Asher Lev is a Ladover Hasid who keeps kosher, prays three times a day and believes in the Ribbono Shel Olom, the Master of the Universe. Asher Lev is an artist who is compulsively driven to render the world he sees and feels even when it leads him to blasphemy.In this stirring and often visionary novel, Chaim Potok traces Asher's passage between these two identities, the one consecrated to God, the other subject only to the imagination. Asher Lev grows up in a cloistered Hasidic community in postwar Brooklyn, a world suffused by ritual and revolving around a charismatic Rebbe. But in time his gift threatens to estrange him from that world and the parents he adores. As it follows his struggle, My Name Is Asher Lev becomes a luminous portrait of the artist, by turns heartbreaking and exultant, a modern classic.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Who Am I?:
I've heard good things about Potok's "Chosen" and it sounds like that's his book that most people have read. I enjoyed his style here and I suspect I'll pick up The Chosen to read later. Content/Theme
Before commenting on anything else, I need to comment on the theme and content of the book. This book is deeply entrenched in the Jewish culture and has many references that are likely very commonplace to those in the Jewish culture, but were very foreign to me. I got the general meaning of... more info
Baruch ata Adon --- OMG, CRUCIFIX!!!:
OK, so the book is about this Hasidic kid who fights his way out of aesthetic blindess.
He is poor. He is suppressed. Nobody understands him. He is also a lousy Jew. Why, you may ask, is he a lousy Jew? Well, to begin with, if the only way he could express grief was to drag in a crucifix, while there are hundreds, no, millions of Jewish subjects he could have called on, then yes, I would say he is a bad Jew. He hasn't understood the point either of art or of Judaism. Does he seriously think... more info
Art, sacrifice, and religion.:
Let me start by saying Chaim Potok is my favorite author - so my review may be slightly bias....but judging the favorable reviews his books receive my opinion may be the norm. The emotions and passion conveyed in his writing is nothing short of masterful - Chaim Potok is truly an author that has mastered his craft. And while I can spend this whole review speaking only of the man, let's break away for awhile and discuss his work, shall we? My Name is Asher Lev, simply put, is about a young boy who has... more info
My Name is Asher Lev:
I have never been one to read a book more than once, but after reading it for a course in college, I decided to read it again for pleasure. Absolutely phenomenal book. My heart breaks for Asher Lev and how he must live as an outsider in his world because of his artistic abilities from the Other Side.
