Choosing The Chosen

July 12, 2012

Jacqueline Cutler at the Star-Ledger published this piece on the Chaim Potok novel.

This slips under a lot of folks’ radar. Say what you will about the author (many years ago I worked with S.L. Schneiderman, a charming gentleman who translated AJCongress press releases for the Yiddish press), who knew him and loved to opine “Chaim Potok is a sonovabitch!”), but The Chosen is undeservedly omitted when it comes to picking the best baseball fiction, IMHO. Granted the 1981 movie version featuring Robbie Benson as the Hasidic Danny Saunders and Rod Steiger as his rabbi father was pretty stinko, but the book was wonderful. I read it as a kid when it first came out, so that means I was about 10, and it still brings back fond memories.

Found this image on an Internet search. Fascinating how the cover offers a different concept: The player has to be Reuben Malter, the “merely” Orthodox kid, since it’s highly doubtful that a Hasid would wear a uniform like that. But the adult (somewhat stereotyped?) wouldn’t have been Malter’s dad, a teacher who would have dressed in more contemporary attire of the period.Then again, now of the covers from the standard American editions even feature a baseball theme.

 

 

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