My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of My Name Is Asher Lev
Book Review: To Be Authentic to Self
Summary: 5 Stars
Every one of us has something holding us back to our past, to our roots. Whatever that might be (family; traditions, some of which have perhaps lost relevence; religious constraints; the pacing of our daily lives; unsupportive mates and colleagues; or a myriad of other possible constraints), it is for each of us a life struggle to free ourselves of whatever keeps us from fully developing our authentic selves.
This is the story told in "My Name is Asher Lev." A Hasidic Jewish boy is born into a family that puts a great strain on his artistic talent, not the least of which is the doting love of his parents. It is with love that they try again and again to deny their son's great gift, believing they are doing what is best for him, but the power of that gift is greater than any man to deny it expression.
Young Asher is a prodigy. Art is his lifeblood, and his gift develops early and with breathtaking leaps and bounds into his young adulthood. He follows his instinct and his bliss, and as he develops his gift, his family, his father especially, draw further and further away from him. Asher has broken with tradition. He has gone beyond religious beliefs in his family if not with outright courage than at least with respect for what so shines within him. He redefines his own boundaries, even when they must go against those drawn by his parents and religious authority figures.
Is this a sin?
The reader may decide for him or herself, but for Asher, art is what he holds most divine, and it is hard to believe a supreme and loving being would deny the gift He, after all, has bestowed. We feel the agony of his mother, pulled between her husband and her son. Asher is not unaware. His greatest painting eventually is of his mother being so pulled apart - as if on a crucifix, an image that horrifies his father. His father is a good man, working hard for others in need and under religious persecution, and so it is nearly impossible for him to understand why his son would choose to pursue art forms that appear, on the surface, to disrespect what he holds in such high esteem. Each, after all, is following their own heart and remaining true to their individual values. It makes for fascinating conflict.
Author Chaim Potok writes with his own evident gift. His passion becomes the passion of his characters. Perhaps the main message the author has meant to convey is that we are all to be true to who and what we are, and in so doing, we have done right. We have followed the path that is ours to walk. His story uplifts without making light of the struggles involved.
Highly recommended.
Book Review: My Name is Asher Lev
Summary: 4 Stars
When a little boy watches his mother struggle through mental illness, it can't help but have an impact on him, which ofcourse it did with Asher Lev.
Asher is an artist and draws his emotions - unfortunate for his parents, since they don't want to see his emotions, nor do they want anyone else to see them - yet it is what keeps Asher alive.
"No one says you have to paint pain and ultimate anguish and torment. But if you are driven to paint it, you have no other way."
Chaim Potok is a gifted writer.
Book Review: A Book that Makes Us Realize...
Summary: 4 Stars
My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok is an exceptional book with a keen view of the world. As Potok is a Jewish artist himself, he seems to know what goes on between the art community and the Hasidic community. He uses a boy named Asher with a gift in art to describe the contradiction of being an artist and a Jew.
Asher, as mentioned above is a boy with an exceptional gift in art. However, the Jewish community and his family oppose him when he decides to paint. The novel portrays the constant struggles between his religious community and him as an artist.
The novel is finely written, with every word powerfully striking the readers. His positioning of sentences and words awe the readers for its efficiency in conveying his message. Throughout the book, the reader never loses sympathy for our young protagonist, Asher. Also, readers learn from this book about the situation in Jewish communities and Jewish artists.
My Name is Asher Lev is also interesting for it provides many viewpoints on art. The Jewish viewpoint believing that art is demonic, Asher Lev is constantly challenged by the Jewish community throughout the story. The "worldly" viewpoint of art also does not support Asher Lev, since it pushes for the rejecting of identities and families, while Asher does not want to discard his cultural and religious identity. This again brings up the concept of his struggle as an aberration.
This novel is also a piece that explains complex relationships. His relationship with the Jewish community and his family is extremely realistic, but powerfully tragic. The relationship is represented by the relationship of religion and its boundaries. Asher steps out of boundaries of his deeply enrooted religion, and that is precisely why he is the community does not welcome Asher.
Nonetheless, the book becomes confusing when Potok uses Hebrew and English words interchangeably. For example, payos, which is earlocks in English, is used to describe his uncut sideburns. However, the majority of the readers do not understand such jargon, and they find themselves searching on the internet for the definition of these terms. While reading, my rhythm was often cut because I did not know what a specific term meant.
Also, those who do not understand the complex relationships in religion will find themselves kept in confusion. The novel calls for a general understanding of the conflict of religion and other aspects. Although Potok uses powerful language in conveying the theme so that many will sympathize Asher, the readers still need a general understanding of religion and its boundaries. I was only able to understand because I had a Christian background.
In conclusion, My Name is Asher Lev is a novel that makes us realize the complex relationships in life and the struggle between religion and art.
Book Review: To Be, or Not to Be?--Still the Question
Summary: 5 Stars
It is surprising what treasures can still be found at a community book fair for the price of only one thin dime. Such was my good fortune and happy surprise when I discovered a brand new copy of MY NAME IS ASHER LEV (hereafter, MNAL) by Chaim Potok (New York: Ballantine Books; reissue edition, 1996) hiding amidst the tabletop piles of used books. It is also rare to find an extraordinarily beautiful story--woven from the threads of one's own heart and life--in the same bargain.
Potok (himself a Jewish rabbi and novelist extraordinaire) takes us deep with a brilliant flashback into the rich and intimate world of Hasidic life in Brooklyn, New York, during the mid-twentieth century depicting the forces of art and Jewish orthodoxy as they vie for the affection of a Jewish boy, named, Asher Lev. Asher, Aryeh and Rivkeh (his parents), and his friends and relatives all struggle to synthesize the meaning of his artistic 'gift.' Is it from the 'Ribbono Shel Olom' ('Master of the Universe') or from the 'sitra achra' ('other [dark/evil] side')? The dawning realization that Asher's gift for drawing and painting is not going away sets the stage for conflict in the face of his ancestoral and parental theological heritage. The simmering strain remains for the next twenty years as Asher grows up.
We follow Asher's thoughts as a four-year-old drawing pictures for his 'mama' with Crayolas into his mid-twenties when he celebrates (?) his second one-man-show of critically acclaimed painted canvases. We also learn a great deal about the Ladover, Hasidic Jews of the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn during the 1940s, 50s, and early sixties along the way. The difficult tension between the family's deeply held religious convictions, and a not so easily adapted gift for visual artistry in their growing son, carries us from the beginning of the book to its final page. The heart-rending decision whether to please parents and community at the expense of one's talent, or to give expression to one's art and in the exchange risk heritage and family, is the question with which Asher must wrestle.
As a Christian minister; fine artist; son; and dad with theological and artistic issues currently coloring my own relationships with dad and sons, I don't think I could have found a more incisively relevant novel for this time in my life than MNAL. Those interested in the lifestyle and the challenges faced by the Hasidim of New York City during the mid-twentieth century receive an arresting and memorable exposure in MNAL. Those possessing religious or spiritual scruples, and yet wondering about the appropriate exercise of their artistic abilities, or the possibility of pursuing art as a carreer, will discover in Asher Lev an empathetic companion with whom to share their mutual concerns. Conscientious; God-fearing; sensitive; and torn; Asher graciously offers us his struggle and his decision.
I love this book for all of its stunning and warm humanity. But I love it especially for introducing me to an 'observant Jew,' a fellow-journeyman on the road of life. I shall not soon forget Asher Lev's spiritual/artistic struggle--the struggle to understand the forces that compel a human soul to move forward while balancing truth and faith and self--because it is my own story as well.
Favorite repeated quotation: On the Need to Drink Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice Promptly: 'The vitamins will go away if you let it stand too long.'
Highly recommended to a general audience, but especially to those with a conjoint spiritual and artistic interest.
Book Review: I wish there were more stars to give.
Summary: 5 Stars
Chaim Potok is an incredible artist, and this is his best book (although with Potok that designation seems to be required for whichever of his masterpieces one is reading at the time.) There's a rhythm to Potok's writing, and with this novel it draws the reader in and surrounds her or him, making the story into a musical tunnel that carries them along. Asher Lev is Jewish and a painter, but not a religious painter. Readers of this book need not be of Jewish ancestry, as I am not, for it is a story for everyone. Potok is not a Jewish writer, he is a writer who is Jewish, and the same can be said for Asher Lev.