Customer Reviews

Peep Show

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Full disclosure, I'm Joshua's wife. So, yes, I'm biased. But, I'm also an English lit major - so those two get balanced out, right? This book is a perfect summer read - beautifully written, fast-moving, visual. It's fun and funny. And heart-wrenching at times. You won't forget the characters and you won't regret buying it. Great for book club discussions. P.S. insider tip, catch Josh reading this summer or fall near you - he's hysterically funny.

I thought Braff's first book was excellent, but figured he'd hit the sophomore/non-memoir slump -- but he seems to have avoided that typical fate! I had to warm up to the characters and the book itself, but by a third of the way in I was hooked -- total sympathy even for the father and, yes, the mother. These are real, human characters, just close enough to archetypes to make them accessible, but never typical.

At first blush the subjects would seem far from accessible -- Hasidism and the evolution of porn in 1970's New York -- but the family draws you in, and soon you're learning about those worlds without knowing it, and while still feeling for the characters.

Great read. Just challenging enough to make you think, but eminently readable, even comfortable, especially after the first few, familiarizing chapters.

I just finished Joshua Braff's newest book Peep Show and loved it. Braff knows how to weave a story through interesting characters. He builds his people so that you really get to know them. I like books that have a story line...not just flowery descriptions that go nowhere. Joshua's Peep Show is classically built storytelling. This will be a great conversation starter for book groups.

The second novel by Joshua Braff, Peep Show, is a fast moving story that makes for a perfect summer read. The main character is funny, empathetic, and just "bad" enough to make him an interesting character study. Somewhat similar to his first novel, this book is still a fun read.

This book was such a great read! I couldn't put it down! The story was great and it really kept me hooked throughout the book. The characters and their lives were built so well, and were so three dimensional that I felt like I really knew them all after it ended. I can't wait to read through it again and again. I will definitely recommend this to all my friends!

Joshua Braff delivers again! Braff wrote this book in such a way you see the characters in real live people in your own life. Great read, made me sad to finish. It so nice to read a book you can throw yourself into and relate to the characters. And the fact people would write a review bashing Braff for seeming like he's bashing the Jewish community. My response to that is, his family is Jewish, he can. Great book I highly recommend it and also The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green, also written by Braff. I give him 5 stars for both books and can not wait to read his next novels.

It's only a slight exaggeration to say Peep Show could be the latest (and best) incarnation of Catcher in the Rye, but turned inside out. In a media environment that saturates us with imagery that parents are absent or irrelevant in teens' lives (Harry Potter, Twilight, pretty much any show about teenagers on Fox or the CW), Josh Braff reminds us of the intense struggle that most actual teenagers have between wanting to rebel and wanting their parents' approval, not to mention the physical and emotional difficulty of real detachment. David Arbus has Holden Caulfield's fascination with the now-bygone era of New York's sexual grit, but Braff imbues his character with a more believable and interesting indecision toward it. Much of the supporting cast - including the entire Hasidic community that his mother embraces and the carnival of smut moguls who surround his father - is composed of one-dimensional characters that exist solely to populate the wonderfully complex lives of David, his sister, Debra, and his parents. Each of the four is wonderfully nuanced and human, though much of his mother's character is left to the imagination. This is a fine, fine piece of writing for our time.

I just read this book and absolutely loved it. I read most of it on the plane to Hawaii a few days ago and couldn't put it down. It was so visual, witty, emotional, shocking, and sorrowful all at the same time. I'm going to recommend we read it for our next book club book for sure.

I really enjoyed reading this book. For me, it's always about the characters & you couldn't help but root for the characters in this one- two completely opposite worlds, Hasidism & the porn industry, pull apart one family. How they all react to these two extremes throughout the book is what grabs you & makes you keep reading. Both worlds are drawn with respect which makes it infinitely more interesting. A lesser writer would have made either or both into a caricature & Braff resists that throughout. A great read!

Braff has woven a complex novel surrounded by a Times Square in New York City that no longer exists. His handling of the characters is brilliant. This book allows the reader a window into a grittier Times Square and interestingly weaves his story through it. I couldn't put the book down.