Rating: 
Summary: A Good Follow Up To The Chosen
Review: The Promise is a very compelling sequel to The Chosen. The novel follows up nicely on the lives of Reuven and Danny as they pursue their respective careers. Reuven is trying to become an ordained Rabbi and faces many obstacles from Rabbi Klavman along the way. The Conservative Hasidim values conflict greatly with the somewhat more Modern Orthodox ways. Whereas the reader is hooked on how this issue will be resolved, there is too much detail spent on quotes from the Talmud. These ramblings will cause less religious Jews and many of those from other faiths to lose interest in these parts.The struggles that Danny faces when trying to heal Michael, a troubled cousin of Rachel, who at first is Reuven's girlfriend and later develops an interest in Danny. Danny's controversial method causes some critical ramifications in this story. Whereas this story offers some compelling twists and turns, it seems odd that Rachel switches her romantic interests from Reuven to Danny. There seems to be little resistance/hurt feelings from Reuven which is a bit odd. Did I miss something here? Overall this book is very good as it discusses some important issues that occur within religious sects. Whereas parts of it will lose the attention of some audiences, it does continue to send an important message. Religious Groups should be more accepting from within in order for them to thrive.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: this book is a great read in my opion better than the first with more ties to modern society and between the characterand the reader. Also it has a teaching aspect to it, teaches the unfamiliar reader not only about the jewish religion and culture, but also about modern pschology. It is a wonderful read for pleasure or for schooL (if given the choice do not to write an essay for the book, I think it ruins the specialness of the book).
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as the first, but still wonderful
Review: This book is a wonderful sequel to <i>The Chosen</i>. While it addresses different issues in a different time, the book is still deeply moving. I did not find the plot as interesting as the first, though I still very much loved this novel. I finished it the day it arrived in the mail. Like <i>The Chosen</i>, Potok uses many Yiddish, Hebrew and Aramaic words in his writing, but explains them so that even non-Jews can understand and enjoy the plot. If you loved the first book, this book is a necessary read!
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as the first, but still wonderful
Review: This book is a wonderful sequel to <i>The Chosen</i>. While it addresses different issues in a different time, the book is still deeply moving. I did not find the plot as interesting as the first, though I still very much loved this novel. I finished it the day it arrived in the mail. Like <i>The Chosen</i>, Potok uses many Yiddish, Hebrew and Aramaic words in his writing, but explains them so that even non-Jews can understand and enjoy the plot. If you loved the first book, this book is a necessary read!
Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful sequel to The Chosen!
Review: This book is very powerful and just as good as "The Chosen", the book that comes before it. Chaim Potok expresses feelings and conflicts that anyone could relate to. I definitely recommend this to anyone and everyone.
Rating:
Summary: Simple but simply brilliant.
Review: This is just such an engaging story. The themes -adolescence, morality,our collective nature, are wonderfully explored.This is writing at an extremely sensitive level, it certainly touched a chord with me, I felt I could have been there, experiencing similar dilemnas. Very realistic storytelling,and dramatic as well,this is a life-giving, uplifting story. I strongly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: This sequel to The Chosen is even better.
Review: This is one of those books I wished would never end. The story was engaging, and the characters were so strong and developed so well that I felt like I was delving into a very real world each time I picked it up. I'm not Jewish, and I've never really encountered Judaism in real life, but Potok lovingly helped me to eperience it and to appreciate it.
Rating:
Summary: For best results, read THE CHOSEN first!
Review: This was simply excellent! However, I'd recommend reading The Chosen first, since a lot of what goes on in this book has to do with what happened before. Again, another very well written book by Chaim Potok. I would've never imagined my reading this book, but I was so in awe from The Chosen (which I had to read for the 9th grade language arts class next year) that I went straight to the local library and checked this out. I don't regret it at all. Everyone needs to be exposed to this kinda literature!
Rating:
Summary: Deeply enriching
Review: This year, I am attempting to reread the Chaim Potok books I haven't visited since middle school some six or seven years ago. (Since that time, to my sadness, Potok has entered the Heavenly Abode due to his untimely passing two years ago tomorrow, July 23, 2002 at age 73).
In the five Potok books I've read -In the Beginning, My Name is Asher Lev, The Gift of Asher Lev, The Chosen, and this book, The Promise- a single theme tends to dominate as the reader encounters the intense, often bitter, struggles of the main characters in harmonizing a genuine commitment to G-d, Torah, and peoplehood with simultaneously embracing a seemingly contradictory lifestyle in either the secular world or that of non-Charedi Orthodoxy. (One can only wonder the amount of autobiographical insight interjected by the author).
The Promise is the story of three Jews finding their own way: Reuven Malter, a budding rabbinical student and son of controversial Talmudist David Malter, Danny Saunders, a rare genius who abandons his place as the successor to his father's chassidic dynasty to become a promising psychiatrist, and Michael Gordon, an emotionally troubled and mentally ill young man, son of controversial Professor Abraham Gordon, a man loathed throughout much of the Orthodox world for his radical teachings and methodologies. (Reuven, for one, loves Gordon's questions while staunchly rejects his answers.)
The close friendship between Danny and Reuven formed at that infamous baseball game in The Chosen develops further as the two struggle to reach Michael. Another essential component of The Promise includes Reuven's love/hate relationship with his enigmatic teacher Rav Kalman, a Holocaust survivor and one of Jewry's leading Torah scholars. The vastly differing approaches of scholars Rav Kalman and Danny's father Reb Saunders versus those like Professor Gordon and Reuven's father David Malter raise many questions regarding the competing conceptions of preservation of Judaism in an American post-Holocaust landscape.
On a random note, Professor Abraham Gordon, while critical of Orthodoxy in general, makes a telling complimentary remark about Lubavitch in particular. No doubt this expresses an element of Potok's own complicated relationship with Lubavitch which can be read in greater detail in the interview Potok gave Rabbi Chaim Dalfin, transcribed in Conversations With the Rebbe and elaborated upon in Dalfin's The Incredible Hand.
This is a deeply enriching book on many levels.
Rating:
Summary: a touching story of two best friends...
Review: When I first picked up this book at the library... I smiled with a satisfaction... for the reason I was about to read a sequel of the chosen, the book I loved the most. The promise deals with the society and the pressures that the each with their own minds and thoughts had to go through in order to stand up fo their own rights. Danny who had a risk of losing his career... and Reuven who had risked his dream just to stand up for his belief.. these two best friends.. who stands up against the society... not conforming... never giving up the hopes for the dreams... gave this book a touch that no other books could... More and more I think about this book.. the deeper it seems... I defenitely give 5 stars... not only is this a good literature book.. but a philosophical book... that makes you think... try it.. I guarantee it.. you won't regrett it.. *^_^*
|
