A Horse Walks Into a Bar, David Grossman
A Horse Walks Into a Bar, David Grossman
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A Horse Walks Into a Bar

Author: David Grossman, Jessica Cohen

Narrator: Joe Barrett

Unabridged: 5 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/21/2017

Synopsis

In a little dive in a small Israeli city, Dov Greenstein, a comedian a bit past his prime, is doing a night of standup. In the audience is a district court justice, Avishai Lazar, whom Dov knew as a boy, along with a few others who remember Dov as the awkward, scrawny kid who walked on his hands to confound the neighborhood bullies. Gradually, teetering between hilarity and hysteria, Dov's patter becomes a kind of memoir, taking us back into the terrors of his childhood—his beautiful flower of a mother, a Holocaust survivor in need of constant monitoring; his punishing father, a striver who had little understanding of his creative son. Finally, recalling his week at a military camp for youth—where Lazar witnessed what became the central event of Dov's childhood—Dov describes the indescribable while Lazar wrestles with his own part in the comedian's story of loss and survival. A beautiful performance by Grossman (jokes in questionable taste included).

About David Grossman

David Grossman was born in Jerusalem. He is the author of numerous works of fiction, nonfiction, and children's literature. His work has appeared in The New Yorker and has been translated into more than forty languages. He is the recipient of many prizes, including the French Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, the Buxtehuder Bulle in Germany, Rome's Premio per la Pace e l'Azione Umanitaria, the Premio Ischia-international award for journalism, Israel's Emet Prize, and the Albatross Prize given by the Gunter Grass Foundation.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Emily May on July 21, 2017

Here it is now – a shared flicker that no one but the two of us, I hope, can detect. You came, his look says. Look what time has done to us, here I am before you, show me no mercy. I'm not 100% sure how I feel about this book, to be honest. Like most Booker Prize winners, it is undoubtedly very c......more

Goodreads review by Mevsim on May 02, 2019

Bir stand up gösterisi uzunluğunda kitap. 57yaşına gelmiş Dovaleh’in son gösterisi. Spot ışıkları altındaki son gecesinde, sahneyi terk edip gitmeyen, inatla kalan izleyicileri ve bizi (onu sayfalar arasında bırakmamayı seçip sonuna kadar yanında kalan okuyucuları) geçmişin gölgesinde duygu dalgalan......more

Goodreads review by Nandakishore on January 11, 2018

I am not a big fan of stand-up comedy. Even though there are many funny moments in such performances, I find most of the jokes crass and overtly sexual - and the comedian is in such a tizzy most of the time to get the audience to laugh, he seems to work at being funny; which, IMO, makes it even more......more

Goodreads review by Trish on April 10, 2017

Everyone knows that successful stand up routines are laughs at the expense of grief, or embarrassment, or pain of some kind. The laughing picks a sore and in many cases, starts the healing. The novel-length comedy routine given by Dovaleh Greenstein one night in a worn-down beach town is unique. The......more

Goodreads review by Dave on June 02, 2020

"A man walks into a bar. Ouch!" (Credit Jason Fowles 1998) “A duck walks into a bar, orders a drink, and tells the bartender, put it on my bill”—Anonymous, though probably somebody in my family on a holiday weekend would take credit for inventing it. I finished listening to A Horse Walks into a Bar by......more

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