Svetlana's Reads and Views

Name of book: The Promise Author Name: Chaim Potok ISBN: 0-449-20910-5 Publisher: Fawcett  Type of book: Young adult-Adult, historical, post world war 2, 1940s-1950s, Jewish Year it was published: 1969 Part of a Series: No name, sequel to The Chosen Summary: For young Reuven Malter, it is a time of testing. With his teachers, he struggles for recognition of his boldly radical methods of scholarship. With his old friend Danny Saunders-who himself had abandoned his legacy as the chosen heir to his father’s rabbinical dynasty for the uncertain life of a healer-he battles to save a sensisitive boy imprisoned by his genius and rage, defeated by the same forces of an unyielding past that challenge Reuven. Painfully, and, at last, triumphantly, Reuven grows into a guardian of the ancient, sacred promise to his people, while earning his hard-fought right to make his own beginning. Characters: The characters tended to be three dimensional and ...

Name of book: The Chosen Author Name: Chaim Potok ISBN: 0-449-21344-7 Publisher: Ballantine Type of book: Young adult-adult, historical, post world war 2, 1940s-1950s, Jewish Year it was published: 1967 Summary: Few stories offer more warmth, wisdom, or generosity than this tale of two boys, their fathers, their friendship, and the chaotic times in which they live. Though on the surface it explores religious faith--the intellectually committed as well as the passionately observant--the struggles addressed in The Chosen are familiar to families of all faiths and in all nations. In 1940s Brooklyn, New York, an accident throws Reuven Malther and Danny Saunders together. Despite their differences (Reuven is a Modern Orthodox Jew with an intellectual, Zionist father; Danny is the brilliant son and rightful heir to a Hasidic rebbe), the young men form a deep, if unlikely, friendship. Together they negotiate adolescence, family conflicts, the crisis of faith engen...