The book is really brutal in the emotional sense, but always fascinating. I find it fascinating how Grossman manages to manipulate the readers mood, we really feel like we’re in the bar, emotions flying high, often wanting to leave. I won’t go into more details of the plot no to spoil it for you. We quickly see the comedian is basically going through a mental breakdown on stage, the narrator tries to find out why that is, but at the same time closely monitors the audience reactions. Then again we get some jokes, but then comes the first shocking and violent episode and time for another trip down the memory lane, this pattern repeats itself, but it gets more and more out of control with every iteration. We then get to the first round of memories, that tells us how our narrator got here and how he knows the comedian. We start with regular jokes and banter with the audience, though our performer seems to be a bit on the edge, he is often very harsh, but manages to defuse the tensions when it gets too much and get the audience laughing again. The book follows the performance, but also our narrator’s reaction to it and the memories it brings up, Grossman creates a sort of spiraling narrative. Our narrator is a friend of the comedian from the youth, he has been invited to the performance, but has no idea why, especially that he despises stand-up. I cannot say I liked the book, because it is not a book to like, but it certainly made an impression, so much that I recommended it to my Bigger Half and within 3 days he’s already half way through the book (and he’s not a fast reader).Īs I mentioned the book takes us to an evening of stand-up comedy.

I wonder how this dissonance impacted my reception of the book. I must say it was a bit odd to read it on the beach in Estoril, because he book describes an evening stand-up comedy performance, so I was on the beach sitting in the sun and my brain was in the dark bar, with a comedian unraveling on stage. Irrespective of the reason, I did request it and during my vacation in Portugal in the effort to try to at some point catch up with my Netgalley backlog I decided to read it. I don’t even know why I requested this book on Netgalley, maybe because I saw the title a lot when it received the Man Booked International Prize and it felt familiar, like something I should read.

A horse walks into a bar book review