Author entertains by reading second novel

Laughter and giggles punctuated author Joshua Braff's reading of his debut novel, The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green.

A small number of fans braved thunderstorms Saturday afternoon to meet the writer, who is the brother of Zach Braff, star of the NBC's Scrubs and of the film Garden State.

Braff read from his book, a darkly comic novel that explores the familial relationships of a Jewish adolescent living with a tyrannical father in suburban New Jersey.

"I draw from truth," Braff said when asked about the story's background.

"I was a yeshiva boy," he said, comparing himself to the novel's teenage protagonist, Jacob Green. A yeshiva is a type of Jewish school that provides both secular and religious instruction.

Braff said that in his novel, he addressed two main issues -- Judaism and humor -- through dialogue by "breaking from traditional narration" and employing bar mitzvah thank-you notes.

While Jacob expresses anger over Jewish customs, Braff has been touring Jewish communities at the invitation of the Jewish Book Council, lecturing about the novel in synagogues since it came out last year.

"No one has said they found it offensive," he said.

"I wanted to stay loyal to the point of view of the protagonist who was angry for being stuck in a yeshiva," he added.

Audience members observed that poor father figures appear in both the novel and in Garden State, which was written by Braff's younger brother.

"I am lucky not to have a narcissistic and needy father," the author said.

He then pointed out his "supportive father" in the audience, Hal Braff, a lawyer and professor at Rutgers.

"In the book, [Jacob's father Abram] is after him to write. Maybe Abram was doing the right thing," the elder Braff teased, referring to his son's success.

Unthinkable, which took about two years to write, is actually Braff's second novel.

His first novel never made it to the press because it was found to be "kind of quiet."

"I think I wrote a 300-page short story," Braff said, who was used to writing short stories for literary journals.

When asked if his brother would be bringing Unthinkable to the screen, the author replied, "Maybe the next one."

"Strangely enough, it's going to be about a Jewish family in the East Coast," he said jokingly of his second novel.

Nursing School Administrative Coordinator Maria Wolf read Unthinkable in October after seeing it mentioned in Zach Braff's Garden State Web log.

"I loved the book -- loved the honesty of the characters," she said.

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