Book Review: A Horse Walks Into A Bar

The book is about a stand up comedian in Israel. The book runs through one of comedians acts. The narrator is an old friend, a retired judge who the comedian invites to his act. The act turns away from comedy to one of revealing dark secrets of the comedians childhood. The writing is complex and engaging. It is a slow moving book but you keep waiting for the next revelation. Like the act, the punches are thrown in just when you are about to turn away, thus magically transforming you into the world of the book. At places, you will be quite stunned by the act, at others, you will be bored. It will keep you at your wits’ end. But it will keep you going.

The book makes you realise about how little you know about the people you meet almost everyday. There is a lot of potential in it for analysing relationships, habits, and coping mechanisms during stress. Given the writing style, I would not recommend it to a beginning reader, despite it being a short book.