continues. I am also very excited to see what other secrets are being hidden from the four adults at the table.

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Unknown. "Shocked GIF - Shocked Donaldglover Childishgambino - Discover & Share GIFs." Tenor. N.p., 06 Oct. 2015. Web. 06 May 2017.

Jealousy Destroys Happiness of Life. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 May 2017.