You know the feeling when you read a book, then when you finish it, it leaves you somehow stirred and you want to know what other readers thought of this book. It happened to me with the book The Dinner (Het diner).To me, this book was very good, so I was shocked when I browsed the net and found so many one star reviews. "Hated this book! It felt contrived and stilted. I didn't like any of the characters. I couldn't identify with any of them. " "This may have been one of the worst books I have ever read." And so on. Reading this I was wondering, but it really makes a bad book if you can't identify with any of the characters or if you find them to be repulsive? For me, this certainly doesn't make a bad book. It can be a very good book, like in this case. I don't want to tell you too much and ruin you all the fun while reading the book, but I can say that during the story it completely changed how I fell for the narrator. A well written story indeed.
What it's all about. It's a summer's evening in Amsterdam, and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant for dinner. Between mouthfuls of food and over the scrapings of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of polite discourse. But behind the empty words, terrible things need to be said, and with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being sharpened. Each couple has a fifteen-year-old son. The two boys are united by their accountability for a single horrific act; an act that has triggered a police investigation and shattered the comfortable, insulated worlds of their families. As the dinner reaches its culinary climax, the conversation finally touches on their children.
While reading the reviews I also saw that this book is being marketed as an European Gone Girl. First thing, how can this be an European Gone Girl if this was written in 2009 and Gone Girl in 2012? Yeah, I understand that was published later in the USA and it is a marketing strategy to sell better, but still, this American supremacy gets on my nerves sometimes. And second, I'm just reading Gone Girl and I will discover by myself if the connection exists :D
Here we have the nail polish, a bright fuchsia that goes well with the cover of the book :) It's Estee Lauder in colour Fuchsia and it is the most expensive nail polish in my collection. And it's also a reason why I buy inexpensive nail polishes. Just like any other nail polish this chipped on me within 24 hours of wear. So why bother with expensive polishes? The colour is beautiful, but I must say not so glossy. Here you see it with high shine top coat. The bottle on the other hand is cute :)
I have a question for you. What makes a book a really good book in your opinion? Likable characters, good story..?
Have a great day.
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