eliza_v_paige 's review for:

סוס אחד נכנס לבר by David Grossman, דויד גרוסמן

3.0

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This was an addictive read that unfortunately fell a little flat for me. At first, I really liked the quippy nature of Dovaleh. I settled myself in for a comedic fest, and like the audience I felt like leaving and that I hadn't gotten what I expected. This is really the story of how Dovaleh coerces an old childhood friend to come to his stand-up show to reveal the reason behind why they hadn't seen each other in years. There is this overarching narrative that pisses off patrons because it's not comedic, however, he intersperses comedy into his performance. Nothing that actually made me laugh but that's alright; the comedic effect of stand-up is lost when translated to text. Dovaleh's performance style got on my nerves towards the ending because he kept interrupting his story or saying things like "I'm being serious now" which was over used and got annoying. Or the fact that he only "comedically" attacked women in the audience. I did enjoy the pacing of the narrative and the narrator who was semi-analysing the show as it went on. On the whole, I enjoyed it despite being annoyed through the second half of the novel. I will be very shocked if this wins the Man Booker International Prize.