Book Review: The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle

Book Review: The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle

I read an ARC of Rebecca Serle's novel The Dinner List.

The premise of this book is interesting: what would you do if you could spend an evening's dinner with any five people of your choosing--living or dead? Who would you invite? Why? What would you all talk about?

Sabrina's Dinner List wish is granted on her birthday as she spends an evening dining with her deadbeat, alcoholic father (Robert); her ex-boyfriend (Tobias); her best friend (Jessica); her favorite philosophy professor from college (Conrad); and movie star Audrey Hepburn.

Serle weaves flashbacks into the dinner party scenes, revealing intimacies she and Tobias shared which ultimately led to their break up. Sabrina's conversations with Robert, Jessica, and Tobias dominate the dinner as she has unresolved issues with each of them, and Conrad and Audrey serve as mediators of the sometimes intense emotions bubbling to the surface while Sabrina tries to beat the midnight toll which will end her evening dinner.

Serle's ability to weave the past events into the current events in the novel results in powerful storytelling. Tobias and Sabrina share a heart-rending love story that magnifies the abandonment she feels from Robert's escape into alcoholism and his new family she is not part of. And, Jessica's love for Sabrina stems from Jessica's desire for her friend to have the best life has to offer, which Sabrina interprets as judgment, leading to rifts in their once very tight friendship. The story is poignant, real, raw, and at the same time fantastical in its origins.

This is not a love story per se; it's more a story of one woman's struggle to find enduring love and to offer and accept forgiveness, a story that magnifies the messiness that life really is for many.

I really enjoyed this novel because I found the Sabrina's and Jessica's angst real and honest, but I found myself wishing we discovered more about "how" this event was able to happen. The question is raised a few times by the characters, but never really addressed. And, I wished Audrey Hepburn had a more purposeful role. I loved that she was present and appreciated her connection to Tobias and Sabrina's story, but felt her presence at the dinner was somewhat underdeveloped.

I love, LOVE the concept of this book and appreciate Serle's execution. Pull up a seat and join the dinner party: read The Dinner List.

Source:
Serle, Rebecca.The Dinner List: A novel. Flatiron Books, 2018.