Ever since reading
The Chosen by Chaim Potok (for my review go here), I have been collecting all the books I can by this
wonderful author. I have done this
primarily by belonging to Paperback Swap This is a web site where you can
trade books for free. For every book you
mail to another subscriber, you get a credit that you can then use to request a
book from another member. I have gotten
several books this way. If you’re a
cheapskate like me, or, if you’re trying hard to be a good steward with your
money (also like me) this is a good place to feed your book habit without
paying full price for a book.
Anyway, as I was
saying this is how I am getting books written by Potok. Chaim Potok is an interesting person. He was trained as a Rabbi, but was also an
editor. His first book, The Chosen brought
him international attention. He continued writing for the next thirty years, producing several successful novels. Old Men at Midnight was his last book published before he succumbed to brain cancer in 2002.
Old Men at
Midnight is a collection of three short stories. Each is about a Jewish man and his unique
life. The common thread is a woman named
Ilana Davita Dunn. Each man tells his
story to her.
The second,
The War Doctor, finds Davita as a college student. At Columbia
University , where she is enrolled, she
meets a guest lecturer who has defected from Russia . At her encouragement he writes his
story. It is a horrific one of someone
who compromised his values, his Jewish faith and dignity as a human in order to
work up the echelons of Stalin’s regime.
The last one is called The Trope Teacher,
and is the strangest. Davita is now a
middle aged woman who has moved in next door to a Professor at Princeton . Again
she is instrumental in getting someone, Benjamin Walter this time, to tell his
story. His is a story inside of a
story. It harkens back to his childhood
where he is given musical instruction by a friend of his father’s, Mr. Zapiski. Mr. Zapiski is a trope teacher and teaches Benjamin how to
chant in Hebrew for his Bar Mitzvah.
Benjamin’s father and Mr. Zapiski were close
friends in Germany
where they fought in WWI together. A
tragic story exists between the two friends, but neither Benjamin’s father or
the trope teacher will divulge what it is.
The story comes about in an unexpected way.
Those are the base plot outlines for each story but what makes them worth reading is the eloquence of style and ability of Mr. Potok to make each person- I can’t call them characters- not only extremely interesting but sympathetic. Chaim Potok is a master storyteller that uses rich colors that draw the reader into each scene, making you want more and regretting when the tale comes to a close. Or rather, when he stops telling. One gets the feeling that the stories continue on in their own reality. Which is why I am trying to read as many of Chaim Potok’s as I can get my hands on.
Or buy on Kindle for $11.99
Further links for Chaim Potok:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/472754/Chaim-Potok
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/potok.htm
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Potok.html