The Chosen (Critical Overview)

Critical Overview

Chaim Potok's first novel The Chosen, written when he was nearly forty, was warmly received by the public. The hardcover edition sold several hundred thousand copies and several million were sold in paperback. Reviews of the book were generally favorable, though there was some mild criticism. Critics found Potok's storytelling skills compelling and praised him for his ability to present complex ideas to his readers. His presentation of Jewish history and theological ideas within his stories is a particular area for which Potok is often commended. His ability to present the religious conflicts within Judaism to both Jewish and non-Jewish readers has earned him high praise. The book "broadens the reader's understanding of the wide spectrum of Judaism," commented Beverly J. Matiko in Masterplots. "It is invaluable in providing all readers, particularly young ones, with [the] social, political, and religious history" of Orthodox Jews during World War II. Potok receive the Atheneum Award for The Promise, a sequel to The Chosen, published several years later. He was awarded the Edward Lewis Wallant Award for The Chosen, which also was nominated for a National Book Award.

Regarding the author's narrative style, Dan Barnett in a Critical Survey of Long Fiction observed that "his sentences are simple and reportorial. The stories develop chronologically." Barnett compares Potok's writing to Ernest Hemingway's, and other reviewers have mentioned the influence of Evelyn Waugh on his work. Lillian Kremer, writing in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, compared Potok's The Book of Lights to Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. Like Waugh, Potok explores religious commitment in his characters within the framework of secularized society. Waugh's book is about a dysfunctional English Catholic family. Potok was inspired by it to become a writer. Kremer also compared Potok's style to John Dos Passos' journalistic approach when he writes about the Holocaust. The impact of newspaper pictures after World War II depicted the atrocities of the Nazi death camps. This became the inspiration for Potok's use of newspaper-type headlines in his novel In the Beginning, which was published in 1975. A Times Literary Supplement reviewer found the "narrative [in The Promise] rigorously and beautifully straightforward." The author's handling of issues facing Jewish women in his 1985 novel Davita 's Harp was well received. Lisa Schwarzbaum, writing in the Detroit News credited Potok with sensitivity. The book, she said, "is a warm, decent, generous and patient exploration of important issues." This is a noteworthy achievement when seen in comparison to The Chosen. None of the women in Potok's first novel is portrayed with any depth or has a significant role. Women are seen only in the role of shadowy wife, nurse, teasing sister, or compassionate housekeeper.

The major areas of negative criticism for all of Potok's writing are that it is too sentimental, lacks drama, and that the outcomes of his stories are somewhat contrived. Sam Bluefarb, writing in the College Language Association Journal, remarked that Reb Saunders' "resignation to Danny's break with Hassidism [is] too mechanical with Danny going off to become a clinical or behavioral psychologist." Bluefarb found the dialogue in this climax of the book weak, but he considered it a "minor flaw in a larger pattern: that of tolerance against intolerance, empty ritual against the vital deed, rote learning against eager wonder." While reviewer Philip Toynbee in the New Republic applauded the "perennial theme" of the conflict between sons and fathers, he found the characters too intellectual. He also criticized Potok for sentimentality. "He can be dreadfully wet at times." In writing his review, Toynbee compared Potok's book to a contemporary book written by Herbert Gold called Fathers. He found Gold's characters "larger than life" and more memorable. He did, nonetheless, acknowledge that he would "not quickly forget the strange Hasidic community which Mr. Potok has painted with so much impressionistic skill."

The Gates of November: Chronicles of the Slepak Family was published by Mr. Potok in 1996. It tells the true story of Russian Jews who became refusniks during Soviet repression in the decade before the collapse of the Soviet Union. As with The Chosen, this book also recounts a rift between a father and son. Felicity Barringer, writing in the New York Times Book Review criticized the book for an "ungainly mixture of the personal and the political [that is] short on insight in the minds and hearts of the father and son." The book, she claimed, has too many voices for coherence, but she still found the story fascinating and the struggle of its characters heroic. David Shribman maintained in his Wall Street Journal review of The Gates of November that Potok "brings a sharp ear, a sharp eye and a soft heart" to the chronicle. In comparison with other Jewish American writers, Chaim Potok is unique in his warm affirmation of the Jewish experience in America and in his deep sympathy for those who struggle to retain spirituality in a secular world. While Potok is the author of nearly a dozen fiction and nonfiction books, The Chosen remains his most popular work.