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Dec 16, 2009

Elisabeth rated it:

My brother Matt suggested this book, and I'm very glad that I read it. (And glad that he was there to fill me in a little more on the history it brings up.) It is very well written, and enjoyable as well as educational. It helped me better understand the Jewish faith and branches of Judaism, the horror of WWII, what is unique about American Jews, and some of the conflict over the Israel as a Jewish state. Leaves you with a warm feeling and lots to think about. "The Talmud says that a person More...

4 comments like (7 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Radhika rated it:

i was litterally gnna shoot myself when reading this boook. i couldnt evn stand it so i decided to buy the audio version on itunes and that was even worse and cost me like 20 dolllaa. i wass like heyllll nawww im not reading dissss but den i did cuzz i kinda had too. its about a jewish nerd who gets hit in the eye when the rivalryy jewish team hits him. they dont like eachother or something i dont know. it was all downhill from there. ysaaaaa heardd???

11 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jul 26, 2008

Paul rated it:

Well, I just finished this book last night and I must say I was deeply moved by the whole experience. I remembered there was a reason I liked it so much back in high school. I love the relationship between the two main characters, Danny and Reuven. They've reminded me that there are definite friendships that I cherish highly, and that true friends are hard to come by. But when they do, you know in your heart that you will never leave them for the rest of your life. I guess after readin More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

May 16, 2008

Madeline rated it:

This was required reading for my sophomore-year honors English class; upon reading chapter one, I prepared myself for great disappointment, firstly because the chapter was entirely about baseball (which although I’ve tried to enjoy I can’t seem to get in to, I’m sorry to say), and secondly because it was so descriptive. It was hard to imagine me being interested in something so...flowery (in some time I’ll post a review on another required reading, the oh-so-detailed Great Expectations, which ha More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2007

Lucy rated it:

I love how Chaim Potok is able to create a story about so many different things. There are dozens of topics within his books to discuss, enjoy and ponder, but he manages to twist and turn his story, so at its end, you get the Rubik's cube sides all neatly back to the same color.

Like My Name Is Asher Lev, which I loved, Potok writes about a Jewish boy torn between his own genius and his orthodox father's expectations. Danny Saunders, a genius boy with a photographic memory, is destine More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Nov 01, 2007

Christine rated it:

Also try The Promise, Davita's Harp, and the Asher Lev books. I first read these when I was younger, and I still read them over and over. The relationships in these books are quiet and beautiful, and the stories have a real depth of emotion. Read Chaim Potok now!

However, some people feel differently about this book:

Radhika rated it: 08/14/07

bookshelves: thecrapfrommatergayyyy

recommends it for: the cast of the ringer.

i was lit More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Jun 09, 2008

Anne rated it:

Think you got a great education? Follow these teenage boys as they learn about one another, their faith and their relationship with their fathers. The rigorous studying that they do is foreign to today's youth. A classic in so many ways.

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jul 01, 2007

Alina rated it:

(...as immature boys won't be able to understand/appreciate a close and beautiful bond between two heterosexual boys)

I loved this book. I read the Asher Lev books in high school and loved them, but this was great in a whole different way. Explicit (although not too 'in your face') theme of seeing and not seeing, a view of Jewish life and culture in America during and post WWII, and beautiful/touching portrayal of many different types of relationships (with family, friends, and strang More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jul 11, 2008

Dana rated it:

I should really give this book five stars. I am just not feeling that generous today, but it is deserving of five stars IMO. Though I read this over four years ago, I continue to think in the reserves of my little brain about the juxtaposition of the two fathers, and their parenting styles. Read the book and then let's discuss: the use of Silence as a teaching tool and as an entire concept to contemplate. How much cruelty can we assign to silence? Is it a choice made out of wisdom at times? Or More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 03, 2012

Tanu rated it:

NEW YEAR RESOLUTION NUMBER 62: READ EVERYTHING WRITTEN BY CHAIM POTOK.

I think I might actually end up fulfilling this resolution (unlike most of the others), because “the chosen” was a masterpiece.

It's a poignant story about friendship, father-son relationship, about 2 Jew families on the other side of the Zionist movement and the reaction of American Jews to the horrors of holocaust. It’s about two deeply religious boys, trying to strike a balance between modernity and More...

9 comments like (7 people liked it)

Nov 24, 2008

Alisa rated it:

Danny Saunders was raised in silence to save his soul. His father saw that his mind was so keen that his soul would be lost if there was not some awful tragedy to break his soul into a living space. So his father raised him in silence, never speaking to him until Danny learned to listen to that silence, to hear in the silence the cry of millions of his people as they were slaughtered, starved, beaten, and experimented upon by Hilter's army. It did not make Danny a rabbi, but it saved his soul in More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 22, 2009

bookczuk rated it:

This was a re-read for me -- last read probably in 1969 0r 1970. What strikes me now is the description of a lifestyle that has vanished or become part of the great melting pot of America. (And of the quote of one of the boys in my high school English class, when we read this who said on the homogeneity of our society, "America is not a melting pot. It's an acid bath."

Anyhow, the initial part of the book charmed me again, and I found lost in the world of Reuven and Danny More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Kelsey rated it:

Vomit. I just wasn't really into it. I understood it and stuff, I just think there are better books.

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 14, 2008

Poiema rated it:

The Jewish Talmud exhorts a man to do two things for himself. First, acquire a teacher. The other is to choose a friend.

Danny Saunders got the package deal when he made the acquaintance of Reuven Malter. Theirs is a Jonathan and David friendship, the two-bodies-with-one-soul type of friendship that happens rarely in a lifetime.

As the oldest son of the tzaddik (righteous leader) of a strict, Hasidic Jewish sect, Danny is the chosen. Upon the death of his father, he will be exp More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 02, 2010

Emily rated it:

I'm really struggling with how to review this book. It was beautifully written. The relationships between Danny and Reuven and between Reuven and his father were real and touching. I enjoyed learning about different systems of Jewish faith and the interactions (or lack thereof) between their communities. The historic insights into WWII and its aftermath, particularly the realization among American Jews of the extent of the Holocaust and the formation of the state of Israel, were fascinating. More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 04, 2008

Antof9 rated it:

I read this one on a business trip in the NYC area, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's the kind of book I immediately wanted to read again once I finished, but I know I'll have another chance to read another copy ... another day :)

I'm fascinated by the writing in this book. It's compassionate, literate, educated, and also ... contains one of the best bits of sports writing I've ever read

The second one started to come in shoulder-high, and before it was two thirds of the way to the pla

More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 26, 2008

Abigail rated it:

Potok was one of the giants of my adolescence, and I returned to his work countless times throughout my youth, always with a profound sense of coming home. It is an odd thing that an author whose oeuvre is infused with such a specifically Orthodox-Jewish worldview should speak so strongly to the theologically rebellious young daughter of a Christian minister... Or, perhaps it isn't strange at all. Potok is the master, after all, of depicting the conflict between secular and religious impulses, a More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

May 02, 2008

Josh rated it:

Dear Mr. Potek,

You're dead. But since you believe in an afterlife, I feel okay writing to you anyway.

Despite being a finalist for the National Book Award, written about lovingly by critics, lauded across the country and even transferred to the stage, your novel The Chosen is absolute garbage. It is a disgusting attempt to justify child abuse with good intentions and you should be deeply ashamed of yourself for it.

In your book, a father wrecks irreperable harm More...

13 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 02, 2008

Kane rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Oct 24, 2008

Gwenevere rated it:

Synopsis

Rather than allowing feelings of hatred & difference to make enemies out of two teenage boys, they choose the harder path of forgiveness and love and in return find an amazing friendship that is strengthened through difficulty and conflict.

My Review

I had finished reading all but the last chapter of this book when I decided a three star rating would fit this novel perfectly. The book was an easy read filled with uplifting advice from father to son and More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 04, 2008

Shauri rated it:

I really enjoyed reading this book. I took this one at a slow and steady pace and enjoyed digesting every little bit. I only wish it were more fresh in my mind so that I could say something more meaningful, but I'll just say that it was inspiring and intriguing, and I recommend it to anyone.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 25, 2009

Jenny rated it:

I really enjoyed this book I had never read it before and it was a great book to read as an adult. We had a great discussion in our book group and it really made me think about how parents can parent so differently and still get great results. I know that I need to work more on getting my children to resect me more so that I can hope that they will listen to me when they grow older and respect my opinions. It was a fast read and a great discussion book.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 31, 2008

Jen rated it:

I loved this book. I feel like I learned a lot--about Orthodox Judaism, Hasidic Judaisim, and how Jewish people in America responded to the discovery of the concentration camps at the end of WWII. It's also a touching story about friendship and family that people of all backgrounds can appreciate. I knew I was really hooked, however, when I was reading it one morning on the train, and when my stop came up, I stood on the platform afterwards in order to finish reading this very exciting part--whe More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 13, 2010

Mike rated it:

This should be required reading for college courses in Gay Studies/Gay Literature. It is small wonder that Potok's inspiration for writing came from reading Brideshead Revisted. Reuven's narration, particularly the ways he describes Danny, is a virtual textbook case of repressed desire. This repression is consistent with one of the novel's themes: silence.

Having read this book, originally, many years ago, I did not pick up on Reuven's infatuation in the same way I've since come to r More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 22, 2008

John rated it:

My favorite quote from this book:

I learned long ago, Reuven, that a blink of an eye in itself is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing. But the man who lives that span, he is something. He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant. Do you understand what I am saying? A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life. It is hard work to fill More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 28, 2007

Lillian rated it:

I read this on the price is right road trip, bought in Oberlin, OH, our 1st stop, at an used bookstore. I asked my friend Harry to recommend a book, and he pulled this one out, and said half jokingly, half seriously, that I would understand him and Jon if I read it, who are both modern orthodox jews. I can't say of course that I completely understand Jewish identity now, but this book was definitely interesting from a jewish historical and cultural perspective. Although it was sometimes kind of More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 21, 2007

Leftbanker rated it:

I can't remember how old I was when I read this book, like 12 or 13. I had never met any Jewish people and I barely knew what it meant to be a Jew. After reading this book I felt like I was an expert, at least in Hicksville, USA where I was living.

On a side note, as I write this the church bells at San Valero, a XIV Spanish iglesia (not a cathedral I've been told), are going off like crazy. It's for a wedding and this means that there are also fireworks going off, which means the More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 19, 2008

Ray rated it:

This classic novel is set in the WWII-era Jewish neighborhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Its teh story of a deep friendship between adolescents Reuven (Modern Orthodox son of an intellectual) and Danny (brilliant Hasidic heir to the office of head 'rebbe' of the sect). On the surface its lots of fascinating religious debate. But really its the story of a how two friends together navigate the delimnas of adolescence.

Beautiful, deeply interesting story, but a master novelists (and e More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 09, 2007

Wanrong rated it:

This is not a book that I would normally pick up on my own, but a colleague had recommended it as a book that would allow me to learn about a very different world (Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn!) when we were talking about Scandinavian mystery writers and how they bring a fresh perspective to the genre. Beyond the Jewish parts (which may or may not appeal to all), this turned out to also be a book about friendship (two Jewish boys growing up together), parent-child relationships, which are far more More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Dayna rated it:

This book was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. I found a dusty copy on a bookshelf at home, and so I picked it up not knowing that it is actually something of a classic. It illustrates the differences (and friction) between a couple of sects within Judaism through the story of two boys, both Jewish, growing up in homes that practice and approach their Faith differently. Set around the end of WWII and the birth of modern Israel ... it's about the reactions and attitudes of Jews in More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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