Boekverslag Chaim Potok

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Datum ingestuurd:	16 maart 2002
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Titel:	The Promise
Auteur:	Chaim Potok
Jaar van uitgave:	1969
Aantal pagina's:	384
Moeilijkheidsgraad:	bovenbouw havo/vwo

Auteur:	Chaim Potok
Geslacht:	man
Nationaliteit:	Engels
Geboren:	17 februari 1929
Overleden:	23 juli 2002
Populaire titels:	1966The chosen (14) 1972My name is Asher Lev (5) 1985Davita's harp (3) 1969The Promise (2) 1975In the beginning (1) 1981The book of lights (1) 1990The gift of Asher Lev (1) 2001Old men at midnight (1) ... meer

1. The Promise
2. The Promise

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  Door willemijn op 06-09-2002
  hoi sase, ik heb een vraagje, heb jij dit verslag ook toevallig in het nederlands? ik heb dit verslag namelijk nodig voor nederlands. ik moet namelijk een boek lezen van wereldniveau en daar hoort deze ook bij. b.v.d. groetjes willemijn ps. vond jij het boek leuk om te lezen of juist nie... lees meer

  hoi sase, ik heb een vraagje, heb jij dit verslag ook toevallig in het nederlands? ik heb dit verslag namelijk nodig voor nederlands. ik moet namelijk een boek lezen van wereldniveau en daar hoort deze ook bij. b.v.d. groetjes willemijn ps. vond jij het boek leuk om te lezen of juist niet??

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Title:
The Promise
Chaim Potok
Penguin Books, 1969

I chose this book because I really liked the way it was written.

I had just read The chosen, of which this book is the sequel, only in Dutch, so I still had that book in my mind. I expected the story to continue were it had left off, in exactly the same style. It took me less time to get into the story as with The chosen.

Summary:
Reuven had been dating Rachel over the summer, the daughter of Abraham Gordon, who teaches Jewish philosophy. One night Reuven, Rachel and Michael, Rachel's nephew, go to a county fair. Rachel had expected it to be a fair with animals and other exhibits, but it turns out to be a carnival. Reuven and Rachel prefer to go home but Michael wants to go to the fair. Rachel gives in after a while and they play a ring toss game and also ride the roller coaster. But then they end up at a gambling game. One of the prizes is a radio and Michael really wants it, so he plays the game, but the stall owner and his father are cheating him, Jews who had been very nice to them. After paying a lot of money, both Reuven and Michael are sure he threw the balls into the right holes, but the owner won't give him any points. Reuven, Rachel and Michael feel awful, since they had paid so much money and had been cheated. Michael is very upset and confronts the old man telling him, "You hate us" again and again. Michael's behaviour is really frightening. Rachel and Reuven manage to get him home.

Reuven takes Michael sailing the next day. He teaches Michael how to handle a sailing boat. They're having a great day and talk about all sorts of things. Michael loves looking at the clouds and sees lots of shapes in them and talks astronomy for a while. They briefly discuss last night's events and Michael mentions the fact that he is very upset at Rav Kalman's -one of Reuven's teachers- attacks on his father and his father's books, which are liberal and unorthodox.

Michael's father, Abraham Gordon, visits Reuven and his father, David the day after the sailing trip. Reuven is very honoured to be receiving this visit, because he has read almost all of Gordon's books. Gordon wants to thank Reuven for the day on the lake with Michael and he wants Reuven to ask Danny -Reuven's friend who is studying psychology- to come and see them. Gordon also tells Reuven that Michael is a very sick young man. He says it's very special that Michael opened up to Reuven and Reuven is shocked, he hadn't realized that Michael was mentally ill.

Later that week Danny visits the Gordons. Michael's parents, Abraham and Ruth, want to put Michael in the treatment centre where Danny is a (trainee) therapist. Apparently Michael breaks things, burns books, shattered his telescope, is a serious discipline problem in school and resists therapy. After a great deal of trouble convincing Michael to enter the centre, he finally agrees because Danny is a friend of Reuven.

In the autumn Reuven dates Rachel again, and after noticing her interest in Danny he realizes she is in love with Danny. Even though they don't openly discuss it, Reuven knows what is going on.
Reuven would like to visit Michael but is told he couldn't receive any visitors for the time being.

Reuven is having severe problems with one of his teachers, Rav Jacob Kalman, who has survived the Nazi death camps. Rav Kalman takes Reuven apart one day after class and questions him about his visits to the Zechariah Frankel Seminary, where he has been seen with Abraham Gordon. The Zechariah Frankel Seminary is a much more liberal place and Rav Kalman tells him he should not meet Gordon again, since he has been excommunicated. He also forbids Reuven to set foot in the Seminary again; it is unclean. Even though Reuven tells Rev Kalman he was only checking the footnotes for his father's books Kalman tells him off.
Reuven also received a phone call from Michael, who had secretly called him and wants him to visit.

Reuven visits Danny who tells him he could go see Michael, and to take the article Michael has asked for. The conversation is strained at first but after they discuss the Rachel situation things get better.

Rav Kalman humiliates Abe Greenfield, who has, for the first time ever, not prepared his lesson because he had to study for a math exam. Greenfield stands up to Kalman and they both apologize the next day. Rev Kalman also makes them understand that when they have to make a choice, they should chose the Torah, no matter what they have the next day.
Rav Kalman takes Reuven apart later that week and tells him he can't agree with Reuven's father's way of explaining the Talmud and warns Reuven that he can't give him smicha (permission to become a rabbi) unless his stands with 'true Yiddishkeit' and not with Gordon or his father.

Reuven visits Michael at the treatment centre. Reuven hardly recognizes Michael because he has lost a lot of weight. All Michael seems interested in is Rav Kalman's article, which he reads hungrily and is very upset about.

Rav Kalman has been taking Reuven apart to study his father's book. David is worried because Kalman will write an article on his book and he is afraid it will be negative.
Danny tells Reuven Michael isn't making any progress and lets Reuven read the article on his father's book, which is very negative. Reuven feels like Rav Kalman has been using him to slander his father.
The article also says David is destroying the Talmud, because he had rearranged the text at some parts. David works at a yeshiva high school and his colleagues are insulting him because of the book. David can not be fired, but he isn't sure what will happen when he publishes the book.

Danny is thinking of putting Michael in isolation because he won't talk, and when he does, he tells lies.
Reuven has a talk with Abraham Gordon; Ruth is totally against the whole isolation plan, while Abraham hasn't made up his mind.
Later that evening Danny calls to say that Reuven needs to come with him right away, the treatment centre needs them both. Michael has escaped from the building with four other boys. They all had a knife and threatened the guard. Two boys where easily caught, while Michael and a schizophrenic boy called Jonathan were in the pagoda. The administrator called Danny, but it was Shabbat and they never use or answer the phone of Shabbat. Reb Saunders, Danny's father, made Danny pick up the phone, saying it could only be an emergency. When Danny and Reuven arrive, Danny persuades Jonathan to come to him and to give him the knife. Then Michael starts accusing Danny of taking away all of his friends: first Jonathan, Rachel and next will be Reuven. Danny convinces Michael that he won't take Reuven away, and Michael drops the knife.
After this incident, both Ruth and Abraham are convinced they should give the isolation plan a chance.

Rav Kalman talks to Reuven after class. He says he didn't use Reuven, he just let Reuven explain it to him because he knew Reuven understood what was in the book.

David publishes the book and decides to leave the high school, since it is impossible to teach there with his colleagues insulting him. Hirsch College, Reuven's school, is interested in him.

Danny and Rachel announce their engagement at a ceremony where David Malter and Reb Saunders meet for the first time.

There was a temporary breakthrough with Michael; he had told the child-care worker that he knew what he had to do but that it was too hard. Then he lapsed back into his silence. Ruth wants the experiment stopped, but Abraham doesn't.

Reuven has his examinations for smicha with the dean, Rav Kalman and Rav Gershenson present to question him. Reuven explained the Talmud using the modern way of his father, and it went so well both Rav Gershenson and Rav Kalman were surprised and had nothing left to ask at the third day of the examination, so it was cancelled.
Reuven doesn't know if he will get smicha until 5 days after the exams. Rav Kalman was against giving it, because of the way Reuven explained the Torah, but Rav Gershenson could persuade him to let Reuven receive it anyway.
David took the job at Zecheriah Frankel Seminary that was open for him, after being turned down at Reuven's school. Rav Kalman had said he would only keep teaching if David Malter wasn't hired.

Ruth, Abraham, Danny and Reuven were in Michael's room. They all talked but Michael didn't respond. But when Reuven mentioned his smicha, Michael got all worked up about the fact he had accepted smicha from the person who had attacked his father.
Later Michael finally told Ruth and Abraham what had been bothering him for so long, it was that when the critic's slandered his father's books, they used the name Gordon, and never Abraham. Gordon was his name too, and he felt very bad about this. He hated his parents for letting him suffer like this. He screamed about 10 minutes to them, saying he loved them and hated them at the same time. He said he could have talked to Reuven about this, Reuven would understand. Michael's parents were numb with shock and felt terrible, not knowing about this.
Michael is aware of the fact he really hurt his parents and they are going away for a few weeks.

When they come back, Reuven takes Michael sailing, and asks if he still sees shapes in the clouds. Michael says he doesn't and they go for a swim.

Reuven got his master's degree in philosophy and Rachel and Danny were married on the last Sunday of June, it was a Hasidic wedding. They had bought a small apartment near Columbia.

Miscellaneous aspects of the story:
This story is fiction, set in the first 5 or 6 years after the Second World War. The book is about Reuven's problems with Rav Kalman, Michael's mental illness and Danny as therapist.
The Promise doesn't keep you in suspense, but you do want to know what happens next.

The main characters in this story are Reuven, Danny, Rav Kalman, Rachel, Michael, David, Ruth and Abraham Gordon.
Reuven is the son of David Malter. Reuven is studying for smicha (permission to become a rabbi) and has been Danny's friend for 7 years.
Danny is a Hasidic Jew who has removed all his Hasidic markings like the beard and the earlocks to study psychology at Columbia University.
Rev Kalman is Reuven's Talmud teacher. He is a bitter, sarcastic man who has survived the Nazi death camps.
Rachel has dated Reuven over the summer and the autumn before she met Danny. She is Abraham Gordon's niece.
Michael is the son of Abraham and Ruth Gordon, who are writers and travel a lot. Michael is mentally ill.
David Malter is the father of Reuven, who writes books on the Talmud and teaches at a yeshiva high school.
Ruth is Michael's mother and Abraham's wife.
Abraham Gordon has been ex-communicated because of his books and is regarded as an apostate by many Jews.

The story is set in Brooklyn, New York, in the Williamsburg section.

Reuven is telling the story in the first person.

The end is nicely written, you aren't left wondering what happened to a certain character. It's not an open end, but it's not quite a closed end either.

I really liked this book, although it's too bad that you need to know something about Judaism to fully understand what this book is about.

Chaim Potok:
Born in Brooklyn in 1929 to Polish immigrants, Chaim Potok was raised an Orthodox Jew with the expectation that he would become a Talmudic scholar. However, at age 16, following a powerful encounter with literature, he decided on a career in writing. He wanted to create stories that "provide a map not only of the physical elements of life, but of the spiritual ones as well."
Potok recieved his rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and served as an Army chaplain in the Korean War with a front-line medical battalion.
Potok's best-known novels include The chosen, nominated for a National Book Award and recipient of the Edward Lewis Wallant Award; The Promise, awarded the Athenaeum Prize; My name is Asher Lev; and The gift of Asher Lev, which won the National Jewish Award. Other books include In the beginning, The book of lights and Davita's harp. Potok has also written children's literature as well as works of non-fiction such as Wanderings: Chaim Potok's History of the Jews.