The Chosen

Rating: ★★★★★

Method of Reading: Public library hardcover novel, 284 pages
Dates of Reading: March 19, 2011-March 25, 2011
Author: Chaim Potok
Publication Year: 1972
Recommended To: People who enjoyed the Lev books. I read these three back-to-back, but even if you haven't read a Potok novel in years, this is worth picking it back up!
Quotes:
Movie: Yeah, and it seems pretty by-the-book, but also like a weird adaptation, emphasizing unimportant themes. I don't really care to see it.

Wikipedia Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chosen_(Potok_novel)
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chosen_

My View: Reading this right after the Lev duo was a great idea. This was wonderful work from Potok, and showed a different side of the Brooklyn Jewish sects we thought we understood from Asher. Danny bears a strong resemblance to Asher, but they are wholly different characters, and I think that Reuven represents the happy medium of secularism and Judaism which both rebelling minds were trying to find. When Asher achieved this balance (mostly) in his second book, and Danny came so close at the end of this book, I felt like this was incomplete without a sequel. Leaving Danny and Reuven posed at the end of that show-down with Reb Saunders and without a defined future didn't seem like Potok's style and I was so excited to find out about The Promise and I hope to read that soon. I think that his book complements the Lev books wonderfully because reading these three books back-to-back allowed you to feel like all three boys lived at once, and seeing Danny and Reuven's lives helped you decode some of Asher's and vice-versa. Great, thought-provoking/intriguing AND entertaining.


Always,
Your Bibliomaniac

Bibliographic info:
Potok, Chaim. The Chosen: A Novel. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967. Print.