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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
Who knew something as insignificant as a simple baseball game could change one’s life? Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders didn’t, until it happened to them. So when Danny Saunders managed to injure Reuven and send him to the hospital, things changed drastically. Sounds a bit dramatic, but the story really isn’t. I don’t think I would have read it if I wasn’t forced to, and I may or may not have enjoyed it had I not been forced to. But that’s not to say it’s not a decent book. I just wasn’t very interested.
The story takes place in Brooklyn during WWII, and is told from Reuven’s point of view. It starts with that fateful baseball game, in which Reuven was sent to the hospital for getting glass in his eye. There he meets Billy, a blind boy, and Mr. Savo, who was in a boxing accident. Danny visits him, and they soon become inseparable. I’m not going to lie, I was a little weirded out (yes, weirded) by the “bromance” that was going on here. Lines such as “I like him a lot,” and extensive explanations of how Danny wound his hair around his finger point to this… It’s strange of me to see it this way, but that’s just a little observation. Moving on. Danny studies psychology behind his father’s- a tzaddik- back, until he is found out. FDR dies, and that affects Reuven a lot. Mr. Malter gets heart attacks. Tension rises between the Malters and the Saunders as an argument about Zionism arises. Danny’s younger brother, Levi, is ill, but Danny counts on him to become the rabbi as Danny wants to study psychology. Reuven and Danny go to college together, however, Danny is forbidden to see or speak to Reuven after a Zionist speech by Reuven’s father. This causes Reuven to greatly dislike Reb Saunders. The two don’t speak for nearly two years, until Danny says that the ban had been lifted. They graduate, and instead of some happy ending, Danny leaves for Columbia.
Long story short, two guys who hate each other become best friends, study psychology, math, and the Talmud, go to college, and part ways. Being a fan of adventure stories, The Chosen did not appeal to me very much. And the overload of Judaism was slightly overwhelming. Learning about the Jewish religion was certainly fascinating, but it was just too much for me. I also noticed some weird repetition, the large amount of usage of the word “said”, and the choppy dialogue: “You were supposed to duck.” “I had no chance to duck.” “Yes you did.” “There wasn’t enough time”. A lot of the conversations just come off as very awkward to me. And again, I didn’t like the overload of Judaism. Not that I have anything against it, it was just like reading a textbook at some points.
That aside, I did like the relationship between Danny and Reuven. It was like how a good friendship should be- where one can trust the other with everything, and no matter who you are and where you come from, you can become friends that stick together through thick and thin. However, the relationship between Danny and his father was a whole different story. Danny was raised in silence, only being spoken to when studying Talmud. This was because Danny was too brilliant, and I found that weird. I tried to imagine how terrible that would be, for my father to hardly ever speak to me. And then Reuven and his father, who had heart attacks and had to recover in the hospital. Aside from the two year ban of seeing each other, Danny and Reuven are the definition of good friends, sticking together.
It really is an okay book, but between the rush to read it and the unwillingness to, I had a hard time getting through it. And some parts of the story lacked everything that would make it interesting to me, and I kind of felt like I was reading a textbook. I don’t think typical teens would enjoy this book very much, seeing as how it’s so different from the typical adventure story. I didn’t enjoy it. But the next person might, and so it really just depends.
I just have to add though, I got a copy with a hideous cover. Don’t get the Holt Rinehart Wintston version.
- wow i feel like i have to marinate on this one for a few years before properly writing a review
- truly an exercise in leaving things unsaid, it was clever and frustrating at the same time
- a lot of the dialogue felt stale to me
