Wow, this is not going to be an easy book to review. To start with, it's one of those rare stories of nothing much happening. Importantly though, it remains captivating. It's something that doesn't always work well... or at all really. But, when it does I am hooked. The fact that I'm reading a translation is a huge credit to both Grossman's original text and Jessica Cohen's translating skills. Stories like this are a lazy river on a hot summer's day; if you sit back and let it pull you along you'll be rewarded richly.

So now you know better than to expect pages of intense action you may be wondering what you should expect instead. Well, the blurb tells the plot fairly well. In the coastal city of Netanya, a stand up comic turns his routine into his memoir. A decision which, not unsurprisingly, doesn't exactly prove a big hit with the audience. But it's clear that he's doing this for himself more than the audience. It's some kind of therapy for him, a cathartic piece of performance art.

That final point is a fascinating aspect of this book, and for me what really makes it work. It's easy to miss the incredible performance that Dovaleh delivers because we know Grossman is in complete control of all the characters. It feels odd praising how a performer can work the audience when deep down you know that behind both is the same author who can decide exactly how the two see and react to each other, but Grossman doesn't do Dovelah any favours. He makes the audience react realistically, and when you look at the performance in itself you can see the subtle finesse of a performer really working for every response.

Dovelah bares himself on stage, both figuratively and, at least partially, literally. He appears lost in his private bubble yet he's astutely aware of the room. He plays with the audience. He crafts their reactions; he insults them and he humours them. He uses them to make his entire performance come together. He feeds off them.

Dovelah moves targets for his abuse because a crowd will always relish fresh blood - especially as a distraction from their own wounds. Dovelah flips out cheesy jokes when he knows they need some respite from it all. He is at once awkward and elegant, taking himself right to the line and then pulling back to keep the audience on his side. When he crosses the line he does so with purpose. He knows exactly when he'll go too far and with whom.

The whole story has a darkness to it. We're witnessing an outpouring of hurt, but our protagonist is intent on offering us a buffer. As much as he dishes out the pain he also knows when to pull the verbal punches. He offers respite when the pressure gets too high. Painful memories have an unusual effect on people though. They're hard to look away from. Someone else's hurt often brings out our own. We listen as much for us as for them. And Grossman captures that sentiment well. That odd addiction we all know.

It's what makes the bad jokes so good. Outside of this book, you'd groan and roll your eyes at the attempts at humour. But here? Scattered through this story? They become hilarious. Whether poor taste or just plain poor, they are exactly what you need at the point you need them.

I never really felt the weight of the book pushing down on me. Despite the depth and complexity, I was simply engrossed. I found a confident in Dovelah very early that meant I wanted to be part of his journey no matter what happened. I was a willing companion on his meandering journey. I'd ride it again and again.

Like I say, there's something about this style of story that just grabs me. There's a very small group of them that just click so well I can get lost in time and time again. I think that group has just grown by one. This is a story that I am confident will give me more each time I drift away with it.

I'm not going to lie, this was not a book I can say I enjoyed. A fascinating concept...yes. A book that draws you in...yes. But enjoyable...no. I won't go into the details of the plot as others have done that already both on this site and on various review pages. But my overwhelming opinion having literally just finished the book is that it could have been so much more. The feeling that you're in the club watching this comedian is both a really intriguing and vivid setting. And it felt very unique too. But at the same time, it was limiting. I wanted to find out more about some of the other members of the audience. I wanted to find out more about the background of his parents. And I wanted to know more about the judge. Obviously in any book you're limited to whatever the author wants to tell you. But here I felt it was the setting of the comedy club that put up that barrier.

On the positive side, I was interested by the drip feed of the story, both of the relationship between the judge and the comedian and also what happened to the comedian and his parents. And I can see that the book is a take on how society (i.e. the comedy club audience) has a fascination with knowing everything about everyone. To me it felt like a comment on reality tv and social media and how we all feel the need to share and witness perhaps more than is healthy. But at the same time, it showed that sharing could be both harmful (in this case physically as well as mentally) and helpful.

I know my thoughts don't necessarily chime with those of other reviewers but perhaps I enjoy a clearer narrative. I wouldn't discourage people from reading the book as it did feel very different to anything I've ever read before. And I hope people can get some enjoyment from it.

I'm not familiar with Grossman's writing, but as this was a Mann Booker winner, I was curious to read it.
And its short! Its more of a novella or extended short story, being less than 150 pages.
Review made it sound challenging, and I was a little intimidated and wondered if it was the book for me.
However, in fact, I was very impressed by this book, and I think it is a tremendous piece of writing.
The story is simple - an Israeli stand-up comic invites an estranged childhood friend to his show. The question faced by the friend, and posed to the reader also, is why?
The book flips backwards and forwards between the present in the comedy club, and some childhood events as the story is slowly revealed.
Grossman manages the pace beautifully, and grips the reader like a thriller, as we are driven (in both senses) to a climactic finale.
The present-day setting is simple, with a small cast of characters and is quite theatrical. The interplay between characters is beautiful, and controlled. You impression of Dovaleh the comic evolves throughout the story, as we learn about him, and your sympathies are challenged. His act is a roller-coaster as he looses and regains the audience again and again - and perhaps the readers too?
This of course is not a book for everyone. And on paper, I didn't think it was for me. But the story is touching, and gets under your skin. The skill is not showy - but there all the same.
Grossman is like a watchmaker - on the surface you can't see how things work, they just do; his skill is making it look so simple but underneath there is so much going on.
When we get to the finale, some questions are answered, but other answers are left for us to find ourselves, which I really liked.
I recommend it highly, and will go look at the author's other writing.
One thing caused me a little confusion, <spoiler alert!> Grossman seems to use the word orphan in an unconventional way which had me scratching my head. Perhaps its a problem with the translation.

Many thanks to Random House, and Netgalley for giving me a review copy.. .

I'm not 100% sure how I feel about this book, to be honest. Like most Booker Prize winners, it is undoubtedly very clever, but can I say I actually enjoyed reading it? Not really.

There have been a number of reviews and comments saying "I don't really like stand-up comedy, but..." or "I do like stand-up comedy so..." but I really think liking or not liking stand-up comedy has nothing to do with whether you will like this book. A stand-up routine in a comedy club in Israel works as a framing device for this story to be unveiled, but it is not funny, nor does it seem like it's supposed to be.

A comedian called Dovaleh G begins his routine to laughter and applause, but it very soon begins to fall apart as his jokes become ever less funny, ever more personal. Many themes are covered in this short book about a man falling apart on stage - friendship, betrayal, revenge, Israel, the Holocaust, to name a few.

The rambling style of narrative, punctuated by unfunny jokes, made for a difficult and tiring read. Dovaleh was sometimes too annoying to be interesting, though I will say that perseverance pays off when we finally discover the truth behind his personal angst. I think the most interesting aspect throughout - and what probably enabled me to read to the end - was the inclusion of the first person narrator in the audience. We know almost immediately that Dovaleh knows this person and that there is going to be some story behind their shared glances.

I finished the book feeling satisfied at having read it. Some books don't feel worth the effort put in to make it to the end, but I appreciated this one more when I looked back over it. It just seems wrong to give a book more than three stars when it was so difficult to push through.

It's an enthralling story, extremely well written in the way it weaves the historical context into the current situation.

It's difficult reading at times but engrossing and absorbing, you can see how the developing narrative is shaped by a tragic past.

The lead character is Dovaleh Greenstein. He's not a very good stand up telling some awful jokes, being very rude to the audience and exhibiting some really bad attitude and behaviours. It's more like a therapy session. The author engenders a whole range of emotions towards him from ambivalence, contempt, bewilderment and disgust to empathy as the story unfolds through the eyes of a narrator.

It's not really a story about comedy, it's more about life, our attitudes to each other and the general failings of humanity. But there's also a sense of redemption or closure to the finale, it's a great release of the building tension through the story.

A great read! One of the few things harder to pull off than a successful stand up routine must be a book about a stand up routine. It kept the humour and pathos going throughout at an unflagging pace, at the same time unrolling the back story and giving us an insight into the comedian himself and members of his audience. A genuine tour de force, and a well-deserved Booker Prize winner.

The concept of this book is intriguing - set in a comedy club with a stand-up comedian of questionable ability.

I struggled to engage with the characters and the situation in the club. I felt I was looking onto a series of scenes which I could not understand.

I was disappointed that it it did not live up to my expectations after hearing the book reviewed on Radio 4.

An unusual read. I would recommend trying to read at a single sitting over the same period in real time as the main character takes to deliver his monologue. The story, as with the joke from which the book takes it title, comes without a real punchline but nevertheless holds the attention.

I struggled with this book at times, as happens a lot with thought-provoking work. I tended to read it in short bursts as it was very uncomfortable to read of a man putting himself and his life on display to an unsuspecting audience. The humour and glimpses of humanity in people, as well as the incredibly good writing more than made up for this.

I was sent A Horse Walks into a Bar by David Grossman to read and review by NetGalley
I have very mixed feelings about this book as on the one hand I can appreciate that it is a very well written piece of fiction but on the other hand I can’t say that I actually enjoyed reading it. The novel is set in a bar in Israel and concentrates on the failing set of stand-up comic Dovaleh. The writing is very clever as you can almost feel that you are at the gig and the cameos of some of the audience are well observed. What we hear of the comic’s routine is interspersed with the thoughts that are going through the mind of his old friend, a retired judge, who he has invited along to observe the show even though they haven’t met for 25 years. While the evening starts well enough for Dovaleh it soon deteriorates as his mind battles against his memories of the past which he cannot control or set aside.
I am not a huge fan of stand-up so I knew this book might pose a challenge for me. I can see why it won the Man Booker International Prize 2017 and there are elements which I am sure will stay with me but would I ever be tempted to read it again? I’m afraid not.

The concept of this is simple - a stand-up comedian at a comedy club in a small town in Israel performs his set, and gradually falls apart on the stage.

Other reviewers have written about how they found the character of Dovaleh, the comedian, rather loathesome. Certainly he abuses the audience and tells off-colour jokes. But somehow, I didn't find this offensive and I'm curious about why that is. I think it's because Dovaleh is presented through a plausible, complicated lens of regret and sympathy. The narrator, Avishai Lazar, is a childhood friend who Dovaleh has tracked down and invited to his show. Lazar, now a retired court judge, comes along reluctantly, haunted by an event in their past.

So Lazar narrates the action, watching Dovaleh perform his act, sensing Dovaleh's deep self-disgust behind the comedian patter. But Lazar feels a sense of responsibility for it. So - to return to the point I began with - this softens Dovaleh's apparent loathesomeness. Certainly, I didn't like him, but I liked the narrator's vulnerability towards him - which gives us a way in. And who says you have to like all lead characters in fiction anyway? You simply have to be interested enough to stay with them.

But Dovaleh would be hard to take if the author hadn't interposed the early part of his act with flashback. As the comedian warms up his audience, this is intercut with Lazar remembering a phone call when Dovaleh got in touch out of the blue and asked him to come to the performance. This shows us quite a different Dovaleh - uncertain, vulnerable, lacking in the comedian's chutzpah. It's a master-stroke of structuring and it goes a long way to making Dovaleh tolerable.

We have flashbacks, too, to the relationship between Lazar and Dovaleh. They are a peculiar and unlikely set of friends, and interesting to watch. Lazar finds himself reflecting on other relationships since, especially his partner who died. There's another person from Dovaleh's childhood in the comedy club audience - a very short girl he used to know - and he treats her with scathing cruelty. Strangely, she seems to sit there and tolerate it, as if she's giving him a free pass. This seems to echo Lazar's attitude - he seems to want to make amends for having treated Dovaleh badly.

I did find some of the sequences went on longer than necessary. Many of them seemed to restate the same points about his family and background, and I found them repetitive. The climax of the story is when Dovaleh is suddenly taken away from summer camp to a funeral, but no one will tell him what has happened or which parent has died. A soldier is given orders to drive him back to his hometown, where the funeral is taking place, and the soldier struggles to find things to talk about as they drive the distance. So he tells Dovaleh that he's in an army jokes competition and needs to practise, which results in a lot of diversions into jokes. At the same time we're also getting the usual stand-up's fodder of diverting into jokes, in this case to try to stop the audience leaving. I found this rather wearying on the page. Instead of adding to the emotional pressure, I felt like skimming because it wasn't real. But then, my idea of hell would be to go and watch a stand-up routine so maybe I have a low threshold for that kind of comedy.

That aside, I found some parts of the book very moving. Especially the discomfort of the joke-telling soldier. We later find out that the competition didn't exist - he'd invented it as a desperate attempt to be kind to this kid who'd just lost a parent. Cultural resonances aside, this, for me, is the real emotional heart of the book. Dovaleh and Lazar are both haunted and during the performance they confront many things. Dovaleh examines - out loud on the stage - his disagreeable thoughts as he travelled in the lorry to the funeral, not knowing which parent had been killed. Lazar is haunted by a moment when he could have showed some support of Dovaleh, but Dovaleh was peculiar and unpopular, so he didn't. A strong emotion emerges that forms a focus of the book: being kind, and failing to be kind - to others and also to yourself.

The prose is a delight. I have no way of knowing what the Hebrew original was like, but the translator, Jessica Cohen, deserves much praise for her bravura interpretation - full of nuance, brashness and sensitivity.

It's not a book with easy answers or resolutions. That's not the purpose. The purpose is the merciless self-examination the characters are gradually forced into, peeling back layer after layer.

The book is somewhat like a one act play as it dwells entirely on the antics of a stand up comedian’s performance in an Israeli bar and the reactions of the audience. It is seemingly located in the town of Caesarea and you need to be an Israelis to fully appreciate what’s going on as the comedian’s patter is strewn with names of Israeli places and personalities. Dispersed with his jokes he gradually introduces anecdotes’ from his childhood and early life. Some of the audience seem to have known him and the situation develops until it is dominated by his remembrances of how his life evolves. It drags on so the reader could be tempted to give up like some of his audience who leave in disgust until there are only a few left to hear the high light of his most tragic experience.

This book slaps you in the face with every page – sometimes quite literally – with its palpable tension and heartbreak. Powerful storytelling and jokes that make you snigger in spite of yourself, David Grossman is an artist of black humour and a well deserving winner of the Man Booker International Prize 2018.

In the city of Netanya, Israel, Dovaleh G is doing a stand-up routine. He’s been doing this a long time, but tonight is different. Dovaleh is going to tell some jokes, yes, but mostly, he will tell a story. And reveal a dark and painful truth. As the night wears on and the audience thins, his strange story intensifies and you can’t help but feel that you are part of his audience. I watched this man bare his soul on a lonely stage and I now know what it feels like to watch a man relive the most horrific moments of his life. In this theatre of (comic) cruelty, explosive self-abuse sees punchlines become punches to the face. This book, this performance, is cracked, fragmentary and broken – just like the man on stage.

Grossman takes the power of performance art and instils it in this novel. One man, a stage, a spotlight and a powerful story. The darkness, the loneliness, the commitment and the power. This performance, this one-man/stand-up/freak show, is painfully awkward but deeply engrossing. It speaks to that dark part of us that seeks out, will pay to watch, someone fall apart at the seams.

Hugely frustrating. I wanted to like 'A Horse Walks into a Bar' but the whole thing was a drawn out build up with zero pay off.

I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
This book won the Man Booker International prize this year. A stand-up comedian, Dovaleh G, ask a former childhood friend who he hasn’t seen for decades to come to his show and tell him what he sees. What follows is a show in which Dovaleh slowly comes apart. He swings from cruel jokes to assaulting himself to a record of the darkest time in his life when he must choose between two people he loves. His relationship with the audience fluctuates – with the aghast audience mesmerised by the prospect of watching a man’s disintegration onstage but often frustrated by the minimal comedy in the show.
Dovaleh is not always a sympathetic character – sometimes his cruelty detracts from the sympathy the reader feels for him but at other times you feel so badly for him in his decline and for the tragic experiences of his life. It is a fascinating read.

Stick with it, would be my first observation. It may take a while for you to be drawn into this, and to be fair Grossman plays his cards close to his chest. The majority of the book takes place on stage with Dov and his stand-up comedy routine.

Dov bares his emotions and soul to the audience. He pays particular attention to his old acquaintance Avi, after extending a personal invitation to him. Why comedy? Well, that becomes self explanatory when Dov tells everyone what happens to his parents.

Avishai is both observer and narrator, through past and present. I think one of the most important questions is what role he plays in the story. Why does Dovaleh want him there? What will his presence change? Does Dov expect something from Avishai?

I do believe Dov wants Avi to comprehend what he did and how he treated Dov all those years ago. There is a moment during the comedy routine or rather the life monologue where Avi is once again given the choice between looking away or intervening. This decision may be the beginning of a healing process, then again perhaps it is just late justice.

Grossman reminds me of Roald Dahl in a sense that his writing reflects his grief. You can feel the pain of losing his son in his words. Even after a decade he still seems to be searching for the why of it all. This is also a theme within this particular story. Why Dov? What is the point of our existence? Why one person and not the other? Perhaps most importantly why so many of us look the other way when someone is in need or just needs some support.

This is an unusual read, one I can imagine well as a short film. It is a confession of sorts, the type that needs absolution or maybe Dov is seeking it for others. A Horse Walks into a Bar is a complex conversation full of self flagellation in the form of jokes.
*Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my copy of A Horse Walks into a Bar*

Not sure if I missed a trick in this book, but I didn't find it funny. Yes, it's about a stand up comic so I expected a laugh or two. I'm afraid I struggled to the middle and gave up. Maybe just not my style.

“Why the long face? Did someone die? It’s only stand-up comedy!” Except that for the comedian himself, Dovaleh Greenstein, this swan song of a show in the Israeli town of Netanya devolves into the story of the most traumatic day of his life. Grossman has made what seems to me an unusual choice of narrator: Avishai Lazar, a widower and Supreme Court justice, and Dov’s acquaintance from adolescence – they were in the same military training camp. Dov has invited him here to bear witness, and by the end we know that Avishai will produce a written account of the evening. Although it could be said that Avishai’s asides about the past, and about the increasingly restive crowd in the club, give us a rest from Dov’s claustrophobic monologue, in doing so they break the spell. This would be more hard-hitting as a play or a short story composed entirely of speech; in one of those formats, Dov’s story might keep you spellbound through a single sitting. Instead, I found that I had to force myself to read even five or 10 pages at a time. There’s no doubt Grossman can weave a clever tale about loss, and there are some actually quite funny jokes in here too, but overall I found this significantly less powerful than the author’s previous work, Falling Out of Time.

Dovaleh G is a stand-up comedian and gives what he says will be his last performance in a club in a small Israeli town. He’s invited an old school friend who hasn’t seen him for forty years and who doesn’t know why he’s there. Dovaleh begin on a self-destructive evening where he comes apart in front of a bemused audience, many of whom have left by the end.

What a hard book to like. It was like watching a car-crash. There were incidents in the comedian’s life which wrenched out my sympathy but on the whole I found him rather a cruel observer of his audience. Some of the jokes which we, as readers, also shared, were funny, but there was more than ‘the tears of a clown’ here. I had to read to the end, but I didn’t find it an enjoyable experience. If that was the book’s purpose, it succeeded, but I don’t feel better for having read it.

Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

My review is on Amazon under the name Ignite