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Title: The Gift of Asher Lev by Chaim Potok ISBN: 0-449-21978-X Publisher: Fawcett Books Pub. Date: 30 June, 1991 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.41 (17 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Sometimes the truth must be told in riddles
Comment: Of all the Chaim Potok books I've read, (the last being about 8 years ago) this one has stayed with me the most, perhaps because it perplexed me at the time. Probably most people will prefer the first Asher Lev book, with its clearer narrative and dramatic plot. It covers the painful conflict between a traumatized community's survival and personal creativity so well it seems unnecessary to bring it up again. But to me it was merely the prequel for this second book.
Asher struggles to keep his son from being taken from him by the same Chasidic community that had banished him for his artistic intensity. I had the strange experience of being drawn into the books central conflict, only to reach the end realizing that a conclusion had been reached that I was entirely unaware of!
So I reread most of the book-- I had to go back very far to pick up the threads I missed-- and noticed an early scene in which the great Rebbe, standing from the balcony overlooking the Ladover community he leads, speaking about the key issue of who his successor shall be-- he has no children to follow him. He speaks in nonsense, something about Ones and Threes, and then explains that when a truth is difficult to bear, it is better to be pesented in riddles than more straightforwardly. So it was with this book, and for me it was one hell of a trick.
On the surface, nothing really happens. Asher mopes around Brooklyn and Paris broodingly, draws sketches of passing moments, talks to ghosts of Picasso and his own mentor, Jacob Kahn, and chooses the fate of himself and his son so subtly that it appears to be nothing at all. But it was frightening and wonderful when I finally got what he did: he gave his community the gift of Asher Lev. In the first book, 'the Gift' always referred to how his people saw his artistic talent, as a gift from God. But by the end of the second book, we see the gift he gives back to the community he has such intense love and bitterness for is something completely different.
Let me just add that I am a middle aged Jewish artist, about to go back to MY family from a 13 year exile abroad, and this book speaks very closely to my situation. ...
Rating: 5
Summary: Mature ,intelligent and still wonderful
Comment: Twenty years have passed for asher lev, last seen dispalying waht sounded like a version of Marc chagalls white crucifixion to a stunned and mortified family. He is, as this novel opens, a very successful artist living in France. When his beloved uncle dies, he ends his exile and returns to Brookly, to the chasidic community he thought h had left behind,to small storefront shuls and men in dark hats and coats,to that place deep inside himself which he could never leave. The travles from Willaimsburgh to Monticello, Ny{the catskills}, and the intorduction of Lev's young son are a lovely narrative touch. The Rebbe,based it would seem on the late Lubavitch rebbe of Blessed memory,is brilliantly,sympathetically drawn. he comes off as a holy,profound man of deep compassion and mystical understanding. Lev has grown, also, and the story of these tow, brilliant men is the key to the novel. A wonderful,beautifully plotted story of an amazing group of people.
Rating: 2
Summary: "My Name" exceeds "The Gift"
Comment: "The Gift of Asher Lev" is a sequel to "My Name Is Asher Lev". If you are planning on reading either book, then I would recommend reading them IN ORDER. I have read a few reviews that suggested some confusion in the second book, but they had not read the first. Although there is still some confusing parts about the intracasies of the Hasidic Jewish religion, most of the base for the second book is laid down in the first. If you have read, or are reading "The Gift of Asher Lev" without reading "My Name is Asher Lev" first, you will most likely have some confusion at various parts. Just for clarification, the reference to Chagall in the second book is not a CHARACTER in the first, but actually the Jewish artist, Mark Chagall, whom many compare to Asher. I recommend reading these novels as they are well-written works, but my opinion is that the second book is not as enjoyable as the first. It seems the entire time that Asher is depressed. The ending was especially a downer for me after being built up by the wonderful ending of the first book. The end of "The Gift of Asher Lev" is uneventful and without resolution.
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Title: My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok ISBN: 1400031044 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 11 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Promise by Chaim Potok ISBN: 0449209105 Publisher: Fawcett Books Pub. Date: 12 November, 1985 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Book of Lights by Chaim Potok ISBN: 0449245691 Publisher: Fawcett Books Pub. Date: 12 September, 1982 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Davita's Harp by Chaim Potok ISBN: 0449911837 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 27 August, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: I Am the Clay by Chaim Potok ISBN: 0449221385 Publisher: Fawcett Books Pub. Date: 04 December, 1993 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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