The Promise - Chaim Potok

The Promise by Chaim Potok

A Fawcett Columbine Book published by Ballatine Books

Rating: 9

Readability: I rarely get impeded in a book where I can not function... I am perfectly capable of walking away from mainstream suspense, but not Potok.

Impact: High! An 8 or 9.

Read it Again: Yes.

Recommend It: Yes.

What to Expect:

The second book to The Chosen, but one that could also stand alone.

Danny and Reuven are both going through college and graduate school. The book focuses on controversies within their community and the life of a mentally ill young man they both get involved with. It also ties in the lives of Jews who traveled to America after being liberated after World War II.
Find out the rest for yourself... :-)

Compared to The Chosen, I think Potok's writing style was greatly improved and much more polished...however some books just have a soul to them in a way an author can not fully repeat.

I feel like this about Robert Peck, Potok, Sigmund Brouwer, and a few others. Not that their other works weren't amazing, but one certain book was the book they had to write.

Having said all that, The Promise is a wonderful book! It can stand alone beautifully and attests to the skill and wisdom of it's author.

My Squib:

After finishing The Chosen I was determined to write an intelligent and favorable review. If you recall...it didn't happen. I wrote about three or four unintelligible rambles.

There's just something I can't explain here. When I finish one of Potok's books I just don't feel like analyzing it...and that's weird for me.

He truly is a master story teller and he wraps things up so nicely and so beautifully it's almost like I don't dare open the book back up.

I have never read more satisfying endings, even to great epics. It's so strange.

I seriously think Potok was writing strait at my soul.

(Not soul as in my Soul. Don't worry, I'm not about to become Jewish. But soul as in... like "my gut". Maybe "gut" would be a better word but it sounds extremely unladylike... Yeah...anyways...)

Ok...Am I making any sense here?

The Facts are these-

I love Potok.

His style, his characters, his plots, his questions, his oddities.

And I love Daniel Saunders.

To bad he wouldn't spend sometime reading the New Testament instead of Freud. It's probably the only book he's never read...

Oh yeah...besides the fact that he's fictitious.

I will force myself to analyze and write an intelligent post about Potok's style and world soon. I actually have a lot of things I'd love to talk about, especially to anyone who's already read some Potok and has their own opinions.

And if you haven't...go do so.

From the Book:

"You understand what it is to make a choice...? A choice tells the world what is most important to a human being. When a man has a choice to make he chooses what is most important to him, and that choice tells the world what kind of man he is." -Rav Kalman

"That is the way the world is, Reuven. Each generation thinks it fights new battles. But the battles are the same. Only the people are different." ~David Malter

Have a good New Years Eve!

Thanks for reading,

Miss Pickwickina