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logancsmith51 's review for:
My Name Is Asher Lev
by Chaim Potok
I’m rating it a 3.5 but rounding up to 4.
This is a tough one for me, the first 340 pages were tedious, monotonous, repetitive, and overall just not that enjoyable to read. Obviously there were some parts that drew me in and kept me going and I had heard that the ending was worth it so I plugged away.
But man, the ending is worth it! It was heartbreaking to the point of making me ache for Asher and his parents. I feel like I read the last 30 pages in about 5 minutes I just couldn’t stop. And not only was it heartbreaking, it felt like the perfect culmination of who Asher is and what he worked towards (spoilers below).
Asher worked his whole life, endured bullying, was ostracized from his religion, broke ties with his dad that felt like they would never be built again all for the sake of art. Finally, while away in Paris, he paints his magnum opus, a painting of his childhood home, with his mom being crucified in front of the window with Asher and his dad watching. It encapsulated so much of the pain and loneliness that he felt as a kid but also the torment and agony that he understands his mom to have felt. This painting crushes not only his family but his community as well, his teachers and mentors from his childhood. In the end he is asked to move back to Paris to leave the Ladover Jews where he grew up.
I’m realizing now how important the 340 boring pages are in building this story. You see what Asher went through to get to the point of creating “perfect art”. You understand why drawing something so blasphemous was the only possible way for him to express what needed to be expressed. You feel a sense of pride and joy in what he’s created. I think the story mirrors the life of an artist. Tormented by struggle, knowing there’s depth in the monotony and struggle and finally breaking through only to realize fully the deep deep pain that comes with complete and utter vulnerability. I’ve also never taken more than like 30 minutes on a doodle so I could be wrong lol.
Overall it’s a good book, the ending makes it worth it but gosh the first 9/10ths of the book just drag. I originally rated it a 3 but I think a 4 is warranted, it would be a hard book to recommend though.
“My name is Asher Lev, the Asher Lev, about whom you have read in newspapers and magazines, about whom you talk so much at your dinner affairs and cocktail parties, the notorious and legendary Lev of the Brooklyn Crucifixion.”
- Chaim Potok; My Name Is Asher Lev
This is a tough one for me, the first 340 pages were tedious, monotonous, repetitive, and overall just not that enjoyable to read. Obviously there were some parts that drew me in and kept me going and I had heard that the ending was worth it so I plugged away.
But man, the ending is worth it! It was heartbreaking to the point of making me ache for Asher and his parents. I feel like I read the last 30 pages in about 5 minutes I just couldn’t stop. And not only was it heartbreaking, it felt like the perfect culmination of who Asher is and what he worked towards (spoilers below).
Asher worked his whole life, endured bullying, was ostracized from his religion, broke ties with his dad that felt like they would never be built again all for the sake of art. Finally, while away in Paris, he paints his magnum opus, a painting of his childhood home, with his mom being crucified in front of the window with Asher and his dad watching. It encapsulated so much of the pain and loneliness that he felt as a kid but also the torment and agony that he understands his mom to have felt. This painting crushes not only his family but his community as well, his teachers and mentors from his childhood. In the end he is asked to move back to Paris to leave the Ladover Jews where he grew up.
I’m realizing now how important the 340 boring pages are in building this story. You see what Asher went through to get to the point of creating “perfect art”. You understand why drawing something so blasphemous was the only possible way for him to express what needed to be expressed. You feel a sense of pride and joy in what he’s created. I think the story mirrors the life of an artist. Tormented by struggle, knowing there’s depth in the monotony and struggle and finally breaking through only to realize fully the deep deep pain that comes with complete and utter vulnerability. I’ve also never taken more than like 30 minutes on a doodle so I could be wrong lol.
Overall it’s a good book, the ending makes it worth it but gosh the first 9/10ths of the book just drag. I originally rated it a 3 but I think a 4 is warranted, it would be a hard book to recommend though.
“My name is Asher Lev, the Asher Lev, about whom you have read in newspapers and magazines, about whom you talk so much at your dinner affairs and cocktail parties, the notorious and legendary Lev of the Brooklyn Crucifixion.”
- Chaim Potok; My Name Is Asher Lev