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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The Chosen is primarily a Bildungsroman focusing on the friendship of two boys--Reuven, a devout but somewhat liberal Orthodox Jew, and Danny, a brilliant Hasidic Jew--and the boys' respective relationships with their fathers. The novel offers insights into the history of Hasidic Judaism and the tensions between Hasidic Judaism and Orthodox Judaism. It gives the reader a window into how American Jews processed the tragedy of the Holocaust when the genocide first became widely known at the end of World War II, and it follows, through Reuven's father, post-war Zionist activism in the United States.
A primary theme in The Chosen is the ability to see clearly. There are several concrete physical instantiations of this theme: early on, Reuven suffers an injury to his eye when he is hit by a softball, and it unclear whether his eye will heal and regain its sight. While in the hospital, Reuven meets a blind boy, Billy, who is hopeful of regaining his sight through an operation, and Danny, later in the novel, has to get eyeglasses to correct his impaired vision. But the more important aspect of this theme is the ability to see others clearly. Reuven has to learn to see how Danny has been shaped by his Hasidic upbringing and how much of Danny's identity is tied up in Hasidism. Reuven also has to overcome his inability to see what kind of man and father Reb Saunders, Danny's father, is because, for much of the novel, Reuven questions Reb Saunders's love for Danny and his strange way of parenting and interacting with Danny. Reb Saunders has to learn to see the world from Danny's perspective while Danny has to try to see a world beyond Hasidism. Serving as a lens to help all of them see and learn is Reuven's father.
To those of us not who are outsiders to Judaism, the novel brings home the immense importance of sacred writings in Judaism. As someone who was raised in an evangelical Christian tradition, I have first-hand experience of how important study of the Bible is, but the evangelical love for and study of the Bible is nothing compared to Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish approaches to and reverence for the Torah and the Talmud: they memorize huge sections of their sacred writings; they study for literally hours a day; they write volumes and argue endlessly over interpretations of tiny portions of text. The Orthodox and Hasidic Jews portrayed in this novel are truly a people of the book, and they make Christian evangelicals and fundamentalists look like dilettantes when it comes to studying scripture.
The final chapter of the novel is a revelation for both Danny and Reuven as well as Reb Saunders. All barriers are removed, and they all come to see one another clearly. Most readers, as did I, will shed some tears.
The characters in this novel, because they come from a different religious tradition than do I, are in some ways quite alien to me, yet I found more similarities among us due to our mutual devotion to faith, family, and friendship. This is an exceptional novel because, among other reasons, it so beautifully universalizes the human experience.
A primary theme in The Chosen is the ability to see clearly. There are several concrete physical instantiations of this theme: early on, Reuven suffers an injury to his eye when he is hit by a softball, and it unclear whether his eye will heal and regain its sight. While in the hospital, Reuven meets a blind boy, Billy, who is hopeful of regaining his sight through an operation, and Danny, later in the novel, has to get eyeglasses to correct his impaired vision. But the more important aspect of this theme is the ability to see others clearly. Reuven has to learn to see how Danny has been shaped by his Hasidic upbringing and how much of Danny's identity is tied up in Hasidism. Reuven also has to overcome his inability to see what kind of man and father Reb Saunders, Danny's father, is because, for much of the novel, Reuven questions Reb Saunders's love for Danny and his strange way of parenting and interacting with Danny. Reb Saunders has to learn to see the world from Danny's perspective while Danny has to try to see a world beyond Hasidism. Serving as a lens to help all of them see and learn is Reuven's father.
To those of us not who are outsiders to Judaism, the novel brings home the immense importance of sacred writings in Judaism. As someone who was raised in an evangelical Christian tradition, I have first-hand experience of how important study of the Bible is, but the evangelical love for and study of the Bible is nothing compared to Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish approaches to and reverence for the Torah and the Talmud: they memorize huge sections of their sacred writings; they study for literally hours a day; they write volumes and argue endlessly over interpretations of tiny portions of text. The Orthodox and Hasidic Jews portrayed in this novel are truly a people of the book, and they make Christian evangelicals and fundamentalists look like dilettantes when it comes to studying scripture.
The final chapter of the novel is a revelation for both Danny and Reuven as well as Reb Saunders. All barriers are removed, and they all come to see one another clearly. Most readers, as did I, will shed some tears.
The characters in this novel, because they come from a different religious tradition than do I, are in some ways quite alien to me, yet I found more similarities among us due to our mutual devotion to faith, family, and friendship. This is an exceptional novel because, among other reasons, it so beautifully universalizes the human experience.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
[1967] Notes to self…was hoping to like it as much as I loved My Name is Asher Lev. Unfortunately I found that it read like a young adult novel as it was told primarily from the perspective of a fifteen year old boy. The issues were interesting, a son breaking from the expectations of his father, religion versus culture, conflicting beliefs of Orthodox vs Hasidic views of Judaism and the like, but the analysis lacked the nuance and insight that would have been available to the author had he made the narrator the adult Reuven looking back on his life. Also much of it felt like an educational text disguised as a novel. It was interesting but only an okay reading experience for me, as I was looking for the edge and maturity of writing that was in Asher Lev. In this one the edges had been rounded off and the writing was more simplistic. But as his first novel, I see it as good training ground for what he was able to do with Asher Lev.
challenging
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes