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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
I read this book in high school and remember really liking it, but it's amazing to return to it 20 years later and find new meaning and interest. Potok's writing style is simple and straightforward, but the slow build to its heartbreaking reveal is expertly crafted. Its setting is specific, but its themes are universal and in conveying this common ground, Potok's work also serves as a call for compassion and understanding among people of different points of view. It is a powerful book and a modern-day classic.
Wow. Just wow. I read this book in high school and it amazes me how little I got from it at the time. Now there is SO MUCH MORE that came up for me as a Jew (I was practicing Christianity when I first read it. ) so much spiritually, practically, about faith, practice, sects, Israel. It’s a timely read and while I got much more out of it than a min Jew, it’s so very FULL that there’s plenty of insight to be had for all. I might possibly sit with my mouth agape all day, so moved. I wish I could give it more than 5.
Admitting I never finished this book. (Even though I was supposed to for school.) Way too busy...didn't have enough time to read it.
Both books I've read by Chaim Potok (this one and My Name is Asher Lev) have been incredible reads. His style of storytelling just doesn't exist anymore. It is a slow and sometimes arduous style, but by the time you're done reading, you know the characters so intimately well. You know their thoughts, their dreams, you know their souls. And the soul seems to be just the thing Potok wants to get to in this book. It was about the Jewish people, yes, but more so, I think he was writing about the Jewish soul--as illustrated in the dynamic lives of two boys who are from different worlds, and yet, very much the same world.
I read this in high school and had a hard time connecting with the characters. I understood the conflict well, but the male characters seemed removed from my reality. That said, the story itself is wonderful and shows the coming of age of relationships in a way I hadn't considered up until then. I can see why it's used in high schools. It's got sophisticated themes and articulates ideas about identity in a way that makes it safe to apply the same ideas to situations outside of religion.
What a great book! How is it that I have never read this before? I learned a great deal and enjoyed the experience.
Read this with my 7th grader who is reading for his literature class. How have I missed this? Thankful that he has been introduced to it early. I hope he will revisit as he gets older and wrestles with faith, choice, suffering, friendship, life path, fatherhood...
I did not expect to be so drawn in to The Chosen and was surprised to be so invested in what happens to the boys. Chaim Potok did a great job at explaining heavy, complicated details of the Jewish culture in a way that was easy to pick up on for people (like me) who know next to nothing about it. The book was slow moving but well written and the last two chapters had me riveted.