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The Chosen (Reuven Malther, #1)

Chaim Potok

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Mar 19, 2025 Shirley (stampartiste) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-classics, published-1900-1999, challenge-bingo-2025

This is not a happy novel. It is a story filled with grief and pain and a people who have been shaped by centuries of discrimination and violent oppression. I do not know how to describe it without sounding totally ignorant, but Chaim Potok introduced me to the world of sectarian Judaism. Potok is a brilliant writer who wrote a story that captured my heart from beginning to end.

The Chosen centers around the friendship that develops between two teenage boys living in Brooklyn in the 1940s: the na ...more

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Sep 13, 2024 Cynthia Feenstra rated it really liked it

This book will definitely not be for everyone. It is more character driven than plot driven. There’s lots of very heady academic talk and descriptions that might frustrate some. There’s also very few characters in the novel. However, the relationships between the two young boys beautifully drives the story in ways that, at times, either makes the heart pound or stop.

Definitely worth reading!

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Mar 04, 2012 Paola rated it liked it

This book was required reading for my Freshman-year honors English class, and even though it wasn't a book that I would have chosen for myself to read I ended up really enjoying it. This book
"is the now-classic story of two fathers and two sons and the pressures on all of them to pursue the religion they share in the way that is best suited to each." Sound boring? Well it's not, this book will have you feeling for the boys as they grow up and with the struggles that they face, it will have you t ...more

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