When we meet a person for the first time, we are like new born babies. We know nothing of that person's world. Where did they grow up, go to school, work, marriage, kids, we know none of this. When that person tells us things, we have to take their word that they are speaking the truth. As we get to know that person, we begin to realize that that person is either straight forward and has been telling us the truth or is a b*ll sh*t artist out to take advantage of us or to somehow raise their self worth in our eyes. I dated a guy once, he was from NYC, who told me that on the weekends he was a ski instructor. That's easy to believe. But then he told me (you might remember this, that on the Wide World of Sports, when they were showing downhill skiing,they used to show a guy having a horrible crash) that guy was him. Now that was easy to verify. Not him. Too bad. He was a good looking guy and fun but unreliable when telling me anything. And that's what we have in Herman Koch's new book The Dinner. A totally unreliable narrator. The Dinner is a big hit in Europe having sold over 1 million copies and now has made its debut here in the states. Following on the heels of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, which also has very unreliable narrators, The Dinner should do very well.
read more...
