The Chosen
Chaim Potok, 1967
★ 4.08 from 100.5k ratings on Goodreads
Two Brooklyn boys—one a Hasidic rabbi's son, one a yeshiva teacher's son—form a friendship across rival worlds of faith, Talmud and America. The story moves at a measured pace through Talmud debates, Brooklyn streets and quiet family rooms, with a warm, serious voice.
Feels like hope, curiosity and tenderness. About friendship, faith and identity.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy quiet friendship stories and father-son struggles set inside Jewish religious life. Be aware that some readers found the pace slow, and a father's silence toward his son can be hard to sit with.
Why read it
It offers a close look at how friendship and faith shape two young people, and why tradition can both steady and constrain a life.
A page from the book
What makes a life mean something when it lasts no longer than a blink?
Human beings do not live forever, Reuven. We live less than the time it takes to blink an eye, if we measure our lives against eternity. So it may be asked what value is there to a human life. There is so much pain in the world. What does it mean to have to suffer so much, if our lives are nothing more than the blink of an eye?...I learned a long time ago, Reuven, that a blink of an eye in itself is nothing; but the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing; but the man who lives the span, he is something. He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant. A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life. What readers say
Readers often describe being deeply moved by the friendship and father-son struggles, and many appreciate learning about Jewish traditions and history. Some found the book slow or were troubled by a father's silence toward his son.
Chaim Potok.Chaim Potok was ordained a Conservative rabbi and served as a U.S. Army chaplain in Korea before becoming a novelist and editor.
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Questions readers ask
- Is The Chosen for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy quiet friendship stories and father-son struggles set inside Jewish religious life. Be aware that some readers found the pace slow, and a father's silence toward his son can be hard to sit with.
- What is The Chosen like?
- The story moves at a measured pace through Talmud debates, Brooklyn streets and quiet family rooms, with a warm, serious voice. Feels like hope, curiosity and tenderness. About friendship, faith and identity.
- What should I read after The Chosen?
- If you liked The Chosen, try The Outsiders (S. E. Hinton), Franny and Zooey (J. D. Salinger) and Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Benjamin Alire Sáenz).
A taste of the feed
Hope survives the night; morning is where it meets the evidence.
ONE SUMMER NIGHT I FELL ASLEEP, HOPING THE WORLD would be different when I woke. In the morning, when I opened my eyes, the world was the same. I threw off the sheets and lay there as the heat poured in through my open window.
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe · Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Look at how texture and fabric become extensions of physical grace.
The pants clung to Lena’s waist and followed the line of her hips. They held close to the shape of her thighs and fell exactly to the tops of her feet. When she took two steps forward, they appeared to hug each of her muscles as they shifted and moved. Carmen gazed in wonder at how different was their effect from Lena’s bland uniform of J. Crew khakis.
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants · Ann Brashares
The grip that keeps us from dissolving into the storm.
As when men to keep from being swept overboard in the storm clutch at each other’s hands to resist being torn apart, so our bodies fused a link in the human chain that kept us from being swept into nothing.
Flowers for Algernon · Daniel Keyes
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