Review: High Holiday Porn: A Memoir by Eytan Bayme

Title: High Holiday Porn: A Memoir
Author: Eytan Bayme
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publish Date: August 25, 2015
Source: I received a copy from the publisher; however, this did not affect my review.

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Eytan Bayme went to Jewish day school and Jewish camp. He lived across the street from a synagogue in the Bronx, which he attended weekly, and ate strictly kosher food for most of his childhood. Yet even at the age of six, he wanted to know what the deal was with those Pizza Huts and Burger Kings that he wasn't allowed into "God wouldn't put them on earth if He didn't mean for us to try them," he thought. Wasn't that obvious? Also, why can't he stop thinking about his female classmates in bed, late at night, with his little brother not five feet away; and how come the starting line-up for the 1986 Mets keep creeping into those fantasies? Religious life is difficult enough without the urges of a typical adolescent boy, yet Eytan's urges develop well before his teens, and they just keep on developing and developing.

High Holiday Porn is a heartwarming and hilarious story about learning to become an adult. It chronicles how an anxious boy finally stops masturbating in public, gets the girl, grows up, and begrudgingly makes peace with the unfairness of life and love. It's a funny, fantasy-laden, usually embarrassing, sometimes raunchy and always outrageous look at coming of age that will resonate with anyone who ever felt awkward growing up."

My Two Cents:

 "High Holiday Porn" is the story of Eytan, a young Orthodox Jew who has a no-bars-held approach when it comes to talking about some of the more embarrassing things that have happened in his life. Most of this book is about Eytan's sexual awakening and his extreme awkwardness in a society that is not always that permissive. I must mention that a lot of the book is about masturbation. For those sensitive people, this book probably is not for you; however, if you have more of a sense of humor about these things then this is a very funny memoir that had me rolling in places.

The writing of this book is definitely the highlight. Nothing is too embarrassing for the author to talk about. The author has a great sense of humor that shines through in this book. The mark of a truly funny book for me is one that makes me laugh out loud. This book definitely did that there were some very funny moments and the way that the author writes about them definitely made it hilarious! The author recounts some of the more awkward situations from his childhood and the things he went through as a teenager as well.

I really liked how the author was able to take a subject and turn it into something really funny. If you're looking for a book that will make you snort a little bit this book should definitely be on your radar.