I am facilitating a discussion of My Name is Asher Lev on Tuesday and I am really nervous about it. I’ve been to book clubs, but I’ve never led one and I LOVE this book. I don’t know how I will feel if others didn’t! There are so many angles to consider and characters to explore, in addition to the central theme of reconciling personal calling with religious community. Any suggestions or hints for success?
Search This Classical Life:
categories:
in the middle of:
read in 2016:
Paterson, The Great Gilly Hopkins
Sloan, Ajax Penumbra 1969
Mandel, Station Eleven
Elliot, Shadow of the Almighty
Shakespeare, As You Like It
Bolz-Weber, Accidental Saintsarchives:
I love this book, too.
I read it quite awhile ago, but I remember the repetition of themes and images, that rather than becoming annoying or tedious, seemed to have a mesmerizing effect, and to work the reader down into the fabric of asher’s perceptions and influences.
I remember the repetition if his father saying, “Drink your orange juice, before all the vitamins go out of it.” It seemed such a mystical thing to say, and I liked what it communicated about the character of Asher’s father.
I did this a couple of years ago and was disappointed – nobody else in the group caught the Potok vision as I had.
I did serve kosher food purchased just for the occasion though which they all thought was interesting… And I found some discussion guides online as well as photos of Potok’s actual art which was equally interesting.
Hope it goes well!
That book is literally sitting on my lap, waiting for me to finish reading blogs so I can reread it! I wrote a research paper on it a couple years ago, talking about the coexistence of art and religion. Good luck!
Who will be in the discussion?
I’m just about to start My Name is Asher Lev; wish I were in your book club!
I loved this book when I read it in college! ONe of my top favorites :O)
I was on a Potok binge last year, so Asher Lev is still fresh in my mind.
Several things struck me about the book.
First, Potok is a master at articulating very strong feelings through dialog that is very concise.
I was also struck by how these Jewish communities are so covenantal about all of life. I wished that we as Christians had a fraction of their reality of Community.
I concluded that Asher Lev made the wrong decision by placing the need to express himself artistically above how such an expression would impact those he loved and how such an expression would stand against his faith commitments. While Potok may have meant this as a postive justification for his own literary efforts which are undoubtedly in tension with his faith, the message to me was that artists cannot hide behind their actions as if they are somehow “above†it all. Asher Lev may have been less of an “artist†for not doing the painting, but he would have been a better son, father, and most importantly, Jew. In order to make the point, I would have had Asher paint the painting in his fit of creativite tension, and then after contemplating the repurcussions, destroy it.