A Horse Walks into a Bar

‘This book is written in a different voice than the others, I think first it is because I like to surprise myself. I like to write not in the way I know but in the way I do not know because suddenly when the earth is moving underneath my feet, I’m more alert and more creative.’

Read the full interview here.

‘David Grossman has attempted an ambitious high-wire act of a novel, and he’s pulled it off spectacularly. A Horse Walks into a Bar shines a spotlight on the effects of grief, without any hint of sentimentality. The central character is challenging and flawed, but completely compelling. We were bowled over by Grossman’s willingness to take emotional as well as stylistic risks: every sentence counts, every word matters in this supreme example of the writer’s craft.’

Ian Sansom, The Guardian

‘Grossman no longer writes what we traditionally think of as novels: he has transcended genre; or rather, he has descended deep into the vaults beneath […] A Horse Walks into a Bar – again translated by Jessica Cohen, who has long proved herself capable of keeping up with Grossman’s twists and turns of style – is more like a parable, about the loss of parents and the losses of a nation. As with all good parables, it requires the reader to do some work in order to understand its meaning.’

Rebecca Abrams, The Financial Times

‘A Horse Walks Into A Bar is, at one level, an extended riff on Jewish humour and Grossman draws on a plentiful stock of much-loved gags, but we grimace as we grin, because equally the novel is a searing dissection of the more dangerous functions of humour […] Few writers hold a more unflinching mirror up to Israeli society than Grossman, for which he has been both hailed and reviled by Israelis and Palestinians alike. His work stubbornly refuses to flatter or console, but it is also suffused with compassion, acutely attuned to the complexity of individual lives and the solutions people find to the challenge of that complexity.’

Michael Schaub, NPR

‘Grossman takes a lot of risks with A Horse Walks into a Bar, and every one of them pays off spectacularly well. Writing about a stand-up comedy set isn’t easy; comic performances — even the bad ones — have a distinctive rhythm that can be difficult to recreate. But Grossman and translator Jessica Cohen do a wonderful job with Greenstein’s long, sometimes borderline incoherent rants. It’s also hard to pull off a novel set in the space of two hours, but Grossman’s timing is perfect; the story feels urgent, and the reader can almost imagine being trapped in the comedy club with the increasingly confused audience […] A Horse Walks into a Bar is a novel as beautiful as it is unusual, and it’s nearly impossible to put down.’

Steven G. Kellman, The Boston Globe

‘Avishai, who was dismissed from the bench for intemperate comments in open court, recognizes a secret affinity with Dov. Not so secret is Avishai’s affinity with the reader, who might be turned off by Dov’s abrasiveness but keeps turning pages. Like Dostoyevsky’s Underground Man, he is both enraging and engaging. Grossman’s short, blunt novel is as cunning and compelling as the stand-up guy at its center. In this funnyman’s sad, grotesque performance, Grossman reaffirms his power to entertain and unnerve.’

The Economist

‘It takes an author of Mr Grossman’s stature to channel not a failed stand-up but a shockingly effective one, and to give him salty, scabrous gags that—in Jessica Cohen’s savoury translation—raise a guilty laugh. Dovaleh’s edgy, ‘tightrope-walking’ shtick narrows into a lacerating narrative of the cadet camp where, at 14, he learned of a parent’s death. The tortured judge’s own misery is compounded by the recent death of his wife. As the punters drift away, Mr Grossman unearths the twisted roots of both men’s self-disgust.’