Reviews

• ブッカー国際賞を受賞したというので読んでみたものの…

  ブッカー国際賞を受賞したというので読んでみましたが、 素直に「物凄く面白かった！」と言えないもどかしさを感じた本でした。 話がイスラエル地方を中心に進められたのに加え、 小説の進行役が"stand-up comedy"という、一種の独演漫談で話を進める形式は、 これまで読んできた小説にない新鮮さを感じさせはしましたが、 日本人には意味の捉えにくい宗教的な記述等を常にインターネットで調べながらの読書となり、 英語のノンネイティブかつ中東地方の宗教や文化に詳しくない者としては二重に大変なものとなりました。 ただ、後半はとても引き込まれる展開となっておりますし、 「もっと知らない世界を覗いてみたい」と思う人にはオススメの作品だと思います。 また、進行役が作中で行う、マナー違反すれすれの客とのやりとりは、 ハラハラしつつも楽しめてしまい、個人的にはこの本の魅力の一つだと思います。 これから読もうとしている方へのアドバイスとして、話の最初３分の１くらいは なかなか話が進みませんが、後半はどんどん話が進みますので、 最初に話の内容や本筋を少し分かりにくいと感じても、とりあえず半分くらいまでは読むことをお勧めします。

• perfect

  perfect

• Flojo

  Gran desproporción entre lo que se cuenta y cómo se cuenta. Todo tiene un tono sarcástico y burlesco que encaja mal con el enésimo relato del huérfano

• The Last Stand-Up

  So this comedian walks into a club. It's Netanya, Israel, not the audience he would have chosen, but hey, a gig's a gig. So he insults them a little, flatters them a little, tells a few one-liners, and soon they are eating out of his hand. Doveleh G's been doing this for 40 years; he knows his job. So does veteran Israeli author David Grossman who, aided by his splendid translator Jessica Cohen, captures the scene perfectly. Not just the jokes and routines, but the roller-coaster trajectory of the comic's relationship with the crowd, almost losing them one moment, winning them back the next. And the slow, sad attrition as people get up to go, leaving the club to an audience of those who have become interested in the performer, not as a comedian, but as the storyteller of his life. They will hear him out to the end. And among them is the reader; this is truly a book you can not put down. “I don’t know how to say this without offending the new anti-Semites, God forbid, but for f***’s sake, people, don’t you think your attitude is just a little bit grating? ’Cause sometimes I get the impression that if, let’s say, an Israeli scientist came up with a cure for cancer, right? A medicine that would finish off that cancer once and for all? Well, then I guarantee you the next day people all over the world would start speaking out and there’d be protests and demonstrations and UN votes and editorials in all the European papers, and they’d all be saying, ‘Now wait a minute, why must we harm cancer? And if we must, do we really need to completely annihilate it right off the bat? Can’t we try and reach a compromise first? Why go in with force straightaway? Why not put ourselves in its shoes and try to understand how cancer itself experiences the disease from its own perspective? And let’s not forget that cancer does have some positives. Fact is, a lot of patients will tell you that coping with cancer made them better people. And you have to remember that cancer research led to the development of medications for other diseases—are we just going to put an end to all that, in such a destructive manner? Has history taught us nothing? Have we forgotten the darker eras? And besides’ ” —he adopts a contemplative expression—“ ‘is there really anything about man that makes him superior to cancer and therefore entitled to destroy it?’ ” This comes from near the beginning, when Dov is riding high. The theme of Jewish self-deprecation, which he calls the new anti-Semitism, is a familiar one from writers like Philip Roth or Howard Jacobson, but Grossman's Dov has a particularly sharp way of addressing it. He is even more vitriolic against his own people in a routine about kicking Palestinians around, but on the whole he stays clear of politics. All the same, this is a very Israeli book, because both Dov and his audience have grown up there, been to similar schools and camps, done the same military service. I am sure there are many references that I haven't picked up, but that did not lessen my involvement. Fairly near the start, we get a shock. The word "I" enters the picture; the anonymous narrator isn't anonymous anymore. We realize that Dov is being observed by someone sitting alone in the shadows near the back. I will let Grossman reveal at his own pace who this observer is—he will be quite touchingly realized in his own right—except to say that it is a figure from the comedian's childhood, whom he has invited to attend. Gradually, the routine will turn into the story of Dov's younger life, and this witness is essential to what he is trying to do. It turns our that there is another person in the audience who knew Dov back then, an older woman who has come to surprise him. But he insults her mercilessly, to stop her calling up the good side of him that he would prefer to deny in his self-lacerating humor and at times the physical blows he rains upon his face and body. When I quoted the passage above about the new anti-Semitism, I was just looking for an entertaining and representative sample. But it occurs to me now that the theme of self-deprecation, even self-hatred, is central to the novel. More than a comedian's shtick, it is part of Dov's personal tragedy. However, I suspect that Dov also represents a whole generation of postwar Israelis. His driven, authoritative father is a pioneer who emigrated in the 1930s; his reticent and devoted mother is a Holocaust survivor; do they perhaps represent opposing attitudes in Israeli society? Not that it really matters, for in the last quarter of the novel, as we are drawn into a nail-biting scenario in which Dov is in effect forced to choose between them, it is not as a symbol that he moves us, still less as a stage performer, but simply as a human being. P.S. The horse who walked into the bar? That is just about the only joke in the book that is cut off before reaching the punchline. The others are intact, and—whether corny, cutting, or ribald—they are often very funny.

• Great read , eventful narration

  This story reflects our human life in a comic and subtle way and holds a mirror in many different ways. Narration was simply great and reader feels he is part of crowd and Netanya. It leaves a breeze and scar inside you due to character

• Read it

  I've never read anything like this. I was just as exhausted at the end as the main character, albeit less beaten and bloodied. This book takes us to the bedrock of human existence with a joke or two along the way. Grossman is one of the greatest authors of this century so far. Fortunately, the Man Booker Prize remains a reliable indicator of quality, unlike the Nobel Prize.

• A One-of-a-Kind Stand Up

  After reading a lot of horror, I was looking for something different and this was a refreshing read for me. You are part of a crowd of people crammed into a small Israeli bar. You've bought your ticket for the night, you're lucky enough to get a seat at a table and you've got your cold drink in front of you. The light dims and the name 'Dovaleh G' is announced - you get ready for a night of comedy, although you don't really know what to expect. This is a unique book that puts you right there in the moment watching the car crash comedian, not sure what to think or whether to laugh or walk out. And nor does anyone in the crowd. You're witnessing a person self-destructing on the stage, as he splutters between jokes and sudden violent self attacks, and all the while he's trying to tell you his story. His disturbing, harrowing tale of his life and how he got to be on this stage. There's also another person in the crowd - a man - who Dovaleh called after forty years to ask to watch him tonight. But why? And who is the short girl by the front of the stage with a face of stone. An edgy, character-driven story that delves into the life of a man who has nothing and possibly had nothing to begin with. If you want something a bit different, try this book. It won an award for a reason and if you have a dark sense of humour, you'll probably love Dovaleh's jokes too. It's a short book, it was originally in Hebrew and has been translated into English perfectly, which Jessica Cohen deserves recognition for because it feels like it was originally in English.

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