The setting is a comedy club in a small Israeli town. 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. 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. 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.
A Horse Walks into a Bar is a shocking and breathtaking read. Betrayals between lovers, the treachery of friends, guilt demanding redress. 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.
A Horse Walks Into A Bar is a translated book written
originally in Hebrew by David Grossman & translated into English by Jessica
Cohen & published by Random House. He is a bestselling author whose books
have been translated in 36 languages. He
is the recipient of the French Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and
the 2010 Frankfurt Peace Prize.
The story revolves around a middle aged standup comedian
Dovaleh Greenstein who is performing at a club in Netanya where he had invited
(or pleaded) his childhood friend, a retired judge Avishai Lazar who is also
the narrator of this book to come and attend his show. The standup piece starts
like any other with its highs and lows, he engages the audience and keeps them
interested which shows his experience but as the performance proceeds, there’s
definitely something different about some of the ‘jokes’ he makes which
actually leaves the audience perplexed as to whether laugh on them or not. As
Dovaleh slowly unravels his true self on the stage and the trauma he had
endured, it leaves people dumbfounded. Get this book here,
I had read in an article that most of the stand up comics
have experienced some kind of trauma or are depressed themselves and reading
the blurb I had made up my mind that this story also would wander around the
same topic & the famous quote “the show must go on” but I was wrong, its
much more than that. The plot starts slow & drags itself further to the
point that I lost the will to read it any further but as it had been awarded
the Man Booker International Award my curiosity helped me complete this book.
The book picks up its pace quite slowly but when it does, the story ultimately
shakes you to the core. Even though I understand this style of writing but I have never been a fan of dragging the story. I definitely won’t miss commending the translator for
doing such an amazing job. A story of pain, loss & turmoil. Surely should
be read.
A nice review
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