Star Rating: 5/5
The Chosen
By Chaim Potok
Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders were part of two different
worlds until a baseball accident brought them together. Though they have lived
their whole lives only a few blocks away, they’d never met and possibly never
would have if it wasn’t for the accident. Reuven is an Orthodox Jew whose
father teaches at his school, helps him study Talmud using the scientific
method, and writes scholarly articles. Danny is a Hasidic Jew whose father is
raising him in silence to become the next tzaddik of his synagogue like his
father and his grandfather before him. Unlike Reuven who could do anything he
wants to do, Danny feels trapped—he can’t even talk to his father about his
dream of being a psychologist. Instead he sneaks off to the library to study
Freud, Darwin, Hemingway, and whatever else he can get his hands on. Now with a
friend—one who isn’t a Hasid—he doesn’t have to keep everything a secret
anymore. Danny can tell Reuven; but Danny isn’t the only one who has chosen
Reuven, Danny’s father has, too.
The Chosen is an
intricate and beautifully written coming-of-age novel. Far from simple or flat,
Danny, Reuven, and the boys’ fathers are dynamic and full of life. Their
relationships ebb and flow mirroring real life and showing the effects and
interaction of our choices, the choices of others, and local and world events.
Rather than being islands unto themselves or driven utterly by forces and
events outside of their control, the characters show how their lives are an interplay
of choice—theirs and others. Chaim Potok shows through his characters how
previous choices create circumstances. Our choices and circumstances along with
the choices of others limit our control and choices later. Potok also shows how
choices and circumstances do not always result in the intended consequence, but
that this unanticipated result is not necessarily undesirable. This interplay
that Potok creates allows the reader to better understand the characters as
well as prompt the reader consider the relationship between choice and
circumstance in his own life.
