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3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
After a long time I've read a good book. I could feel the emotions building right up with the words. Loved it. David wrote a really great story on this one.
In “A Horse Walks into a Bar” David Grossman makes the impossible possible by masterly setting the entire book in a single place - a bar in Israel’s beach town Netanya - and by keeping the tension throughout the entire book at the hights of a thriller.
Grossman made me want to keep turning the pages and to burn the entire book at the same time. It’s an uncomfortable read: funny and tragic, captivating and repulsive - all at once. The reader can’t avoid becoming part of the dwindling public gathered at a local bar of Netanya to see Dovaleh G, an aging stand-up comedian, perform his one last unprecedented show.
Grossman made me want to keep turning the pages and to burn the entire book at the same time. It’s an uncomfortable read: funny and tragic, captivating and repulsive - all at once. The reader can’t avoid becoming part of the dwindling public gathered at a local bar of Netanya to see Dovaleh G, an aging stand-up comedian, perform his one last unprecedented show.
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
I almost gave up on this a quarter of the way in. I'm glad I didn't. I thought it would be full of political things I didn't understand or it would have drunk horses in it. It turns out to be a simple, intense, and powerful story about a man telling the story of going to the funeral of his parent. Told from the perspective of someone who had known him then. The comedy bit was old from the get go but once he starts getting into his story I was hooked. What an interesting way to tell a story. It makes me want to attend a comedy show like this, or just simply someone telling a story.
I think it's interesting that my experience reading this novel mirrors the reactions of those attending the show...What the hell is this, should I leave? And coming to the end and being really glad I did, that I learned something and was truly moved.
I think it's interesting that my experience reading this novel mirrors the reactions of those attending the show...What the hell is this, should I leave? And coming to the end and being really glad I did, that I learned something and was truly moved.
The book centers in a single night of stand up that goes from awkward to intense and finally heartbreaking over the course of the set, the course of the novel. The theme of the night turns from stand up to, eventually, a story. Still with the timing of a comedy set. This novel made by turns, uncomfortable, but also wanting to know what happens next.
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-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
emotional
reflective
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I received a copy of this book via NetGalley.
This is a story about a Stand-up 'comedy' show. Stand-up routines are often controversial and the laughs usually come at someone else's expense. In this case the Comedian essentially tells the audience his life story, with a few jokes thrown in. However, it is generally not a happy tale.
Reading this book I felt that I was there, one of the audience, watching, listening, smiling, laughing, sometimes cringing. Cringing quite a lot actually. It is not the show you came to see but you cannot leave, though you feel very uncomfortable. You have to stay right there until the end, whatever happens.
A very original book. 3.5*
This is a story about a Stand-up 'comedy' show. Stand-up routines are often controversial and the laughs usually come at someone else's expense. In this case the Comedian essentially tells the audience his life story, with a few jokes thrown in. However, it is generally not a happy tale.
Reading this book I felt that I was there, one of the audience, watching, listening, smiling, laughing, sometimes cringing. Cringing quite a lot actually. It is not the show you came to see but you cannot leave, though you feel very uncomfortable. You have to stay right there until the end, whatever happens.
A very original book. 3.5*
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
BookClub
On a delicate balance between wanting to put the book away because it pushes in all directions and doesn't leave you time to breathe and finish it to know what's the driver behind the main character. It's well written, but not a book for me.