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Peep Show

par Joshua Braff

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Fiction. Historical Fiction. HTML: *A young man is torn between his Hasidic mother and his father�??a Times Square pornographer�??in this "smart, funny, heartbreaking novel" (Jonathan Tropper, author of This Is Where I Leave You).* David Arbus will be graduating from high school in the spring of 1975. His parents are divorced, and he can join the world of one or the other: embrace his mother's Hasidic Jewish sect, or go into his father's line of work, running a burlesque theater in the heart of New York's Times Square. He joins the family business. What else would a healthy seventeen-year-old with an interest in photography do? From the acclaimed author of The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green, Peep Show is the bittersweet story of a young man split between a mother trying to erase her past and a father struggling to maintain his dignity in a less-than-savory business that is growing edgier by the day. It's both a "humane, compassionate and very moving" story of a broken family, and an insightful look at the elaborate rituals, assumed names, and fierce loyalties of two secret worlds that strips away the curtains of both (Kirkus Reviews). "An interfamilial culture clash of epic proportions . . . Braff makes the most of the comic potential inherent in his outlandish premise, but he sees well beyond the laughs. This is a powerful, sensitively told coming-of-age story about the ways in which rigid worldviews extract their pounds of flesh from us all, especially the young." �??Booklist, starred review "Haunts long after the final page." �??People… (plus d'informations)

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David is on the brink of adulthood and straddling his parents' worlds--his mother has recently converted to Orthodox Judaism and his dad owns and runs a burlesque theatre. The worlds are a little cartoonishly drawn--Mom is completely rigid and inflexible, not allowing David's sister to see their father and sweeping her into the orthodox world as well; Dad is unwilling to update his theater to include peep shows and porn-making that will keep the business profitable. Admirably, Dad's main motivation isn't for keeping the theater afloat but for regaining access to his daughter, whom he misses terribly. David, too, misses his sister and is deeply hurt by his mother's rejection of him (as he won't convert).

Setting the book against a fledgling adult shop makes it easy to say "this person is an unfit parent" while highlighting that the porn shop owner is actually the more caring parent, but such a decision seems lazy. This could have been a stronger novel if Braff had focused on the family dynamic without using the shorthand of "EWWW PORN." (

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librarybrandy | Mar 30, 2013 |

Religious beliefs divide a family - it happens. The conflict in this novel, though, is pretty extreme -- on one side, a mother and daughter make the decision to become Orthodox Hasids, without the son - the narrator of the book, who ends up, almost by default, living with his father who is hanging on to a burlesque theater owned by HIS father. Times are tough for burlesque and David's father is "forced" to bring in adult toys and peep shows. So, on one side, two women are adopting the conservative dress and sheitels (brown wigs) and, on the other, women are taking it ALL off in the name of "entertainment". I don't read a LOT of fiction, and if I pick some up, it had better keep my attention - which this book did. I carried it around with me, reading it anytime I had five minutes. David, a budding photographer, captures both extremes of his family on film throughout the book, as he stands in a sort of no man's land -- not wanting to immerse himself in either. Great read! (

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vasquirrel | Apr 18, 2011 |

Peep Show by Joshua Braff was a very quick read that I powered through yesterday. Even though it moved quickly and was fairly compelling (what other terrible things could possibly happen to this shipwreck of a family?) it was not an enjoyable read for me. So I slept on it, and woke up knowing exactly why this novel was so unsettling. It was the anger! Has there ever been so much anger displayed by so many dysfunctional characters? Everybody was angry about something--or everything! David, too, was angry about everything in his life, but especially about his desertion by his family. His mother, especially, left him stranded; but his dad in his own way also deserted David by subjecting him to a thoroughly inappropriate lifestyle. Perhaps Debra wasn't angry, but only because she was too complacent to realize she should be angry. She lets the reader do it for her! (

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alexann | Jan 3, 2011 |

This book kept my interest, but was quite poorly written. The people were stereotypes and required no intelligence to portray them. I would not receomment this book to anyone. There are better written books that portray family disintegration; these books portray micj more comples characters. I question Braff's purpose in writing this book. (

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suesbooks | Dec 14, 2010 |

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Fiction. Historical Fiction. HTML:

A young man is torn between his Hasidic mother and his father�??a Times Square pornographer�??in this "smart, funny, heartbreaking novel" (Jonathan Tropper, author of This Is Where I Leave You).

David Arbus will be graduating from high school in the spring of 1975. His parents are divorced, and he can join the world of one or the other: embrace his mother's Hasidic Jewish sect, or go into his father's line of work, running a burlesque theater in the heart of New York's Times Square. He joins the family business. What else would a healthy seventeen-year-old with an interest in photography do?

From the acclaimed author of The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green, Peep Show is the bittersweet story of a young man split between a mother trying to erase her past and a father struggling to maintain his dignity in a less-than-savory business that is growing edgier by the day. It's both a "humane, compassionate and very moving" story of a broken family, and an insightful look at the elaborate rituals, assumed names, and fierce loyalties of two secret worlds that strips away the curtains of both (Kirkus Reviews).

"An interfamilial culture clash of epic proportions . . . Braff makes the most of the comic potential inherent in his outlandish premise, but he sees well beyond the laughs. This is a powerful, sensitively told coming-of-age story about the ways in which rigid worldviews extract their pounds of flesh from us all, especially the young." �??Booklist, starred review

"Haunts long after the final page." �??People