March 28th, 2013 - Los Angeles Times
“IF YOU KNOW only one language, you live only once,” goes the proverb. Fluency in another language grants us two unique perspectives: an insider's view into a new place, and an ability to see how our culture influences our thoughts. “Language is never neutral,” says Sam Garrett, translator of Herman Koch’s The Dinner. “It shapes our world.” An American writer and literary translator, Sam Garrett has lived in Amsterdam for more than 30 years. He is fluent in Dutch, but also has a writer’s command of English. The Dinner was published in the US by Hogarth (February 2013). It won the prestigious Dutch literary prize, the NS Publieksprijs; was shortlisted for the National Book Award in the UK; and has been published in 20-plus countries to widespread critical acclaim.
The narrative of The Dinner is shaped around two couples eating a five-course meal at a high-end restaurant. The luxurious setting might sound polished and polite, but the reason for this meeting is anything but. The Netherlands is shuddering in the aftermath of a horrifying act against a homeless woman. Despite a nationwide appeal, the criminals have yet to be identified. As the aperitifs descend on the table, we realize that these four are the parents of the perpetrators, two 15-year-old boys. As parents, they alone know the truth. However, grainy footage of the incident from a security camera has been posted on YouTube and there is reason to suspect that the person who uploaded the video recognized the boys. During the course of the meal, the couples must decide if they should try to protect their children’s identity or turn them in.
The Dutch have a noun, a word that is difficult to translate into English, that implies belonging or spending time with loved ones in a comfortable atmosphere, usually with good food and drinks at hand: “gezelligheid.” It could be said that The Dinner is the dark underbelly of gezelligheid, the seemingly civil conversation at the next table actually concerns a moral question from your worst nightmares.
An unsettling novel, The Dinner explores a shifting Dutch liberal sensibility. In an increasingly financially and racially polarized country, an anti-immigrant sentiment has reared up and homelessness is more prevalent. The conversation among the characters shows a range of reactions, some extreme, to a country and a culture that is changing.
And while Garrett is, perhaps, the perfect person to help an outsider understand the shifting attitudes in the Netherlands, it appears that, given the international response to the book, the questions raised by The Dinner have hit a nerve. To non–Dutch speakers, The Dinner is not only a passport, but it is also a mirror, reflecting ourselves and our culture back to us.
Interview
The narrative of The Dinner is shaped around two couples eating a five-course meal at a high-end restaurant. The luxurious setting might sound polished and polite, but the reason for this meeting is anything but. The Netherlands is shuddering in the aftermath of a horrifying act against a homeless woman. Despite a nationwide appeal, the criminals have yet to be identified. As the aperitifs descend on the table, we realize that these four are the parents of the perpetrators, two 15-year-old boys. As parents, they alone know the truth. However, grainy footage of the incident from a security camera has been posted on YouTube and there is reason to suspect that the person who uploaded the video recognized the boys. During the course of the meal, the couples must decide if they should try to protect their children’s identity or turn them in.
The Dutch have a noun, a word that is difficult to translate into English, that implies belonging or spending time with loved ones in a comfortable atmosphere, usually with good food and drinks at hand: “gezelligheid.” It could be said that The Dinner is the dark underbelly of gezelligheid, the seemingly civil conversation at the next table actually concerns a moral question from your worst nightmares.
An unsettling novel, The Dinner explores a shifting Dutch liberal sensibility. In an increasingly financially and racially polarized country, an anti-immigrant sentiment has reared up and homelessness is more prevalent. The conversation among the characters shows a range of reactions, some extreme, to a country and a culture that is changing.
And while Garrett is, perhaps, the perfect person to help an outsider understand the shifting attitudes in the Netherlands, it appears that, given the international response to the book, the questions raised by The Dinner have hit a nerve. To non–Dutch speakers, The Dinner is not only a passport, but it is also a mirror, reflecting ourselves and our culture back to us.
Interview
1 comment:
knowing another language opens up a whole new literature to you. There's plenty that never gets translated into English.
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