Nicole Jalles

The book was mandatory reading in some high school class around 1995, which even then I didn't read because I preferred my own gory reading themes at the time. Out of curiosity, I decided with a tad more mature mind to give it a try. Just finished it today. Well, it's a short and easy read that I read in some four lazy sittings. The book is anti-climactic. Maybe others were moved to tears at the end, and I'd not be surprised. It didn't move me as I had hoped, but that isn't to say I didn't like the book. I was mostly impressed by the details: details of the war, of Jewish happenings of the era, and certainly of tricks to studying the Talmud. I kept asking myself, "How did Chaim Potok come up with all this stuff?" I don't think that even doing impressive research would land you with so many of his points, so I imagine he was retracing his own personal experiences of studying the Talmud. He was born around 1929, so he was a teenager when the mentioned war events took place. He either paid a lot of attention, or else someone was rehearsing everything to him, or else he investigated a lot. When I was a teenager I planned to be an author, so I wrote a lot. My mom rejected all of my books and poems and songs, saying that to have a successful book I must do lengthy research. (I wasn't writing on any topic that needed research--two punk kids falling in love and then one killing the other's brother at the end didn't honestly seem to beg for much research.) But this advice horrified and immeasurably frustrated me. If I were to attempt writing this same book, The Chosen, based on my own efforts at processing war events, Jewish community events, and the Talmud, I would have rather hanged myself. But Chaim did a fine job.