mayagzlz 's review for:

My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok

5.0

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Potok creates a home for his reader in a world foreign to so many of us. It is not always a welcoming or comfortable home, but a real one. He isn’t afraid to write without translating — Jewish lifeways or technical art terms — something I used to struggle against and now deeply enjoy. The story addresses Asher’s genius as such, but over the course of the novel it becomes clear that drive to be authentic, rather than the best, is what makes him great. The last special piece of this book is the nuanced treatment of the Hasidim as they come to terms with Asher’s talent. The men in the story (Rav Lev and the Rebbe) play out this conflict, as is typical with Potok, and Asher allows himself to be bent to the will of the greatest competitor until he approaches the level of “creation” with his art. In the final pages, only Gd and his mother remain significant to him. A moving story that will stay with me until I pick up the next one.