Reading Order
Asher LevAsher Lev Novels Reading Order
Chaim Potok's My Name Is Asher Lev (1972) is his second and most celebrated novel — the Hasidic prodigy Asher Lev whose artistic gift brings him into conflict with his family and community, culminating in a painting of his mother as a crucified figure. Potok, a Conservative rabbi who had studied art and knew the conflict between religious tradition and artistic self-expression personally, wrote the novel as an exploration of the artist's obligation to his gift against every other loyalty. My Name Is Asher Lev was critically praised as the most ambitious novel of religious and artistic experience in American fiction. The Gift of Asher Lev (1990) is the direct sequel, following Asher in middle age; The Chosen (1967) and The Promise (1969) introduce the Crown Heights world.
Where to start
My Name Is Asher Lev
Complete Asher Lev Book List
- 1Buy
My Name Is Asher Lev
Chaim Potok·1972·The main novel — the Hasidic prodigy artist from Crown Heights through Paris and the Brooklyn Crucifixion that exiles him from his community. - 2Buy
The Gift of Asher Lev
Chaim Potok·1990·The direct sequel — Asher in middle age in the south of France, returning to Crown Heights, the cost of the life he chose. - 3Buy
The Chosen
Chaim Potok·1967·The companion Potok — Danny Saunders and Reuven Malter in Brooklyn, the world Asher Lev grows up in, essential context for the Crown Heights Hasidic community. - 4Buy
The Moon and Sixpence
W. Somerset Maugham·1919·The Gauguin novel — Charles Strickland abandoning his life for painting, the artist who sacrifices everything for his gift, Asher Lev's secular analog. - 5Buy
Lust for Life
Irving Stone·1934·Van Gogh's biography as novel — the artist-against-society conflict in its most intense biographical form, the essential companion to any novel of the solitary artistic vocation.
Asher Lev — Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Asher Lev paint a crucifixion?
Because he needs a visual vocabulary adequate to his mother's suffering — stretched between his husband's demands and her son's needs — and the crucifixion is the most powerful image of that kind of sacrificial pain in the Western tradition available to him as an artist trained in that tradition, regardless of its Christian origin.
Do I need to know about Hasidic Judaism to read My Name Is Asher Lev?
No — Potok explains everything you need to know about Hasidic belief and practice within the novel, written for readers who know nothing about it. The religious world is vividly rendered for outsiders.
Should I read My Name Is Asher Lev before or after The Chosen?
Either works — My Name Is Asher Lev is a standalone. Reading The Chosen first gives you more context for the Crown Heights world, but many readers encounter Asher Lev first and find it entirely sufficient.
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