My Name Is Asher Lev

Rating:
Summary: You Have a Duty to Express Your Gift!
Review: I read this book June 1998, after having read 5 others of Chaim Potok's wonderful novels. And this time I was drawn to this book after reading "The Jewish Phenomenon" followed by, "When All You've Ever Wanted Isn't Enough."

While "My Name is Asher Lev," is a story of an artist, who is an Observant Jew, more importantly, I saw this book to reflect the challenges that many of us have in living our life's purpose, especially those who discover their life's purpose long after everyone around them has a different view of their role in life.

It's a threat to those who love you to watch you live within your life's mission, when they have spent their lives living according to blind loyalty, traditions, and unquestioned habits.

And it takes courage to redefine who you are, while you ride out the anger, fear, envy and hate that family members can have, as Asher Lev's father, Aryeh, seemed to have of his gifted son.

Here was a boy whose father's father, and all those before him followed what the Rebbe and his ancestors dictated is right for them. But Asher Lev found a way to combine both worlds, the Christian and the Jewish, through his art forms.

This is a wonderful book for anyone to read, slowly, as you reflect upon your own challenges, and your desire to live a balanced life.

Another message within this beautiful story is that when you believe that you should be doing what you believe God sent you to do, you must find mentors who will not allow you to run away from your life's purpose.

Thank you Chaim Potok.

Rating:
Summary: Potok's work of art
Review: I am neither jewish nor an artist, but this book stands out in my mind as one of the best I've ever read. Chaim Potok artfully captures the internal struggle and pain involved in growing up in a world that cannot accept you for who you are. Asher Lev is torn between the only world he knows and loves (the orthodox Jewish community in New York) and a world of art that he finds his uncontrollable inner passion pulling him toward. This book is about growing up and realizing our own potential without losing the part of ourselves that remembers where we came from. This is not an easy struggle, but it's amazing to read Potok's commentary on these conflicts. He is a great storyteller, which is evident from any of his other novels, but here he seems to have gone far beyond the role of a narrator to reach his readers on a whole different level.

Rating:
Summary: The Best
Review: I'm a teenage kid with a busy life of school and other things, but all that just stopped as soon as I picked up this book. Have mercy on my soul, this book was good. It hit me deep and made me think. I was totally taken over by the story and I began to connect and relate with the characters. Chaim Potok's style of writing is so easy to read and get into. I read through this whole book just itching for more the entire time. I would recommend this book to anyone; young, middleaged, old, it doesn't matter. Anyone can appreciate my new favorite book. I can't wait to start The Gift of Asher Lev.

Rating:
Summary: Art Versus Culture
Review: I was hesitant to read this book at first, but I was quickly won over. My Name is Asher Lev is the story of a boy growing up as a Hasidic Jew who finds, to the great regret of his father, that he wants to become an artist. This original story is beautifully told by Potok, and I found that I could not put the book down.

Potok uses the first person to create an air of innocence and mystery from the very first page. Through the repetition of simple sentences and events, he captures the beauty of Hasidic and Jewish tradition. Without defining key terms, Potok exposes us to Shabbos, Zemiros, the Ribbono Shel Olom, Krias Shema, and other elements of Hasidim, making us feel that we are part of the culture.

Ahser Lev himself does not fully understand what is happening to him nor, often, what is going on around him. Sometimes Asher learns as he grows, such as when he gradually discovers what his father does for a living. Other times he never sees the whole truth. (An amusing example: when Asher's father is away, Asher says to his mother that he misses his father most on Shabbos. "I also miss him especially on Shabbos," his mother replies. Asher never learns -- or never reveals -- that it is a tradition for married Jewish couples to make love on the Sabbath.)

My Name is Asher Lev has inspired me to take up drawing as a hobby, something I have been toying with for a while. Although I never expect to match the fictional Asher Lev's talent, I do hope to be able to see things in new ways, to lose myself in my drawing, and to create something with my own hands. Few books have inspired me so.

I find that I am now reluctant to read the next in the series, The Gift of Asher Lev, out of fear that it cannot be as satisfying as My Name is Asher Lev. Will I find that my misgivings are unfounded? For now, only the Ribbono Shel Olom knows.

Rating:
Summary: Relationships
Review: I am not an artist. Nor am I a gifted person in any respect. But, for a few moments, I had a notion of what it could be like to be blessed and cursed with a talent so rare, and so special. This feeling occured when I read and delved into the world of Asher Lev.

"My Name is Asher Lev" is Chaim Potok's best novel. It is complete, subtle and passionate; devastating to its core. It tells the poignant and difficult story of Asher Lev, a New York-born religious Jew who finds the gift of painting within him early on, yet is isolated from his community due to the philosophy that Judaism, modern art, and Christianity are distinctly seperate worlds.

In my favorite scene from the book, detailing the power of Potok's imagination, Asher Lev is a young boy, who looks at his mother one day and creates a rendition of her on paper. Because she is depressed at the time, and smoking, Potok has Lev use the leftover ash from her finished cigarettes as the drawing object; his mother is created in shades of gray. A story this original, this creative, and this imaginary deserves to be read.

Potok, a rabbi, has done an excellent job in detailing a Jewish community in the United States, as well as conveying the relationship it holds with the Christian majority. Besides being a good read on art, the novel offers a fascinating glimpse into the tensions that separate two religious worlds.

"My Name Is Asher Lev" is a wonderful read and I recommended it to all.

Rating:
Summary: Five Stars for the Brooklyn Prodigy
Review: My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok is a remarkable story from the first page to the last. Potok takes the reader on a captivating journey through the complex mind and painful life of the "Brooklyn Prodigy" while dealing with reoccurring questions concerning acceptance, forgiveness, and the struggle to face one's identity. Potok creates a unique cast of characters and forms powerful relationships between them. No relationship, however, is as powerful as the one that Asher forms with his passion for painting. Through his passion, Asher and his family experience torment, anguish, confusion, and heartbreak. Their hardships, however, prove to teach life altering lessons about truth and love. Potok's use of vivid language and imagery help the reader to experience, feel, and learn as the characters do. This thought provoking novel had a great impact on me and is by far one of the best novels I have ever read.

Rating:
Summary: Torn Apart
Review: Torn. Torn between the two incompatible worlds of Art and Judaism is the life that Asher Lev lives. Chaim Potok, in his book My Name is Asher Lev weaves a poignant story about an artist whose immense talent is a curse and a gift at the same time. He traces Asher's life from the first discovery of his gift to the art shows in the midst of his fame, and shows us that these eventually get him exiled from the Hasidic community.

By using first person narrative, Potok gives the reader a glimpse of the Ladover Hasidic world through Asher's eyes. One does not have to be an artist to understand the turmoil that Asher goes through. Potok's portrayal of the rift that eventually widens between Asher and his parents as well as the Jewish community is simply and clearly portrayed. The reader sympathizes with Asher throughout the story, hoping that the young prodigy can somehow merge the two worlds he loves so much.

Potok's characters make this book even more engaging. Each character has his or her own distinct personality and problems that help the reader understand their viewpoints. Take, for example, Asher's mother. She is torn between her husband and her son, and till the end tries to make the two men in her life understand each other. However, this small, fragile woman is no match for the powerful forces pulling Asher and his father apart.

The use of Hasidic Jewish terminology like Shabbos and Ribbono Shel Olom is confusing at first, yet it binds the reader into Asher's Jewish world more and more securely as the novel progresses. It helps the reader understand the world of Aryeh Lev, Asher's father, who continually works for the good of the community. It also helps the reader realize that Asher's dreams of his Mythic Ancestor are a symbol of his own guilt. Asher feels like a traitor to his family because he is not continuing the work of his ancestors.

I would recommend this book to anyone that wants to be a part of Asher's life, with all of its joys and sorrows. Come grow up with Asher in this excellently written book, and for a while imagine his talent is your own. Follow his example, and go wherever your heart leads you. Just don't forget to take his teacher's advice and be great at your chosen path, as that will justify all the consequences.

Rating:
Summary: Thank you, Chaim Potok.....
Review: I'm speechless. Thank you, Mr. Potok. May your memory live on through your work.....

Rating:
Summary: Awful Boring Put-you-to-sleep-by-reading-it
Review: I read maybe...3 Chapters of this book in my Act class at school and I found particularily useless. This is NOT a book i felt that the school board should be making middle school students read. So after the first 3 chapters I decided to protest by not reading the book. of course I still had to hear people drone on about it twice every six days but still I found it VERY boring. So If you are a parents shopping for your teenage son or daughter this book would not be a good choice. I know one person who really enjoyed this book and well....everyone's always thought he was kind of crazy.

Rating:
Summary: A classic
Review: MY NAME IS ASHER LEV by Chaim Potok

A story about a young man's struggle between the secular world of an artist, and life as a Ladover Hasidic Jew, Chaim Potok's masterpiece MY NAME IS ASHER LEV is truly a classic.

Asher Lev is born to parents who are devoted to the life of the Ladover Hasidic Jew. As his mother supports and stands by the work Asher's father does, Aryeh Lev devotes his life to the causes closest to his people. Most of his life is dedicated to preserving the culture of this Jewish sect, and also to helping those who are being persecuted in other countries. He travels often, sometimes to countries as far away as The Soviet Union to help out his fellow Jew. He's rarely home, and young Asher is often angry and upset, wishing his father had more time for him.

From a very young age, Asher has a deep sense of art, and learns to express his innermost feelings through his creativity. As with any artistic genius, creating art is in Asher's blood and it soon gets in the way of his schooling and his religion and culture. His parents are not happy with the way things are going with Asher, but they tolerate his strange obsession, thinking this is just a passing phase. He will grow out of it, they think. His mother in particular does not dissuade Asher from drawing, if only to keep him happy, hoping that he would reward her with better grades in school. And with the help of local storeowner Yudel Krinsky, Asher obtains the necessary pencils and other art equipment to continue his fascination with drawing.

However, his obsession with art does not die, as his parents had hoped. The older he becomes, the more his passion with art drives a wedge between himself and his parents. He becomes more independent in the way he thinks, and soon his parents find they cannot control him. The life of a Ladover Hasidic Jew is one of structure and daily prayer and obedience to one's elders, to one's Rebbe, and to one's God. Asher lives in direct conflict with all this, although he tries to keep his daily prayers in his routines, and is often dwelling on things that pertain to his religious background.

Torn between his great desire to express himself as an artist and the need to please his parents and in particular his father, Asher's life is full of torment and guilt. But he is happiest when he is painting, or drawing, or walking amongst the masterpieces at a museum. When Asher takes up with a fallen Jew who also happens to be one of the greatest living artists in the country, Asher's artistic life goes into full swing. He lives and breathes his art, as Jacob Kahn teaches young Asher all he knows. Jacob convinces him that in order to become a true artist, he needs to live in the secular world. Again, Asher questions whether he is doing the right thing by following his passions and his God-given gift, or should he turn his back on art and follow the route of an obedient Hasidic Jew?

What more can I say about a book that has become a modern classic? Chaim Potok wrote a truly powerful story in which a person is torn between two worlds. A rare view into the world of a small Jewish sect, the reader senses the world of alienation and loneliness that comes to someone born into this society but living amongst the "goyim" that surrounds him. The author also makes the reader question whether it is better to be true to oneself, or to deny oneself the destiny that a higher being may have intended. There is no doubt that this book cannot be rated anything lower than 5 stars. Highly recommended.