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3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A captivating evening with a man on the brink. This novel is full of little plot twists that feel like the turns of a knife in flesh. As challenging as the material can be, it’s hard to look away. My only minor gripe is that for a book about a comedian, the writing lacks much in the way of comedy, dark or otherwise. But it makes it up for it in its deep pathos and I suspect it will be circling my mind like swirls of cigarette smoke in a small comedy club for some time to come.
I found this book very hard going. Only that it is a short book or I think I would have given up. I really did not like the main character, the comedian, and it is difficult to empathise with a character if you don't like them. But then, maybe that's the point, not to like him as he has issues that we are going to explore.
It took me about 90 pages or so before I got interested and by then I was nearly half way so I kept going. The 2nd half is much more enjoyable but only just. You do get intregued to know what happens in the end. The jokes get better in the second half too!
I'm really confused with the hand stand thing going on throughout his childhood. I'm sure it has some significance but I don't get it, maybe someone will enlighten me.
Not a book I would recommend. It did win the Booker so maybe I am missing something entirely.
It took me about 90 pages or so before I got interested and by then I was nearly half way so I kept going. The 2nd half is much more enjoyable but only just. You do get intregued to know what happens in the end. The jokes get better in the second half too!
I'm really confused with the hand stand thing going on throughout his childhood. I'm sure it has some significance but I don't get it, maybe someone will enlighten me.
Not a book I would recommend. It did win the Booker so maybe I am missing something entirely.
dark
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Grosman is mu favourite contemporary hebrew writer, have to clarofy i read the heb vers.
This book manages to capture an aura of nihilism and pull the rug beneath you to sink you into a hell like no other. genuinely masterful.
This book manages to capture an aura of nihilism and pull the rug beneath you to sink you into a hell like no other. genuinely masterful.
I gobbled this book up in less than a week. It usually takes me months to get through a book, but this one took exactly a week. I went into it expecting comedy and light hearted fun. What I got was a mental breakdown after a little bit of comedy. It was a difficult experience but quite interesting. Like the patrons at the bar who stayed, it was an experience I won't soon forget. It's very difficult to convincingly write a mental breakdown but David Grossman manages it and makes it look easy. The entire book is one chapter with breaks that range from a paragraph to 30% of the book without one as he gets more and more frantic.
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Wat een geluk dat ik de tekst die hier op goodreads naast de cover staat niet gelezen had! Want het boek moet het hebben van zijn trage opbouw, van zijn suggestie, van de vragen die de personages zich stellen. Heel goed gedaan.
This is genuinely like watching bad stand-up. It was bad and full of cliche sexist and otherwise bigoted jokes. I can get that that is the point but I don't get any fulfilment out of watching an accurate depiction of a train wreck, nor did I think there was sufficient insight or talent in how the author portrayed it to justify the experience.
I don't generally like when bigoted jokes are used as a vehicle for portraying the character telling them in a bad light- it is not particularly clever in my opinion and at the end of the day, the jokes are still being told at the expense of oppressed groups in order to make some point.
Halfway through it was only just starting to allude to what I gathered from other reviews was some traumatic event. But I didn't see myself starting to care about the protagonist to justify continuing.
I suspect that this book was so popular because it is about the Israeli occupation of Palestine. While this is an important issue and it is important to be challenged by novels depicting different experiences from one's own, this book is from the perspective of an Israeli man in the army, without any perspective from Palestinians, so I don't see it as the most important or under-represented voice to be listening to on this topic.
I don't generally like when bigoted jokes are used as a vehicle for portraying the character telling them in a bad light- it is not particularly clever in my opinion and at the end of the day, the jokes are still being told at the expense of oppressed groups in order to make some point.
Halfway through it was only just starting to allude to what I gathered from other reviews was some traumatic event. But I didn't see myself starting to care about the protagonist to justify continuing.
I suspect that this book was so popular because it is about the Israeli occupation of Palestine. While this is an important issue and it is important to be challenged by novels depicting different experiences from one's own, this book is from the perspective of an Israeli man in the army, without any perspective from Palestinians, so I don't see it as the most important or under-represented voice to be listening to on this topic.
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes