Once again David Grossman reveals his genius for creating hugely affecting and yet appalling characters. The premise is quite simple. The narrator (court judge Avishai Lazar) has been invited to watch a stand-up performance by a man he briefly knew as a boy. This performance, recorded “verbatim” along with reactions from the audience and reminiscences by the narrator. As the show develops it becomes increasingly and intensely personal as the comic relates a painful event from his childhood. Sometimes he plays this for laughs with the blackest of humour but increasingly loses his hold on his comedy and his audience. It is a slow but inevitable collapse of a routine and a man. Simple, yes, but easy? No. There are very few writers with the vision and the control necessary to make such a narrative a success but Grossman is one of them.

There were times when I hated this book. I hated the crassness of many of the jokes, the casual prejudice, a deep unpleasantness in the way Dovaleh Greenstein plays the tragedy and cruelty of the Arab-Israeli conflict for cheap laughs and thinks nothing of stooping to the lowest common denominator. But this is precisely where Grossman’s talent shines because it is a pitch-perfect rendering of the best and worst of stand-up comedy with all the pitfalls and pratfalls laid bare. After all there is something deeply (if not always commendably) human in our capacity to make a (bad) joke out of anything. Anything for a laugh.

One Grossman’s great talents is his facility for placing the ridiculous and the painful side by side so that both are heart-breaking. By interspersing the sometimes humorous often uncomfortable ranting of Davoleh and his sudden bursts of self-contempt and violence, with the memories of his former friend and current audience-member we form a complex picture of a deeply flawed man. It is natural to despise him but Grossman won’t let you rest on that, he will not let you take the easy way out. As he spins out the story of his life the unpleasantness of his character and manner become less about a person and more about the tragedy of lives spoilt by conflict and propaganda and a context which seeks to destroy the ability to feel compassion and empathy. Davoleh is a product of his surroundings and his experience and that is the really tragic joke.

“How did [Davoleh] do that?” Lazar wonders at one point “How, in such a short time, did he manage to turn the audience, even me to some extent, into household members of his soul? And into his hostages?”. One might wonder the same about Grossman who can push and prod you to the very edge of giving up in disgust and always reel you back in

Well, I rattled through this one. A Horse Walks into a Bar is a book that grabs you and takes you with it whether you want to go or not. And some of the time I wasn’t sure if I did want to go. Dov G is an Israeli comedian of the type that insults his audience – think Lennie Bruce but not so blue, or Frankie Boyle but not so political. He homes in on his audience’s frailties and picks at scabs – both theirs and his own.

His old friend from schooldays, now a reired Judge, has come to Netanya to see Dov’s performance. The pair haven’t seen each other for 40 years but Dov has begged the Judge to come and tell him what he sees. Is there something in everyone that cannot be hidden? If so, the Judge with his experience of studying defendants will be able to see it. In the crowd is a tiny woman who also knew Dov as a child. He was nice to her then but isn’t now. She cries at his barbed comments but refuses to leave.

When the jokes come they are not always funny and even when they are there is an unpleasant background taste. Along with his stand-up Dov tells the tale of how he went to his first funeral, even though he didn’t know who had died. The audience get restless; some leave. Those remaining call for more laughs. This is not what they paid to see.

While Dov strips himself and the crowd bare, the Judge recalls his own shameful part in an incident for which he is sure Dov will excoriate him before long. He also reminisces about his dead wife. He eats and drinks but cannot seem to fill himself up.

Dov’s jokes get fewer and less funny and more people leave. The tables in the supper club are emptying. The tiny woman, Pitz, is still there and a few other stalwarts. Dov punches himself, punishes himself, makes himself bleed. The revelation of the cause of his self-hatred is not totally unexpected but still, it could have been otherwise. He wipes the sweat from his brow, says ‘Goodnight Netanya’ to the almost empty club, and finishes what is probably his last ever performance.

This is an unusual and brilliant book. The stage show is presented visually so that we see Dov’s very physical performance. We feel his sweat and his pain. We dislike him but cannot stop watching him. Ultimately, there may be some kind of redemption – for him and the Judge.

I read about 35% of the book, but then I decided to abandon it. The story, as far as I read it, did not catch me: I'm not a fan of stand up comedy, and the plot was quite boring and too slow.

I found this book rather a disturbing read, having expected it to resemble a stand-up routine - full of laughs and wit. It did in fact detail a stand-up routine by Dovaleh G, veteran performer, which rambled and ranged through the main events of his life specifically for his invited audience to include a former friend from his youth. It seems no myth that comedians are the least amusing and convivial of the population, as we are treated to his angst and reminiscences of his childhood and the agonising choices he has to make, which colour his whole life. It also shows us through the reactions of his audience a reflection of how he appears and sees himself, and we gradually discover the connections between his past and present. The book does indeed take us through a rather depressing and dated stand-up routine, but through it we see a deeper, more nuanced exploration of prejudice, abuse and misery, and the attempts made to overcome and come to terms with their effects.

This is a short but impactful novel .

The book gives you the feeling that you are at a stand up gig , some of the jokes land and there is an emotional heft .
The books structure may be its only flaw as the act continues the tone changes and it feels like a misstep although that is deliberate .

this is a good book that starts strong and whilst it finishes on a down beat note that is the authors choice .

Highly recommended

A fast paced read that will stay with you long after you've finished. Recommended.

Dovaleh is a comedian, performing his one man stand up show at a small club venue. However, the comedy soon turns into an intimate personal reflection on his past, not what the audience had anticipated - except perhaps for one special invitee.
Dovaleh's story pulls the reader along, gripping more tightly as it proceeds. We, the reader, belong to those audience members who choose not to leave the venue - we've bought into his story, never mind the fact we may have been looking for comedy, we need to hear him out.
This book took a little getting in to, but once Dovaleh turns to the past his words are compulsive and the need to keep reading might mean you postpone other activities for a few days!

An intriguing look into bereavement and trauma in the guise of an unravelling comic. Set on a stage, the comedian performs an intimate act in the presence of a former student and colleague. It is a gritty, disturbing and excruciating read to see how he undoes himself in the space of one night. It is also revealing how little sympathy and empathy he receives. It is a well structured piece of literary fiction, moving back and forth through past and present narratives. Well deserved of a Man Booker Prize nomination.

What an ordeal! I found this book as painful to read as his audience found it to listen to its hero, but just like at least some of them, I found it hard to leave. I see one review compares the tortured comic to Norman Wisdom - I think Archie Rice is a closer model. Was it my imagination, or did the judge become more like his childhood friend as the story unravelled ? Certainly the contrast between the two men diminished. Was it a good read ? Yes without a doubt. Was it a pleasure to read ? Definitely not, but it says a lot for the author that I felt I owed to the chief character to hear his story right to the end, and the last paragraph was just the coda they (and I) needed

This is not a relaxing read but it's a completely gripping, memorable and rather brilliant one. I only tried it because I'd heard it favourably spoken of; I rather expected to hate it, but it turned out to be excellent.

A summary of A Horse Walks Into A Bar sounds pretty off-putting: set in Israel (and translated from the Hebrew), it is narrated by a retired judge who receives a completely unexpected phone call from Devaleh, with whom he was, briefly, good friends at school. Devaleh asks him to attend his stand-up act observe and speak honestly to him afterward. Almost the whole book is then an account of the evening as Devaleh, who is plainly ill and possibly dying, mixes a little conventional stand-up with an account of the trauma of his childhood as he comes near to breakdown on stage. In fact, it was excellent and I was completely riveted by the whole thing; I was very keen to know what happened next both in Devaleh's story and in the comedy bar where the audience are finding his performance very troubling, to say the least.

It's very edgy stuff a lot of the time. There are a few genuine laugh-out-loud gags, but even the comedy routine is often disturbing – for example, a comedy riff on Dr Mengele is always going to divide an audience, shall we say. Dev's story is brilliantly told as the comedic aspect of being a picked-on putz becomes steadily more serious, and the brilliance of writing – and translation – had me right there feeling the same elation and extreme discomfort described in the audience. There is some very important stuff here, with genuine psychological insights and a fine illustration that comedy and human pain are often closely linked.

I found this original, enthralling, unsettling and very moving. Warmly recommended.

(I received and ARC via Netgalley.)

This book took me through the whole range of emotions. It is beautifully written and superbly translated, characters are vivid and real. I felt as I was there, sitting amongst the audience, watching the drama unfold in front of me. Reading it was like going on a roller coaster journey, I can't say I enjoyed the experience but it took my breath away.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

Hi

Thanks so much for the ARC of this book. Unfortunately, I couldn't get on with it, nothing was wrong with the writing it just didn't really catch my attention enough so I wasn't able to finish it.

Thank you again for giving me the opportunity to read it.

Leonie

This was definitely something different, it wasn't the sort of book I would normally go for but it was an interesting read. With its use of stand-up comedy, I would recommend it to those who enjoyed The Sellout by Paul Beatty. The reason I haven't given a higher rating is because I found the main character repellent and this sometimes made it hard to keep wanting to read. However, I did find it rewarding in the end.