Plot Summary
The novel opens with a housewarming party, and Jacob Green’s father, Abram, is ready to trot out his wife and children to their neighbors and friends as the perfect 1970s suburban, orthodox Jewish family: talented, intelligent, and devout. Trouble is, that’s not the case, and the rest of the family doesn't appreciate the charade. Sensitive Jacob tries to make peace within the family, but inside he admires his older brother Asher's rebellion. (His brother was recently kicked out of Hebrew school for drawing explicit pictures of the rabbi on the board.) The rigid (and ridiculous) father Abram has an enormous ego which blinds him to his family’s resentment of him. Of his son Jacob, he demands academic excellence and exhorts him to write flawless thank-you notes for all of his boring bar mitzfah gifts. Clueless as to his son’s struggles, Abram digs deeper with his demands, distancing himself further and further from Jacob. Jacob tries to please his father but always makes some kind of mistake with the thank you notes leading him to drift off into his “unthinkable thoughts” about the sexy live-in babysitter and his dreams of rebellion. Meanwhile, his mother has started attending college at the age of thirty-six and is starting to imagine a life for herself free of her controlling husband’s impulses, leaving the children to cope with their overbearing father. This novel, at turns both with witty and heartbreaking, provides a window onto father-son relationships and an orthodox Jewish family in the midst of the turbulent 1970s.
Critical Evaluation
Jacob is the narrator of this novel, and the peek inside this fourteen year old’s mind is alternately hilarious and heart-breaking. We get to hear all of his “unthinkable thoughts” which are particularly amusing when they come in the form of his bar mitzfah thank-you notes. The thank you notes always begin with Jacob attempting to do the right thing and striking a formal tone for each of his dull gifts then moving into complete fantasy land as he digresses into what he is actually thinking about. Regardless of how x-rated or embarrassing the aborted effort is, he always signs it, “Love, Jacob.” Jacob’s genuine attempts to please his father juxtaposed against his father’s complete deafness to any needs other than his own can be wrenching but will likely ring true for any person, young or old, who remembers being ignored by a self-involved parent.
Reader’s Annotation
Ever wanted to let the world know what you’re really thinking about? Jacob Green opens up to what’s really on his mind as he struggles to get his bar mitzfah thank you cards written.
Information about the Author
On his website, Joshua Braff writes, “A little bio if you will. In first person. I grew up in South Orange, New Jersey, and went to Columbia High School. I graduated from NYU in ’91 with a BS in Education. In 1995 I entered St. Mary’s College of California. There I received an MFA in creative writing/fiction. I published three short stories during this time in national literary journals before I wrote a first novel called Digging Suburbia. I was never able to sell it but acquired my first literary agent with the book. I wrote The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green after my son turned 6 months old. The book would have three publishing offers right after I finished it two years later. I went with Algonquin Books because of their reputation as a great press and I’ve never been disappointed. I started writing Peep Show after hearing a story about a man who was an orthodox Jew, living in Long Island, who commuted to Times Square to run peep houses. The book turned out to be a complex ride about familial relationships and the tangles that disenchantment and history and self-absorption can cause. I think it’s a pretty special book. I live in Oakland California with my wife of fifteen years and my two children, Henry and Ella. I love the game of baseball and played until recently when I decided sliding hard into bases was going to really start hurting. So I play softball now but slid so hard into third base last August that I may have torn my right meniscus. Golf anyone? I also love acrylic/oil painting in the Color Field genre. I’m most inspired by the painters, Barnett Newman, Dan Christensen, Kenneth Noland and Mark Rothko. I’m currently working on my third novel. No hints yet.”
Genre
Realistic Fiction
Curriculum Ties
N/A
Booktalking Ideas
Read aloud one of Jacob’s bar mitzfah thank you notes.
Reading Level/ Interest Age
16+
Challenge Issues
The book could be challenged because of its references to sex. If the book were challenged, I would turn to ALA's Strategies and Tips for Dealing with Challenges to Library Materials.
Why Included?
I liked the idea of including a coming-of-age story from a boy’s perspective with a slight cultural twist.
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