A Horse Walks into a Bar by David Grossman

like some of the characters, or staying the course to hear the final punchline. It is compelling, as the novel forces you to choose between walking out on Dovaleh's act. The reader squirms right along with the audience and the performer as his attempts to get through his tale fall flat, or even provoke outrage. It is uncomfortable, as Grossman places us firmly in the audience watching this man fall apart, through the eyes of an old acquaintance that Dovaleh has asked to attend.

It is claustrophobic the action hardly departs from the small-town nightclub Dovaleh is performing in, other than through his reminiscences. It focuses on a stand-up comedian telling the tale of his miserable life in the face of an increasingly hostile crowd that just wants light entertainment. Flaying alive both himself and the people watching him, Dovaleh G provokes both revulsion and empathy from an audience that doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry – and all this in the presence of a former childhood friend who is trying to understand why he’s been summoned to this performance.Ī Horse Walks Into a Bar is undeniably dark.

Betrayals between lovers, the treachery of friends, guilt demanding redress. Dovaleh G, a veteran stand-up comic – charming, erratic, repellent – exposes a wound he has been living with for years: a fateful and gruesome choice he had to make between the two people who were dearest to him.Ī Horse Walks into a Bar is a shocking and breathtaking read. They could get up and leave, or boo and whistle and drive him from the stage, if they were not so drawn to glimpse his personal hell. An audience that has come expecting an evening of amusement instead sees a comedian falling apart on stage an act of disintegration, a man crumbling, as a matter of choice, before their eyes. The setting is a comedy club in a small Israeli town. WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2017

A Horse Walks into a Bar by David Grossman