Five of the most disastrous dinner parties in fiction

Jeff Somers is the author of Lifers, the Avery Cates series from Orbit Books, Chum from Tyrus Books, and We Are Not Good People from Pocket/Gallery. He has published over thirty short stories as well.

At B & N Reads Somers tagged the five most disastrous dinner parties in fiction, including:

The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P, by Adelle Waldman

Dinner is a theme running throughout this unabashedly hip and literary novel. Not only does the title character meet the woman who will occupy his time and thoughts for the remainder of the novel, Hannah, at a disastrous dinner party thrown by his ex-girlfriend (a darkly hilarious scene right at the beginning of the story that sets the tone in every way), dinner comes up again and again as Hannah and Nate explore their growing relationship. At one point, Nate ruminates on the constant pressure to make conversation during dinner, a symbol for all he finds irritating in the world. The book features one dinner party sequence in particular, and it’s a doozy, but in some ways the whole story is one long disastrous meal.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. also appears among Melissa Albert's top five books to celebrate the start of the new season of HBO’s Girls, Esquire's five most important books of 2014 and Radhika Sanghani's top ten books to make sure you've read before graduating college.

The Page 69 Test: The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P..

--Marshal Zeringue