My Name is Asher Lev 

My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok immediately landed itself in my favorite books list after I finished it and was such a wonderful read. I saw that it was recommended by Lin Manuel Miranda on social media, who is the brain behind the musical Hamilton, which I enjoyed listening to in high school. I'm so glad I picked it up and I think it is a wonderful insight into religion, family, and how that can affect a child who may not identify with the moral teachings that have been grounded into him by birth. 

Another reason that I feel that I resonated with this book was because the main character was an artist. Asher is fascinated by the creative world, although since he is born into a Hasidic Judaic community, he is forbidden to look at the nude figure or figures related to Roman Catholicism that must be studied if he would want to further his knowledge in art. However, Asher also has a compulsive nature to render the things that he sees and are drawn too. Asher's talent for the arts was immediately picked up by his family, who half-heartedly supported him at first, seeing that his art was innocent enough, but when he got more bold with the things he drew started rendering depictions from his mind, his family tried to deter him from his talent, saying they were from something evil. As a child, Asher trusts his family first and foremost and abandons his nature to draw the things he sees and instead tries to pray thoughts of art away. However, the more he suppresses himself, Asher starts to become more and more unhappy, to the point that it affects his lifestyle and relationship with God and his family. Asher must express himself and be in touch with his true self, in order to be the best version of himself he can be. However, in order to that, he must go in opposition with the teachings of his faith and family. Asher's struggle is heart-wrenching as he starts to question his core identity, between honoring his family, following his dream, and the perception of good and evil in relationship with his faith. 

The book, at first, is very hard to get though, since I know nothing of Hasidic Judaism or their practices. However, I had enough context to realize that Asher would feel stifled in this community, as he furthers his interests in the arts. Chaim Potok does not try to create a book that could be considered a "page-turner" and instead builds foundations slowly, which really explodes during the climax of his novel. The conflict is woven so naturally and tightly through the book that you become steadily aware of Asher's agitation as he comes to term with his side that is grounded in art and his side that his grounded to his faith and religion. Potok builds a relationship with Asher's family that although is not ideal, you still wish Asher could keep since Potok makes it painfully aware to the reader that Asher's family does indeed love him deeply, which may not be obvious due to restrictions in their faith. I loved all the introspective thoughts on how religion in relation to personal identity and how Potok tied everything together in the end.