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3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
If you are like me, and you picked up this book because the title sounds intriguing, and you are naive enough to believe that finally, finally, a humorous book has won the Man Booker Prize, the joke’s on you. A Horse Walks Into A Bar is not funny, except for a few jokes here and there. It is tragic, overwhelming, frustrating, and sad. Very sad.
I really cannot review this book because honestly, I did not get much of it. That’s a side-effect of being an outsider sometimes, you cannot relate and understand the voice of the author because you have never seen or experienced what he is talking about. What I did get was the struggle of the 14 year old Dovaleh G, a small bullied child who adores his Holocaust-traumatized mother, and respects and fears his father in equal amounts. I do not have the experience of what Dovaleh went through when tragedy struck his family, but I understood his emotions. Torn between his love for his mother, and probably the hope for a stable life, Dovaleh burdens himself with guilt, no teenager should ever have to experience.
The recounting of the story is in two forms – the narrator, whom Dovaleh considered a friend in his childhood, and Dovaleh’s own stand-up, which is more of an effort to get rid of this burden that he has been carrying with himself forever. A third element is the audience. Like in any stand-up, they form an important part of the conversation here. Their emotions, reactions to Dovaleh’s breakdown in front of them, actions and everything in between makes the novel more involving, mostly because that is what you would relate to. “I would have done that.”, “No I could not have said that.” – you find the many reactions that you would have given had you been in the audience with Dovaleh in front of you.
The story is captivating, though it is scattered a bit with too many voices – the narrator’s past and present voice, Dovaleh, Dovaleh’s childhood neighbor, the audience, but if you keep at it long enough you would realize the pain that Dovaleh is going through, the guilt he has carried all his life.
Would I recommend this book to anyone? Probably not. It is a complex book, and I am sure that not many people will like it. I, myself, probably don’t like it. That verdict is yet to come out. If you are interested in complex though, go for it. It just might be your cup of tea or coffee!
I really cannot review this book because honestly, I did not get much of it. That’s a side-effect of being an outsider sometimes, you cannot relate and understand the voice of the author because you have never seen or experienced what he is talking about. What I did get was the struggle of the 14 year old Dovaleh G, a small bullied child who adores his Holocaust-traumatized mother, and respects and fears his father in equal amounts. I do not have the experience of what Dovaleh went through when tragedy struck his family, but I understood his emotions. Torn between his love for his mother, and probably the hope for a stable life, Dovaleh burdens himself with guilt, no teenager should ever have to experience.
The recounting of the story is in two forms – the narrator, whom Dovaleh considered a friend in his childhood, and Dovaleh’s own stand-up, which is more of an effort to get rid of this burden that he has been carrying with himself forever. A third element is the audience. Like in any stand-up, they form an important part of the conversation here. Their emotions, reactions to Dovaleh’s breakdown in front of them, actions and everything in between makes the novel more involving, mostly because that is what you would relate to. “I would have done that.”, “No I could not have said that.” – you find the many reactions that you would have given had you been in the audience with Dovaleh in front of you.
The story is captivating, though it is scattered a bit with too many voices – the narrator’s past and present voice, Dovaleh, Dovaleh’s childhood neighbor, the audience, but if you keep at it long enough you would realize the pain that Dovaleh is going through, the guilt he has carried all his life.
Would I recommend this book to anyone? Probably not. It is a complex book, and I am sure that not many people will like it. I, myself, probably don’t like it. That verdict is yet to come out. If you are interested in complex though, go for it. It just might be your cup of tea or coffee!
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
fast-paced
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
sad
tense
I didn't like my first David Grossman book - [b:Be My Knife|60371|Be My Knife|David Grossman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1170541653s/60371.jpg|2498858] and I can't say I enjoyed this one either, though it had a lot to recommend it.
A Jewish stand up comedian gives his last show, full of bile, self-loathing, contempt for himself and his audience, and guilt purely on his own account, though he does manage to also provoke it in a special guest he's asked to come and attend and comment on this his final show. An old school and army cadet friend he hasn't seen in 40 years, who has served as a judge but retired and who is recently widowed. This man is there as witness, confessor and yes, judge on the comic's act.
The remarkable achievement of this book is that Grossman manages to make it like an actual two-hour comedy show, pretty much in real time. The audience goes through the ebbs and flows, where a joke misfires, where another is a success, where the audience get annoyed because there is too much confessional story and not enough gags. We the reader feel almost exactly as the audience feel in real time as we read, their responses very much describe our own. And I think that is brave; when the audience are alienated or repulsed, so are we; When they walk out and leave, we ask ourselves whether it's worth our while staying on to read the book. I don't think the final revelation behind the comic's destructive guilt is weighty enough to grant satisfaction, but I did stay with it, unlike most of the audience who gave it up and were chalked off by the comic on his chalkboard on stage.
I thought parts of the book were derivative. Grossman cites Kafka, but actually this reminded me more of Camus' [b:The Fall|11991|The Fall|Albert Camus|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1467904855s/11991.jpg|3324245]. The stand up comedy stuff, that of the art of performing and manipulating an audience while also leaving them creative space, plus creating a character up on stage that is drawn from you but is not you and making that character highly vulnerable to the whims of the audience, I have read for real in the books by Stewart Lee such as [b:How I Escaped My Certain Fate|8538501|How I Escaped My Certain Fate|Stewart Lee|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327175398s/8538501.jpg|13406028]. But one of the devices the comic as a child used to escape or neutralise real emotions, that of standing on his hands and moving upside down so as to invert the world, reminded me of a device in a Jack Rosenthal play called "The Barmitzvah Boy". So ultimately for me, this was a rather unremarkable story about Jewish guilt; Kafka's stories are for more ingenious and subtle.
So I don't think I'll be reading any more Grossman, as 0 for 2 is not a great strike rate. Even though this book won the 2017 International Pen Prize.
A Jewish stand up comedian gives his last show, full of bile, self-loathing, contempt for himself and his audience, and guilt purely on his own account, though he does manage to also provoke it in a special guest he's asked to come and attend and comment on this his final show. An old school and army cadet friend he hasn't seen in 40 years, who has served as a judge but retired and who is recently widowed. This man is there as witness, confessor and yes, judge on the comic's act.
The remarkable achievement of this book is that Grossman manages to make it like an actual two-hour comedy show, pretty much in real time. The audience goes through the ebbs and flows, where a joke misfires, where another is a success, where the audience get annoyed because there is too much confessional story and not enough gags. We the reader feel almost exactly as the audience feel in real time as we read, their responses very much describe our own. And I think that is brave; when the audience are alienated or repulsed, so are we; When they walk out and leave, we ask ourselves whether it's worth our while staying on to read the book. I don't think the final revelation behind the comic's destructive guilt is weighty enough to grant satisfaction, but I did stay with it, unlike most of the audience who gave it up and were chalked off by the comic on his chalkboard on stage.
I thought parts of the book were derivative. Grossman cites Kafka, but actually this reminded me more of Camus' [b:The Fall|11991|The Fall|Albert Camus|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1467904855s/11991.jpg|3324245]. The stand up comedy stuff, that of the art of performing and manipulating an audience while also leaving them creative space, plus creating a character up on stage that is drawn from you but is not you and making that character highly vulnerable to the whims of the audience, I have read for real in the books by Stewart Lee such as [b:How I Escaped My Certain Fate|8538501|How I Escaped My Certain Fate|Stewart Lee|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327175398s/8538501.jpg|13406028]. But one of the devices the comic as a child used to escape or neutralise real emotions, that of standing on his hands and moving upside down so as to invert the world, reminded me of a device in a Jack Rosenthal play called "The Barmitzvah Boy". So ultimately for me, this was a rather unremarkable story about Jewish guilt; Kafka's stories are for more ingenious and subtle.
So I don't think I'll be reading any more Grossman, as 0 for 2 is not a great strike rate. Even though this book won the 2017 International Pen Prize.
This is a painful read. There were several times that I almost gave up. A stand up comedian is weaving jokes into an accounting of his life and at first the telling was disjointed and hard to stay with. As the routine progresses though, his life story takes over and I found the story compelling.
Read this for a book club, otherwise I probably wouldn't have finished it. It was incredibely boring and hard to read. I felt like one of the audience, waiting for the point of the story while someone tries to make me quit. There isn't one.