HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

The Chosen by Chaim Potok
Loading...

The Chosen (original 1967; edition 1987)

by Chaim Potok

Series: The Chosen (1)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
6,585931,427 (4.15)354
The story of two fathers and two sons and the pressures on all of them to pursue the religion they share in the way that is best suited to each. And as the boys grow into young men, they discover in the other a lost spiritual brother, and a link to an unexplored world that neither had ever considered before. In effect, they exchange places, and find the peace that neither will ever retreat from again.… (more)
Member:johnleague
Title:The Chosen
Authors:Chaim Potok
Info:Fawcett (1987), Edition: Reissue, Mass Market Paperback
Collections:Your library
Rating:****
Tags:fiction

Work Information

The Chosen by Chaim Potok (1967)

  1. 10
    Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (cbl_tn)
    cbl_tn: Both books explore the relationship between fathers and sons within a context of deep religious faith.
  2. 01
    Slavernes skibe by Thorkild Hansen (WorldreaderBCN)
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 354 mentions

English (90)  Italian (2)  Dutch (1)  All languages (93)
Showing 1-5 of 90 (next | show all)
Nostalgia-tinged tales of baseball, childhood, and coming of age will always push my buttons. Judaism less so, and I’m not sure I will retain much of the detailing here of Jewish and Zionist traditions. The lead characters’ reverence for study, their keenness to lose themselves in it, is memorable, as is the overall package. (Interesting how the reverence or respect accorded here to Freud and the nascent United Nations now feel so dated). Lots more to admire: the strong Brooklyn sense of place and time, the calm measured narration, the lovely cover image (of a coming of age boy thoughtfully preening - Penguin paperback edition). Another bonus in that edition: the hilarious debunking in Shalom Auslander’s short introdution and context-setting, which helps the reader to enjoy the work (rather than its worthiness). ( )
  eglinton | Mar 25, 2023 |
*4.5

This is so well done... Damn ( )
  Eavans | Feb 17, 2023 |
Two stars because of how it was written, not what was written. It was repetitive, wordy and I couldn't focus. I'm glad this has the societal impact it has, though. ( )
  iszevthere | Aug 14, 2022 |
I don't remember much about the book except for being deeply moved, and that it introduced me to a world completely new to me.
( )
  ByronDB | May 17, 2022 |
I seem to have inadvertently found myself on a theological reading streak. Like The Alchemist, this book was recommended to me by a friend (although more enthusiastically), and also like The Alchemist, I picked it up for reasons that ended up having nothing to do with the book. I thought The Chosen was about baseball.

It's not about baseball.

What it is about, at its core, is exactly the same thing The Alchemist is about (which almost defies coincidence): the power of silence, listening to your heart/soul, and following your own true path. But while The Alchemist uses parable, allegory and fantastic storytelling to get its message across, The Chosen tells the same message using an opposite style, set in WWII New York, and using first person-past tense POV. This is the story of two boys brought together by a softball game; one is a Hasidic Jew and one is Conservative (I think–it's never explicitly stated whether he's Conservative or Reform). Although they live only 5 blocks apart, they inhabit completely different worlds within the same religious faith, and have very different relationships with their respective fathers.

I can't do justice to this book in my review, but it works for me so much better than The Alchemist did; while I could appreciate the beauty of the writing and the story Coelho created, Potok's creation had the profound effect on me that I think the author was aiming for. The Chosen is going to be one of those that stay with me permanently.

Book themes for Hanukkah: Any book whose main character is Jewish, any story about the Jewish people ( )
1 vote murderbydeath | Jan 20, 2022 |
Showing 1-5 of 90 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review

» Add other authors (17 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Potok, Chaimprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Klein, D.Translatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Information from the Dutch Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
When a trout rising to a fly gets hooked on a line and finds himself unable to swim about freely, he begins with a fight which results in struggles and splashes and sometimes an escape. Often, of course, the situation is too tough for him.
In the same way the human being struggles with his environment and with the hooks that catch him. Sometimes he masters his difficulties; sometimes they are too much for him. His struggles are all that the world sees and it naturally misunderstands them. It is hard for a free fish to understand what is happening to a hooked one.

- Karl A. Menninger
True happiness
Consists not in the multitude of friends,
But in the worth and choice.

- Ben Jonson
I was a son to my father
And he taught me and said to me,
Let your heart hold fast to my words...

- Proverbs
Dedication
To Adena
First words
For the first fifteen years of our lives, Danny and I lived within five blocks of each other and neither of us knew of the other’s existence.
Quotations
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Information from the Dutch Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

The story of two fathers and two sons and the pressures on all of them to pursue the religion they share in the way that is best suited to each. And as the boys grow into young men, they discover in the other a lost spiritual brother, and a link to an unexplored world that neither had ever considered before. In effect, they exchange places, and find the peace that neither will ever retreat from again.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (4.15)
0.5 3
1 15
1.5 7
2 38
2.5 16
3 191
3.5 38
4 464
4.5 72
5 550

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,188,188 books! | Top bar: Always visible