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.