How do you write fairly about a book you didn’t really like? Maybe “didn’t really understand” is more accurate. Why I didn’t like this novel: One of my pet peeves is books that read like screen plays. Joshua Braff’s The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green had ‘movie’ stamped on every page, from opening crowd scene to parting solo shot. The second area of disappointment for me is that all the time I was reading it I kept thinking that Tom Wolff’s This Boy’s Life is so much better at telling the same coming of age story that features a tyrannical abusive father traumatizing a son and splitting a family apart. On the other hand, could it be that some of my problem is that I have absolutely no religious background of any kind and this book about the collision between what I call a convenient zealot and a disinclined son is mostly a religious war beyond my comprehension?
But there remain aspects of the novel to explore. So, let’s get on with it.
Up front I want to confess that I have a popular culture IQ of 0. So, when I read that the author, Joshua Braff is the older brother of an actor named Zach Braff, it meant nothing to me. What did resonate is the assessment I made of “this reads like a screenplay” may grow from legitimate roots. Brother Zach wrote and starred in a movie called Garden State (which I have never seen) and is a character in the TV series Scrubs (which I have never watched). Adam is a third Braff brother who has also written a TV development and co-writes screenplays with Zach. No wonder I detected that stamp all over this book.
Further research into the religious aspects of the novel led to greater insight. A key scene regards the ritual surrounding the Shabbat of Parshat Naso, which includes a Torah reading that refers to a family featuring two brothers, Judah, who is superior to Benjamin; an accused adulterous wife; and tells how bitterness can ruin a marriage. This, of course, is the entire metaphor for the novel.
One aspect of fiction I’ve always paid attention to is the names authors give their characters. The meaning of names may be important in this book when you consider that Abram (the father) means just that – “exalted father,” “ high power”; Asher (the artistic older brother) means “to go straight on,” “fortunate, blessed, happy”; Jacob (the p.o.v. character) means “heel catcher, supplanter, leg-puller,” The Biblical Jacob of whom much is told is a trickster whose name is later changed to Israel, which means “contender, fighter,” or “God prevails.” Finally, Claire is French for “bright” or “famous.” Certainly, all the Jewish names are apropos.
Our readers chose Unthinkable Thoughts because they wanted something funny. However, this book is not funny as much as it is tragic, is less about the humorous side of life than about the dark, and never achieves lightheartedness even though it includes funny bits. But those bits are ironic and derive from misery and suffering – the wellspring of Jewish humor, as some have claimed. Braff intersperses the scenes of Jacob’s sexual explorations with Megan Reeves, the nursing student and live-in housekeeper, with samples of fictitious thank-you notes Jacob composes in his head. These notes are laugh out loud funny and allow us to see the interior workings of Jacob’s mind and discover it is not as repressed as his behavior would indicate. He lives in worshipful terror of his father, who embodies an Old Testament God. Abram, is, as I said, a convenient zealot, one who adheres to strict observation of ancient Judaic laws and customs. . .when it suits him. The Family Rule 4 on eating Kosher vs. eating Whoppers is an illustrative scream.
In fact, the list of Family Rules number 10, paralleling the Ten Commandments. Only they are odd and arbitrary, and have little bearing on living a moral life – with the exception of Rule 7.
Any member of the family that proceeds to ejaculate on Megan should feel a torturous and unrelenting sense of mortal shame, coupled with a near psychotic desire to disappear from this God’s earth.
a) But I wasn’t trying to. (It doesn’t matter.)
b) But I couldn’t hold it. (No shit.)
c) I felt it rising and. . .(Yuck, who cares?)
The Green House Rules are mainly just proscriptions. Examples: No Guns, How to Dress for Synagogue, and How to Acknowledge Generosity. They are the stipulations of Abram who uses them to brow-beat and control his dependents and his wife. As the novel progresses, the Rules are taken over by Jacob and it is his voice that “writes” them, beginning with Rule 7.
Of course, Abram's irrational demands and uncontrolled temper cause Asher to rebel and defy him at every turn, his wife to leave him for another man who will not stifle her, and Jacob to suffer the pangs of torment over attempting to please a father who can never be pleased.
Because he suffers from a learning disability, Jacob cannot spell correctly and agonizes over writing the thank you notes for his bar mitzvah gifts that his father demands he do. It’s an impossible task to meet within the time Abram allows or to meet the standard of perfection he demands. It’s no wonder that Jacob composes fantasy thank-you notes in his head. An entire chapter is devoted to the painful and abusive scene as Abram stands over Jacob and proceeds to disintegrate into incoherent rage at his son’s inability to perform satisfactorily. First Asher, then his mother, and finally Megan all converge on Jacob’s bedroom to try to intercede, but Jacob’s first instinct is to try to defend his father.
We are immediately reminded of the quotation that precedes the story:
Do not reject the discipline of the Lord, my son;
Do not abhor his rebuke.
For whom the Lord loves, He rebukes.
As a father the one whom he favors.
Proverbs 3:11-13
It is a terrible thing to be so favored.
It is so terrible that Jacob’s suppressed rage leads him to punch a padded wall in gym class the next day so hard that he breaks his wrist, an event and its surrounds that occupies nearly three chapters. The shattered wrist symbolizes the final straw that breaks the family apart, which actually occurs at Annie Hall movie night, engineered and emceed by Abram, who once again loses control when he escalates a trivial “failing” into a tragedy performance of over-reacting. The destruction of the family, like the deconstruction of Jacob’s wrist is a three act play within the novel.
Claire leaves, Asher leaves, and Jacob remains to be manipulated by or finally withstand his father, a struggle that begins in the pivotal chapter called, “Erhard’s Prayer.” [Research needed again: Werner Erhard, founder of est, retailer of enlightenment (“there are no victims,” “we create our own realities’).] Rona, Abram’s girlfriend post-Claire, has led Abram to join her as a devotee of est inculcation. They tell Jacob about what they’ve been taught in their est “treatments” and Abram urges Jacob to attend – he’ll pay for it. Later, Abram tells Jacob, “Wherever you are today, you’re there because you put yourself there.” To which Jacob points out that today he’s in Hebrew school not by his own choice, but because his father put him there.
At this, Abram washes his hands of blame and makes his son responsible for his (Abram’s) abuse of him. He says, “But you cannot blame me for your own life. Understand?” How Jacob understands Abram's and Rona's reports of the lessons of est is explored in the final chapters that reveal Jacob's increasing rebelliousness and resistance.
The book ends on a Saturday, the day of Jacob’s reading at Temple, when Jacob is to perform the act for which his father loves him most and which, if he doesn’t perform it, would cause the man to explode. Abram has bought his son an entire new suit and accessories to wear this day. Jacob dresses himself, following Rule 10 of the Green House Rules. Seeing him descend the stairs, dressed, and ready to go, Abram beams with pride and praises his son’s appearance, couched in terms of what other people will think. It’s obvious that he only sees and loves Jacob when he reflects well on him (Abram). Jacob announces that since it’s such a fine day he’ll walk to Temple, but once free and across the street, he begins to run – away, we hope, from the tyrant whose hold on him we wish Jacob will finally break.
Breaking with the usual format, we will not carry on the discussion of this novel another week, but will meet in two weeks instead to begin talking about our next selection. Please vote for your choice below, and I'll announce the decision this weekend in a special post. Thanks!
Here's the List
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim. $2.99 Kindle
Mercury Falls by Robert Kroese. $2.99 Kindle
Elizabeth Street by Laurie Fabiano. $7.99 Kindle
Waiting for the Taliban: A Journey Through Northern Afghanistan by Anna Badkhen. $2.99 Kindle
Old Town by Lin Zhe and George A. Fowler. Kindle $2.99
Alison Wonderland by Helen Smith