The Chosen

Rating:
Summary: The Chosen
Review: The chosen by Chaim Potok is a novel that traces the development of a young protagonist. What makes the chosen so different from other books is its focus on the development of two main characters instead of one. While the story is told through the point of view Reuven Malter, Danny Saunders is an integral part of the plot. They are both Jewish teens growing up in New York City during the time of World War Two. However, Reuven is the son of a more modern, open-minded man, while Danny Saunders is the son of a strict Hasidic rabbi.
The story begins at a baseball game with Reuven's team playing against Danny's team. When Danny steps to bat he hits the ball straight into Reuven's face, shattering his glasses and sending him to the hospital. Danny visits Reuven in the hospital and at first Reuven doesn't want to talk to Danny, but eventually the two of them overcome their differences and become friends. Their friendship faces many obstacles, including prejudice from both sects of Jews, but Danny and Reuven stay close, even through a period where they are literally not allowed to speak to each other. This friendship is an essential part of the story and is used to show how people from different backgrounds can accept each other's differences and use them to grow as individuals.
Religion is another major part of the story and is consistently used as a means of showing the similarities and differences between Danny and Reuven. Danny's father wants his son to take over as tzaddik, or leader of the Hasidic community when he gets old enough. While Reuven's father is less strict about what he wants his son to do and will except and decision he makes. The friendship between them helps each boy do what they want to do and not allow religion or their father's to decide their fate.
The theme of sight is an important one in this book. When Reuven is hit in the eye, he first begins to look beyond the strange appearance of the Hasidic Jews and let go of his prejudice. Potok stresses the importance of looking beyond appearances and accepting people as they are.

Rating:
Summary: insightful novel
Review: Chaim Potok's emotional heart-warming story The Chosen captivates its readers from page one. The intense ball game grabs the reader and involves him in the lives of Reuven and Danny from the start. Potok knows how to hold the reader's attention and concern him with the day-to-day happenings in both boys' lives. The historical events show accurate reactions toward events such as D-day rejoicing and pure sock after President Roosevelt's death. Every character has a role; there weren't any extra personalities to detract from the main action of the book. Potok introduces the different beliefs among the Jewish sects and helps the reader to better understand the religion and its affect on father son relationships. Reuven and Danny's friendship strengthens as they come to realize that their father's way of doing things isn't always the only right way.
Danny and Reuven's friendship get them through some of their toughest ordeals. It is even able to survive the ban set by Reb. Saunders. True friendship stands the tests of time. I know that when I need advice or support, my true friends are there to help me though whatever problems I'm having, even if they don't live in the same state. This novel has helped me realize how important real friendships can be.
This book is highly recommended for those looking for a compelling insightful novel. It is great for anyone struggling with a friendship because it helps the reader to realize how important friendships are. The friendship between Danny and Reuven gets stronger through each hardship they go though.

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Summary: In a Different Light
Review: The book was very inspiring and motivational. It was very hard to read. It took a very long time to get into the book. I almost gave up reading it but I had to see why other reviews that I read spoke so highly of it. Once I finished the book I realize why. It was about true friendship and how it can last through anything. It was also about a young man and his thirst for knowledge, and the lengths he had to go to to reach his final happiness. It inspired to to follow my dreams, and decide my future for myself.

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Summary: Fiction for the Soul
Review: I only heard of this book recently, here into my third decade of life, and that's a shame really. When certain books hit you during certain stages of life the impact can be profound. This one missed me by a few stages. "A Separate Peace" hit me during the early teens (a perfect time also to tackle "The Chosen"), Catch-22 upon entering college, recently "Underworld." The point I'm laboriously arriving at is that "The Chosen" is indeed a great book, but I wish I would have read it at fourteen. Its message would have been more poignant and internalized then (not that it was entirely lost on a grown up child of today though).

The real strength of Potok's book lies in three areas. First, the insight the reader gets into the American Jewish sub-culture of Hasidim and Orthodox at a critical point in history for Jews (1940's) is truly elevated. Second, the strong characterization between four very different individuals reveals a beautiful relationship development between father and son, friend and friend, and growing young men encountering the world. Third, it reaches out for the soul and stays true to things that matter; a search for spirituality, a tolerance for beliefs, a search for a place in this world (for individuals and cultures), and a search for knowledge.

The writing overall was simplistic and the reader is handed many things on a silver platter that could have been presented more subtle, more artistically. Another thing, Sigmund Freud lurks in a mystical "portent of doom" shroud when the character Danny starts to study him. It is never really explained why the other characters in the book have such a fear of Freud. What the reader sees is that Danny is studying Freud and the rest of the characters know for certain bad things will befall to his tainted mind.

Despite these inconsequential distractions, the story, search for meaning, and character interplay more than make up for it. I think I would have given this a 4.5 stars if allowed, but I'm leaning towards 5, baby, cuz more stars are better than less. Give this book to a teen and help them learn tolerance. It's fundamentally important--now more than ever.

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Summary: One of the best books I've ever read
Review: This book explores the friendship that develops between two Jewish boys in New York City during the Second World War. I loved it for it's beautiful story and how it weaves together the very different lives of the boys, their relationships with their fathers, and the eventual interactions of all four of the characters. Potok includes numerous desriptions of Jewish tradition and customs, which is vital to the story as well as fascinating information. I found myself seeking to learn more about the Jewish faith when I finished this book. The plot is complex in how it balances the characters and their lives, all while teaching the reader about the various sects of Judaism. At the same time, it is told in beautiful language that is very easy to understand and appreciate. The entire book is muted and wonderfully understated, and it feels like you are listening to an old man recount his youth in a soft yet spirited voice. Potok's book "The Promise" follows up the story of "The Chosen" nicely, but the first book in the sequence is by far the best. At times tragic, jubilant, and thoughtful, this is by far one of the best books I have ever read, if not THE best. I feel like I'm a better person for it. Everyone should have a chance to read this book.

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Summary: The Chosen, Awesome read.
Review: I first received this book a couple weeks ago from my English 2 Preap teacher, since I'm a 10th grader, I didn't think much of it. When I started reading the story, it caught my eye about the friendship that was built around two complete opposites of "the world" per say. Then I became slightly confused with the story, not sure what it was trying to tell me, and I went in search of answers to my question.

"What was this book truely about?"

I found it out while talking with other students and teachers that had read the book and all found it interesting. Only one source truely helped me and I found inspiration in the story, though many still ask me what it was. Heh...I can't truely say what the moral of the story conveys, I believe you can only understand when you read it for yourself. It is worth it, definietly.

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Summary: It deserves its designation as a classic
Review: I hadn't touched a copy of this book in thirty years, but I remember it with great fondness. And when I saw a stage production of this novel with Theodore Bikel as Reb Saunders, I felt I had to pick up a copy and reread it.

This is the story of two boys growing up within the same religion, but with vastly different backgrounds, in a world that has become part of history, but which has not faded from the minds of men.

Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders are, each in their own way, trying to become active members of the post-Holocaust world they find themselves in. Reuven has an easier time of it because of his father's opinions on the course world Jewry must take; Danny has a much more difficult time, because of his father's opinions on that same subject. Danny is also hampered because of his father's expectations for him, while Reuven's father is more accepting of his son's intentions.

Potok takes these basic points and fashions a powerful story that comes along only once in a lifetime. In this case, twice in a lifetime - because its sequel, "The Promise", is every bit as good as "The Chosen".

Rating:
Summary: Good.
Review: We had to read 'The Chosen' for a class in my senior year in high school. It is a good book about two Jewish boys growing up during World War II. One should definately read it, but the subject matter is a little dry.

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Summary: Fathers, Sons, Brothers and Friends
Review: This book is difficult to describe in a way that conveys its worth. The plot is simple enough: two teenaged boys from rival schools and differing backgrounds turn from adversaries to friends. Reuven's father is a yeshiva (religious school) professor; Danny's is an Hasidic rabbi. The son of the professor wants to become a rabbi; the son of the rabbi wants to become a psychologist.

The setting is Brooklyn at the height, close and aftermath of WWII (1943-47). The book is imbued with Jewish tradition and history (one of the reasons I read it, because my knowledge is rather limited) that I found fascinating and enhanced the story.

The story is one of filial and paternal love as each father seeks to raise, though in very different manners, his son. Both fathers want their sons to grow to be wise and kind, but for Danny's father, who is the tzaddik (inherited spiritual leader of the community; wise man) it is also important that his son assume the mantle of community responsibility and become the next rabbi.

If you find stories of spiritual struggle and the search for meaning compelling then you will like this book because it deals with these issues on many levels. From the general: Jews' despair and crisis of faith upon learning about the events of the Holocaust; to the personal: a father's anxiety about the spiritual well being of his son, it is, as others have said, humane and wise.

Rating:
Summary: Not Perfect but very good
Review: What prevents me from giving this 5 stars is that the novel tends to drown in Jewish custom, etc- not for only ten or so pages, but more like fifty. The characters are insightful and well-developed. The relationship between Danny and the main kid in the 1st section is very good. The 2nd section, while as interesting the relationship b/t Danny & his dad are, we do not need 50 plus pages on the history of Judiasm. A few long paragraphs would have sufficed. The father of the narrator is one of the most interesting characters in the book, esp when speaking about life not having meaning until a being makes it so. Also the comments on what each boy thinks of Freud is interesting- like Freud himself has become a metaphor or "saving grace" of some sort. Wonderfully philosophical at times, the last section is also good, but my only problem is I think this novel was in need of a good trimming. 286 pages easily down to 200-220, which reinforces my belief that very few novels need to go beyond 200-230 pages.