Maybe it's Me

279 people, as of today, want to read The Dinner. How do books gather a momentum that translates into readers lining up to request a book? Usually a reviewer waxes eloquent and writes a glowing review.

I, too, added the book to my must read pile. After waiting for months the book arrived at my library. I couldn't wait to start reading. Up until half way through The Dinner I hadn't read any reviews in any major newspaper.

At about page 150 I began to feel uncomfortable. Was it me? What about all those other people extolling this novel? I found the writing tedious, the characters totally unlikeable, and a sense that we were all mired in a dinner that never ended.

At page 200 I googled : book review of The Dinner and as soon as I found the New York Times review I opened it hoping to find an explanation for my discomfort.

The reviewer reminded me that the characters may all be unlikable, but the author needs to make them interesting.

The reviewer, Claire Messud, ends the review —

"Rather, he ( Koch) has created a clever, dark confection, like some elegant dessert fashioned out of entrails. The Dinner, absorbing and highly readable, proves in the end strangely shallow, and this may be the most unsettling thing about it. "

While the review released me from my sense of being an inept reader it didn't answer the question of why the book garnered so much interest.