The Dinner

As the novel’s protagonist and narrator, Paul Lohman occupies a strange position in the narrative. He is a violent man, a person frequently forced to suppress his brutal ideations but not always successful. On numerous occasions, Paul imagines beating someone to a pulp and—in the case of the school principal and his brother—he unleashes his anger. As a result of this barely-contained violence, Paul is in a difficult position as a narrator. He must outline an incident in which his son committed a terrible act—a violent murder—without incriminating himself. He is in fact worried that a police officer might one day read this narrative and use it as evidence. But Paul cannot contain himself. His lack of control becomes one of his defining characteristics. When Michel tells Paul about murdering Beau and the homeless woman, Paul cannot control his laughter. A deeply unsympathetic man, seeing the narrative from the perspective of Paul occasionally becomes incredibly uncomfortable.

But there is occasional doubt cast as to the veracity of the events described in the novel. Paul is an unreliable narrator. Even his confessions of his random acts of obscene ultraviolence become questionable.