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A Horse Walks into a Bar
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 5 hrs and 49 mins
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A Horse Walks into a Bar
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Summary
Winner of the International Man Booker Prize 2017.
Random House presents the unabridged downloadable audiobook edition of A Horse Walks into a Bar by David Grossman, read by Joe Barrett.
The setting is a comedy club in a small Israeli town. An audience that has come expecting an evening of amusement instead sees a comedian falling apart onstage - an act of disintegration, a man crumbling, as a matter of choice, before their eyes. They could get up and leave or boo and whistle and drive him from the stage, if they were not so drawn to glimpse his personal hell. Dovaleh G, a veteran stand-up comic - charming, erratic, repellent - exposes a wound he has been living with for years: a fateful and gruesome choice he had to make between the two people who were dearest to him.
A Horse Walks into a Bar is a shocking and breathtaking listen. Betrayals between lovers, the treachery of friends, guilt demanding redress. Flaying alive both himself and the people watching him, Dovaleh G provokes both revulsion and empathy from an audience that doesn't know whether to laugh or cry - and all this in the presence of a former childhood friend who is trying to understand why he's been summoned to this performance.
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What listeners say about A Horse Walks into a Bar
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jo
- 06-06-23
Excruciating
Brilliant but deeply painful novel. I hated the narrator at first and almost stopped reading. But then I came to think the narrator’s voice was coherent with the story - I felt I was being flayed by that voice, or was it the story?Still I wouldn’t read anything else read by this narrator.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 04-09-24
Interesting but tiring
The reader didn't differentiate his accent between the two main characters, so sometimes it was difficult to figure out who was who. A sad, heavy book.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Andrea Edan
- 20-06-19
Life as a stand-up comedy
This book, justifiably, won the Man Booker prize as it is a very original format and very well written. I, personally, found it quite unsettling as it deals with past issues that most of us would rather forget. The story takes the shape of a stand-up comic more or less telling the story of his life during a single performance. In the audience are 2 people from his past, a judge and a female dwarf lady who was a neighbour when he was a boy. A lot of the "reminiscences" make very uncomfortable reading as they lay bare the souls of both the comedian (Dovie) and his one one time "best friend", a retired judge. The lady dwarf has neither forgotten nor forgiven anything. The audience is, to my mind, just a reflection of how we try and deal with uncomfortable truths and memories. An unusual but quite brilliant book. It is not a page turner nor one you would like to read while relaxing on the beach but if you get through it, you will feel enriched.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Graham
- 04-09-17
Creative brilliance
A great exploration of infectious emotion and story telling provided in a unique setting. Narration could be slightly improved with an accent or speech pitch change between the 2 narrators to reduce confusion. Everyone should read or listen to this
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Alina O.
- 03-01-21
Terrible narrator, such a shame
The story is great, but it was very difficult for me to surpass the hoarse voice of the narrator... 🙁
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anthony
- 01-08-17
Superb, intimate and moving
A night of stand-up comedy spirals into the depths of despair. A life that started with abuse and bullying is exposed on the stage, through humour and despair, at times deeply intertwined. Beautifully and movingly written and narrated, this is a brilliant story of an intimate visit by a judge to a comedy club to see a friend from his youth unveil aspects of his life and relationships. Guilt, intimacy, morality and humour are shared on the stage and off.
A fitting winner of the 2017 Man Booker Prize.
Compelling listening, probably worth a repeat to appreciate the layers and lives exposed one evening in a small comedy club in a small coastal town in Israel by a small, terminally ill, bitterly witty, falling apart comic.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Robert
- 23-05-18
Booker Prize but disappointing
Having enjoyed previous books by this author, especially the wonderful "Someone to run with", I was looking forward to this new one, especially because of the Booker Prize. It was a disappointment. Flat and cliche-ridden.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Jenni P.
- 10-11-22
Awful
The book is only made more horrendous by the awful narrator. Avoid at all costs.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- A. Williams
- 25-09-18
Haven't a clue what it was about.
I can't believe I wasted my time reading it. I kept thinking something would happen towards the end and all would be revealed . Well nothing happened.
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