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The Dinner List: A Novel
by Serle, Rebecca
- Used
- Good
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Good
- ISBN 10
- 1250295181
- ISBN 13
- 9781250295187
- Seller
-
Simi Valley, California, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Flatiron Books, 2018-09-11. Hardcover. Good. 1.2000 9.4000 6.4000. First Edition / First Printing as identified with ""1"" in the full number line.Dust jacket shows minor shelf wear. Pages are clean and intact.
Reviews
On Sep 10 2020, CloggieDownunder said:
3.5★s
"That was something Tobias always said. Fifty-fifty. In the beginning, I loved it. It proved he was complicated, that he refused a bottom line. I thought it meant he saw truth in things that were frivolous, and frivolity in things that were fundamental. It was a way of looking at the world that allowed the air in. but after a few years it just began to confuse me. It was like shifting sands – I couldn't tell anymore what was real to him. When I'd ask if he was mad at me, and he said 'fifty-fifty,' what did it mean?"
The Dinner List is a novel by American TV writer and author, Rebecca Serle. Back when Sabrina was still at college, her best friend Jessica got her to write her dinner list: the five people, living or dead, whom she would invite to the ultimate dinner. There were minor changes over the years, but here she is now, on her thirtieth birthday, sitting at a table with them: Jessica, Tobias, Robert, Professor Conrad, and Audrey Hepburn.
Audrey, of course, everyone knows, and who wouldn't want her there?; Sabrina's father Robert, now deceased, left her life when she was very young; Conrad, her college philosophy professor, she hasn't seen since she graduated; Jessica, now married and a recent mother, she sees very occasionally; and Tobias, the love of her life, well Tobias left a year ago. They're in a great little restaurant, having wonderful food and wine (except Robert, who is an alcoholic), and they're getting down to the brass tacks of life.
The concept is an intriguing one, and obviously a bit of magical reality is needed to achieve it. With each chapter, the narrative alternates between the dinner party and Sabrina's life from the moment she first encounters Tobias. The gathering allows Sabrina to ask the questions that have plagued her for years, in some cases, or for months, at least. Audrey and the Professor act in sort of mature advisory roles, moderators, almost.
Serle gives her characters plenty of wise words but, despite the small cast, the support characters, apart from Jessica, are barely beyond stereotypical. Jessica does blast her best friend with this: "'You're incredible,' she says. 'You're never responsible, right? It's never your fault. People are human, Sabrina! They screw up and they're not perfect and they're selfish and sometimes they're doing the best they can.'"
Sabrina is a sort of likeable character, although she does act thirty going on nineteen much of the time, especially regards her emotional maturity. Her belief that her relationship with Tobias is written in the stars and will thrive without effort, just emphasises her naivete ("We were meant to be epic. We were meant to hover above the normalcy…the same rules didn't apply to us."). Tobias is similarly idealistic about work and career and life in general. Their wonderful, meant-to-be romance isn't entirely convincing.
"All we needed was to stay this close. Right up against each other, without any space between us. If we did that we were good. It was just the world – with all its loud chaos, its demands and people and air – that made us fight, that made us separate, that was driving us apart."
There are certainly moments of joy, moments of raw emotion, moments of laughter, but there's something missing here. It does end on a hopeful note, and perhaps a bit more length would have allowed the reader to experience a Sabrina with more maturity. Serle seems to have potential, but it's not fully realised here.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Schwabe Books
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- mon0002702601
- Title
- The Dinner List: A Novel
- Author
- Serle, Rebecca
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- ISBN 10
- 1250295181
- ISBN 13
- 9781250295187
- Publisher
- Flatiron Books
- Date Published
- 2018-09-11
- Size
- 1.2000 9.4000 6.4000
- Bookseller catalogs
- Book;
- X weight
- 1.0009 lb
Terms of Sale
Schwabe Books
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Schwabe Books
Biblio member since 2010
Simi Valley, California
About Schwabe Books
We offer over 150,000 books in all subject areas. Heavy concentration in the following subject areas: Academic/university press, Antiquarian/Rare and general non-fiction.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Number Line
- A series of numbers appearing on the copyright page of a book, where the lowest number generally indicates the printing of that...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Shelf Wear
- Shelf wear (shelfwear) describes damage caused over time to a book by placing and removing a book from a shelf. This damage is...