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A review by lory_enterenchanted
My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
Reviews and more on my blog: Entering the Enchanted Castle
The town where I used to live in New York was close to one of the largest communities of Hasidic Jews in the US outside of New York City (and probably in the world). There was a lot of tension with that community because of their insularity, as their growth and spreading affected public services for others nearby. But the strength of their conviction is also fascinating. What keeps them on such an inwardly directed path in the modern world?
I want to know more about such communities and Judaism in general, so I read this novel that's been on my radar for a long time. It was a slow but very touching account of an artist growing up as an only child of strongly dedicated Orthodox parents. His artistic passion is at odds with their ideals, especially the father's, and torments his mother as she feels pulled between them.
It's heartrending to see how well-meaning parents can abuse and neglect their own child, due to their greater concern for the suffering of their whole ethnic group. Of course the plight of Jews in Russia deserves attention, but others can help with that. These two people's relationship to Asher is unique and irreplaceable, and they harm him in ways that may run deeper even than the outwardly anti-Semitic violence with which they are so preoccupied. But they never seem to realize that.
The ending is devastating, with no reconciliation possible between religious and artistic conviction. I have to read the sequel to see if this changes at all.
The town where I used to live in New York was close to one of the largest communities of Hasidic Jews in the US outside of New York City (and probably in the world). There was a lot of tension with that community because of their insularity, as their growth and spreading affected public services for others nearby. But the strength of their conviction is also fascinating. What keeps them on such an inwardly directed path in the modern world?
I want to know more about such communities and Judaism in general, so I read this novel that's been on my radar for a long time. It was a slow but very touching account of an artist growing up as an only child of strongly dedicated Orthodox parents. His artistic passion is at odds with their ideals, especially the father's, and torments his mother as she feels pulled between them.
It's heartrending to see how well-meaning parents can abuse and neglect their own child, due to their greater concern for the suffering of their whole ethnic group. Of course the plight of Jews in Russia deserves attention, but others can help with that. These two people's relationship to Asher is unique and irreplaceable, and they harm him in ways that may run deeper even than the outwardly anti-Semitic violence with which they are so preoccupied. But they never seem to realize that.
The ending is devastating, with no reconciliation possible between religious and artistic conviction. I have to read the sequel to see if this changes at all.