The Promise

Wow, I forgot how much I love Chaim Potok. The last book I read of his, the painfully lugubrious Gift of Asher Lev, kind of colored my memories of his other books, making me forget their beautiful symbolism and character work and emphasizing their poor pacing and multitude of solitary, ponderous walks. But he has risen from the ashes in my mind. This book is rife with with what makes him so memorable; he marries what initially seems to be a niche struggle and ends up making powerful, universal statements with it. So glad that my library's poor selection forced me to read this.