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Summary: WOW- This is a REALLY GREAT BOOK---LOL
Review: Oh- wow- a softball game. It is just amazing the way chaim potok can make something such as softball turn into death and gore.
This is sooooooo exiting!!!Its almost as god as resident evil,only it is really boring and a waste of trees
if i wanted to read about jews, i would read the bible, and if i wanted to read about softball i would read some biography...even that is more fun than this book
do not waste money OR trees unless you must get this for school. it is BAD
by the way, im 14 not 12, i just didnt feel like getting an account
have a nice day(unless you are willingly reading this in which case: may your bookshelf catch on fire)
would anyone like to buy this from me?
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Summary: The Chosen: Subtle and Likeable
Review: When I was reading through this book, because I found it on the back to school shelf at the bookstore, I told my roommate it was enjoyable and informative, but that i didn't see how it could be a classic because it had no climax and was going nowhere fast. Well, then, towards the very end and with very subtle fingers, the climax touched me and I cried.
This was a subtle, enjoyable book and I'm happy I read it.
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Summary: Brought tears to my eyes...
Review: I'm used to reading plot-driven books, usually with plenty of action, so I wasn't sure how I was going to do with character-driven novel. I shouldn't have worried--Chaim Potok is capable of turning a baseball game between boys into a heated, pitched battle and a Hasidic Shabat dinner into a confrontation filled with suspense. Potok also does a marvelous job of inviting the reader into the world of Hasidic Judaism, with its curled earlocks and long beards, its disdain for outsiders(goyim), and its followers' deep and abiding love for their rabbis and the Talmud.Ultimately, however, the book isn't about Judaism. it's about stuff we can all relate to: friendship despite differences, children who love their fathers but choose paths which challenge their upbringing (and the parents who struggle in turn with these children), conflict between deeply engrained belief and the new discoveries that challenge them. Potok creates believable, loveable characters. This is the first book to make me cry in a long time. Here's an excerpt that struck a chord within me: "Human beings do not live forever...we live less than the time it takes to blink an eye, if we measure our lives against eternity. so it may be asked what value there is to a human life. There is so much pain in the world. What does it mean to suffer so much if our lives are nothing more than the blink of an eye?...I learned long time ago...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...A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life. It is hard work to fill one's life with meaning." The bottom line: if you haven't read this book, get on it!
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Summary: The sociology of Orthodox Judaism
Review: "The Chosen" is a story about Orthodox Jews written for a secular audience, and while there's nothing wrong with this idea, it often feels like a TV-movie-of-the-week's worth of familiar themes of friendship and father-son relationships topped with gratuitous sprinklings of Judaica, packaged as a novel. It takes place in Brooklyn in the 1940's and is narrated by a teenage boy named Reuven Malter, whose father is a teacher at a local yeshiva. Reuven's neighborhood is a primarily Orthodox Jewish enclave with many sects of Hasidic Jews who scorn the "regular" Orthodox as "apikorsim," or assimilated Jews of lesser devotion to Torah and God. One day Reuven meets a Hasidic boy his age named Danny Saunders at a softball game; in fact, Danny's line drive puts the bespectacled Reuven in the hospital to get glass shards removed from his eye. Danny's contrition leads him to visit Reuven in the hospital, where they overcome their differences as Jews to become friends. Reuven starts hanging out at Danny's house, where Danny's father, a tzaddik (community rabbi and Talmudic authority), conducts services to his Hasidic sect and discusses the Talmud with his son in an intense, magisterial manner. Despite their scholarly respect for each other, Danny's relationship with his father is quite distant. Danny is a brilliant student who is able to memorize large portions of the Talmud, but he is also a voracious reader of secular books, and his father believes that any activity that takes time away from studying Talmud is iniquitous. He confides wistfully to Reuven that he is interested in psychology and does not care to inherit his father's position as the community tzaddik, even though it is expected of him. That Danny is constantly expanding his world outside the Talmud, the only thing his father can talk to him about, is driving a wedge between father and son. I felt that the plot developments were rather predictable. The boys' friendship is tested by their fathers' conflicting views on Zionism -- Reuven's believes a new Jewish state will ennoble the deaths of six million Jews in the concentration camps; Danny's believes a secular Jewish state created and governed by apikorsim would be an affront to God -- of course, the importance of Jewish unity in the face of Arab hostility against the newly formed state of Israel is cause for reconciliation. And will Danny's father graciously come to accept his son's desire to pursue an outside profession? Don't hold your breath. Structurally, thematically, and linguistically, this novel is about as simple and straightforward as they come; like an essay on the sociology of Orthodox Judaism, it often reads like a textbook. I can't deny the novel's warmth and sincerity, but I can't ignore the trite formulas, the Hallmark sentiments, the flatness of its characterization, the dry, bland prose, or the overly egoistic first person narration. I enjoyed the story-within-a-story about the founding of Hasidism and the recounting of the first bloody days of Israel's existence, which demonstrate that Potok's writing can be engaging and informative, but is third-rate fiction like "The Chosen" the right vehicle for it?
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Summary: A fantastic book that explains many of the old jewish ways
Review: I am a young, reform jew living in southern california. This book was originally recommended to me by my maternal grandmother, who grew up, and still is, a hasidic jew. At first, like any modern teenager, I was wary of reading anything that my seventy eight year old grandma had recommended. But I was proven wrong. Not only did I learn the ways of my ancestors and the history of my people. I was quickly drawn into the story of the brilliant Danny, whos' father is a hasidic rabbi, who, after trying to kill him, becomes best friends with the son of an orthedox man who is breaking into new ways, called Reuven. However, this book is so much more than a story of a friendship. This book tell the story of finding the balance between soul and mind, new and old. Although many who read this may be shocked at the sometimes harsh ways of the hasidic jew, one must remind oneself of the great love that flows through the book. And this book is not only for jews. Since reading it, I have talked to many classmates who love it as much as I do. To sum it all up, this book is a must read for anyone curious about the intracate community and hardships of an orthedox jew.
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Summary: orthodox and Hassidism
Review: When i started this book it was off of a reccomendation of an English teacher of mine. I did not know what to expect considering her selections have always been good but a little borring.
This book might start off a little slow, but in its own way it is jam packed with action, just not the type of action most teenagers are in the mood for.
I enjoyed this book because i feel like i am part of Reuven Malter, and that i know what he knows and i feel what he feels. Danny is a good friend to me and becomes a worry of mine just like it does for Reuven.
My religious upbringing has made this book all the better for me. i know what they are referring to and i know what the interperations are.
I reccommend this book for anyone with a mind and a belief in the discovery of other sides of culture or an in depth look at their own culture
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Summary: The Choosen
Review: I read The Chosen by Chaim Potok in twelfth grade. The book focuses around the lives and unexpected friendship of two boys named Reuven Malther and Danny Saunders. The two of them are Jewish teens growing up in Brooklyn, New York during World War II; however, Danny is the son of a Hasidic Rabbi while Reuven is the son of a powerful minded Zionist man. Those two differences are what brings the boys together and at the same time separates them in unimaginable ways. For example, Danny has different religious rituals than Reuven, which causes conflict for the two families when they learn that their boys are best friends. However, it is ironic because secretly, Danny's father is happy about their friendship because Reuven is a way for him to talk to his son. Throughout the story, Danny struggles with the mind games his father plays on him. The Chosen was written in a pictorial fashion and you can clearly make out each scene in your head along with the character physiques . The book begins at a baseball game (where the boys meet) with a slow start but once you finish chapter one, you won't be able to put the book down. The book will take you on an emotional roller coaster ride when you read how Danny's father treats him, how society is, and how the boy's friendship strengthens and weakens. Throughout the book, Danny and Reuven learn an abundance about their selves from each other while they spend every second of free time they have together. The Chosen teaches extraordinary lessons about the power of friendship, the necessity to be able to communicate with loved ones, and religion. Even if you are not of Jewish faith, the book is written with so much religious description, you will be able to follow along without a problem.
All in all, I think The Chosen is truly an amazing book. I would, without a doubt,give it a rating of 5 stars. After reading this book, you will have learned so much about Judaism in America, the Holocaust, and friendship. I recommend anyone who wants to be enlightened to read this book.
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Summary: Great contrast of relationships between fathers and sons.
Review: I first read this book in high school. I thought it was a great book because it uses very intense and personal description to share the lives of two Orthodox Jewish boys. It was interesting to read about a life which was foreign to me, yet to find parts that I could identify with. I just read this book again, because it had themes that I remembered and wanted to explore again, even though it's been over a decade since the first reading. Recently, as I've been pondering my relationship to my own father, both as a boy and as a man, I've thought of this book again and again. What especially touches me, is that the boys are far more like me than not, and the constrasts in their relationships with their own fathers, can be read as two perspectives: One, Warm and Communicative, the Second, Cold and Intentioned. I don't know if my own father has ever read this book, but I'd like him to, because it would help create a common language to compare from. An interesting detail about this book, is that it set at the same time as the creation of Israel. That's note worthy, because it mentions the Jewish terrorism against the British. I rated this book five stars, because it is definitely a great book, but for a second reading, it was a bit dry somehow. I don't know why, perhaps it's because I rememebered it as such a great book, but I think it's something else. The Chosen tells the story of two boys becoming men. I read this first as a boy, and now as a man. There is a very simple change that occurs (at least with these boys) in that transformation. They go from products of their values, to masters of their values. As intellectuals, they are learning how to publically defend their viewpoint, and to understand the context of the views of others. This is a form of maturity, that comes at the expense of youth. A wonderful book.
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Summary: An idea and a passion
Review: I read The Chosen for English class, and after reading it, its full implications astounded me. This book has some profound things to say about friendship and family relationships. It is more of a thinking book, and involves dialogue rather than action. Some of the themes in The Chosen are friendship and how it conquers any divide, silence and how it can teach or destroy, religion and its schsims and purposes, traditions and their place, and conflict of a perosn with his society. The beginning of the book has a quote that claims "it is hard for a free fish to understand what is happening to a hooked one." The reader understands what is happening to a hooked fish gradually, as Reuven meets Danny almost by accident (although the reader may believe it is fate) when Danny hits a baseball during a game into Reuven's glasses and eye. Their friendship is difficult, as it grows. It is challenged by their religious differences (both are Jewish, but Danny Saunders is Hasidic while Reuven is not), by their society, and by Danny's incredible intelligence. Danny's intelligence also ignites his struggle with his father, who wishes for his son to become a Jew and fears for his son because of Danny's genius. We begin to realize that Danny is a hooked fish, because of what his intelligence might do to his faith. Danny's father is a rabbi, and only speaks to his son when they discuss the Talmud. This silence tortures Danny and his father. Danny does not know the reason for it until the book ends, but Rabbi Saunders is silent quite purposely, as much as it hurts him. This idea of society that Chaim Potok presents is amazing, and its implications stretch beyond a single religion. It is well-written, and the characters are carefully and beautifully developed. The ending is powerful, but the entire book is masterpiece, an idea and a passion.
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Summary: Heart warming friendship story
Review: The transition from adolescence to manhood is perfectly captured in this story. This novel is about Danny Saunders, a teen from a Hasidic family, and Reuven Malter, a teen from an Orthodox Jewish family. These two boys had never met each other because they went to different schools. Danny and Reuven had only heard negative things about each other, therefore they had somewhat of a bad perception of each other. Both of the boys met each other through a school vs. school baseball game. During the game, Reuven steps up to bat while Danny is pitching, and Danny is knocked out after being hit by Reuven in the eye with a baseball. Reuven later visits Danny in the hospital and tells him the reason he hit him with the baseball. Danny has trouble accepting Reuven's presence and his explanation, but after a while Danny gave in. During the course of this book these two friends learn from each other how to follow and practice their religion, how to cherish the relationship they have with their families, how to succeed in school, how to make life changing decisions and how to handle important matters in their lives. This book can teach you to do many things in life. For example, it can make you see how little you are involved in the practice of your religion or how poorly you are trying to succeed in school. This story about these boys can bring you closer to your family if you're not already. This story is not only intended to intrigue and orient teens, but anyonewho comes across this treasure. Once you lay eyes on the first page, you won't want to put down this book.
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