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Content snapshot
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Violence
None
No violence
Language
None
No profanity
Sexual Content
None
No sexual content
Substance Use
None
No substance use
Emotional Intensity
A lot
The spiritual agony of an artist whose calling conflicts with his deepest faith; the pain he causes his family through his honesty; the cost of creative integrity
What this book is about
Asher Lev grows up in a devout Hasidic community in Brooklyn, where his father travels the world for the Rebbe and secular art is at best irrelevant, at worst sinful. But Asher cannot stop drawing—and his gift is undeniable. As he comes of age and his art develops, he creates a painting using the most powerful image in Western art (the crucifixion) to express his mother's suffering—and destroys his family's world. Potok's novel is one of the most searching explorations of the conflict between religious faith and artistic calling in American fiction.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
The deepest themes concern faith vs. artistic freedom
A young man causing deep pain to his religious family through his work
Reader Verification
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