My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok

 My Rating: 4.7

1940's/50's Brooklyn and Asher is a Ladover Hasid who keeps kosher, prays three times a day and believes in the Ribbono Shel Olom, the Master of the Universe. He grows up in a cloistered Hasidic community, a world suffused by ritual and revolving around a charismatic Rebbe. He is torn between two identities, the one consecrated to God, the other devoted only to art and his imagination, and in time, his artistic gift threatens to estrange him from that world and the parents he adores. As it follows his struggle, My Name Is Asher Lev becomes a luminous, visionary portrait of the artist, by turns heartbreaking and exultant.

This is a quiet book where Asher and his parents struggle with Asher's gift. Asher is a very quiet boy who seems wise beyond his years. This book explores if it is right to pursue a gift when it leads to blasphemy, This deals with the struggle of the art vs the Jewish world, honoring your father and mother and being true to yourself. Potok's writing is quiet and beautiful. Sometimes so quiet that you might miss some of the beauty in the soft tender pacing. I will definitely be immersing myself again in the remaining works by this gifted author.