A Horse Walks into a Bar by David Grossman 9 out of 10

 A Horse Walks into a Bar by David Grossman

9 out of 10

Notes and thoughts on other books are available at:

-              https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVa4_CsRStSBBDo4uJWT8BSWtTTn0N1E and   http://realini.blogspot.ro/

This is the chef d’oeuvre that has won this year’s (2017) International Man Booker Prize

The Economist- and surely many others, including The Guardian- https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/dec/09/a-horse-walks-into-a-bar-by-david-grossman-review - has an article on the author and this brilliant book.

Politicians in Israel- and maybe other segments of the population- are not overenthusiastic about the book and the author.

It took many hours for the prime minister to mention and congratulate David Grossman for this remarkable achievement, the winning of one of the most prestigious literary prizes in the world- maybe the most.

This in part because of the views of the author that do not coincide, indeed are opposite to the right wing parties and condemn the occupation of parts of the Palestinian territories and the acts that take place there are also referred in this book, but have been the subject of other publications, a book on essays being dedicated to the issue.

A Horse Walks into a Bar is evidently a masterpiece that includes many jokes and humorous situations as suggested by the very title.

Only it is difficult to estimate how important humor is and if it is not overshadowed by the tragedies described in the novel.

In the words of David Grossman: “you have to act against the gravity of grief- to decide you won’t fall”.

And so it seems that humor is used as a defense mechanism, by the hero of the book, but by others too, including the joker-driver.

Dovaleh G. is the hero of A Horse… and he is a standup comedian, even if his act in the novel is more of a confession, the telling of the story of a funeral, memories from childhood, sprinkled with satire, criticism of the occupation, politicians, lawyers, and the army who does not inform him correctly about a tragedy that took place…

So many issues and themes are targeted in this extraordinary tragi-comedy that has Death hanging all over it.

In one of the jokes told in this Netanya club, the angel of death shows himself to a lawyer, who protests- I am only forty!...Not according to your billable hours!

I was also taken by the joke of the cursing parrot, especially as I have two loud macaws- in it, this owner tries everything to convince his bird to stop cursing, puts him in a closet and threatens more serious actions.

Given that the parrot would not stop, he is placed in the freezer and finally taken out by the worried owner…the parrot has suffered a transformation indeed, he is respectful, polite and talks with sir…but he has a question…Sir, would you mind telling me what have the chicken done?

From one point on, the jokes seem only to be intended to attenuate for the fact that the comedian is actually interested in telling his story and because members of the audience protest that they came to have fun and laugh, he is trying to make compensation.

And anyway, a number of jokes are really hard and they are meant more to criticize than to cause laughter, like the one with the two Jewish people who walk with an Arab called Ahmed, when the curfew is announced.

One of the Jewish men takes out a gun and kills Ahmed, to the consternation of the other who asks- why did you do that? Because curfew was announced and I know where he lives…he wouldn’t have had time to make it anyway.

Having read the article in The Economist and the book, I understand now that the author is consistent and his position in the awards winning novel is the same one that he has had in his stands on the occupation.

Other apparently humorous, but very dark takes on subjects do not cause laughter as much as terror.

He talks about Mengele- for instance- as being the “family doctor” referring in a tragic way to the one who solved his patients problems by…exterminating them.

Religion is not too sensitive a subject for Dovaleh, indeed there is no area where the hero does not go.

And he is a very thoughtful, inventive, even if paradoxically for a standup comedian- sad man, with a tragic tale on his chest.

Adam knew Eve, but we do not hear anything about him understanding her, says the brilliant Dovaleh.

In his other moments of humor, the protagonist talks about personages that can- maybe should-commit suicide by “Jumping from their ego to their IQ”.

One other way to look at these jokes, that reveal so much about human failures, attempts to deal with problems, or take on the aforementioned political, religious excesses, might be by seeing them as a counter-balance for the terrifying story of the child who has to attend a funeral and he does not know who died.

Phenomenal masterpiece.