my name is asher lev

January 31st, 2008

our guest host, maren mceuen, leads off this month’s book trail discussion of my name is asher lev by chaim potok.

I have wanted to read My Name Is Asher Lev for a long time now. It’s one of my husband’s favorite books, and I began it with great anticipation. I was not disappointed. The book explores so many fascinating themes – the line between genius and madness; maintaining religious beliefs while living in the secular world; the meaning and value of art; duty to family and community versus duty to oneself; the relationship between father and son, mother and son, and husband and wife; etc. – that I hardly even know where to begin.

Genius and Madness

I have never wanted my children to be prodigies; I wouldn’t wish genius on them. It comes at too high a price. How many of the great artists or the great writers have teetered on the brink of mental illness? How many have succumbed completely to mental breakdown? Jacob alludes to this occupational hazard when he repeatedly suggests Asher give up painting in favor of a happier profession. Certainly we see the thin line between genius and madness when Asher twice sinks into delirium or when Jacob has one of his episodes.

But what is it about artistic genius that comes so close to insanity? Perhaps it comes partly from the obsession, from the uncontrollable need to express that genius. Asher’s mental breakdowns come when he believes he is about to have his ability to paint restricted by moving with his father to Europe. I think that is part of it. But I think maybe another part of it is that genius requires you to see the world for what it really is, and as young Asher says, “It is not a pretty world.” To see the world’s ugliness so clearly and acutely and then to be compelled by some internal drive to render that reality into a painting or a sculpture or a story, would surely bring anyone closer to madness.

Art and Religious Life in the Secular World

Throughout Asher Lev, Potok poses the question, can you lead a religious life in the secular world? It’s a question he doesn’t seem to have an answer to. Asher’s family resolves the tension between religious and secular by living in the secular world as little as possible. But Asher must paint, and there is no painting in his religious world. To paint, he must enter the secular world. .

As a religious person, I must admit that I found this aspect of Asher Lev one of the most disquieting. Asher’s artistic aspirations cause him, for example, to denigrate some of his religion’s deeply held beliefs about modesty and the sanctity of the human body. They cause him to do things that he knows will hurt his religious community. All in the name of true art. I am left wondering whether and to what degree the beliefs of a “true religion” can be muted or ignored for the sake of artistic expression – or any other secular pursuit. And yet, what else is Asher to do if he truly can’t control himself? And is that any excuse at all, or is Aryeh right that only an animal can’t control himself?

Asher justifies his religious disobedience as being for the sake of art. He also knowingly creates and displays two paintings that hurt those he loves for the same reason, so that as a painter he won’t be a whore. While part of me understands the idea that art must, must represent truth, I also wonder from a personal standpoint whether that truly excuses any action that leads the artist to that truth. Can we write or paint the intimate details from the lives of those we love – knowing full well that to do so will be a betrayal – simply because it is truth, because it is art? And why, why doesn’t Asher warn his poor parents before they go to the exhibition?

Family Relationships

Perhaps no theme is more central to Asher Lev than the relationships within Asher’s family. As a woman and a mother, I am drawn to Rivkeh. Initially I was bothered by her sinking into depression after her brothers’ death, emotionally abandoning Asher, but she won me back through the love and strength she shows to both her husband and her son, no matter the conflicts between them. You can see how tortured she is by Asher’s choices and by his conflict with his father. I find it so interesting that the thing that finally creates a full schism between Asher and his family is a painting about his mother, even though it is a tribute to her. As a wife and mother to two boys, I can only begin to imagine her heartbreak and the way her loyalty to her husband and son must tear her in two.

And what of Asher’s relationship to his father? Whatever else he feels towards him, Asher clearly has great respect for his father. While Aryeh’s anger towards his son and his stubbornness are frustrating, I can imagine how difficult it would be to have a child choose a path in life that seemed at best pointless and at worst dangerous. I feel sorry for him. Finally, Asher. Clearly he is the “hero” of the book, but he does what he wants, usually with disregard for how those actions will affect others. He seems to lack self-control and empathy, which he only begins to understand at the end of the book. Then with that empathy he creates and displays two paintings that he knows will cause his parents anguish. What is Potok trying to say with such a character?

These are my random thoughts. Now I look forward to your comments! Be kind. It’s been a long time since I’ve done anything like this.

Maren lives in Dorchester, Massachusetts, a neighborhood of Boston famous for its old mansions, sandy beaches, and high crime rate. She works as an attorney in Boston, while her husband attends MIT as a graduate student. She has two boys, 2 years and 2 months old, and a perpetually messy house. She loves to bake and travel, and hasn’t written anything other than a legal brief or article in several years.

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20 Responses to “my name is asher lev”

jes on January 31, 2008 6:06 pm
interesting observations, maren. this book is so complicated, it’s hard to know where to begin.

the first time i read this book, i read it as the story of asher lev. but this time, as a mother, i read it as the story of his mother. ultimately, she is the only character in the story who is able to selflessly give while maintaining her own identity (a phd in russian affairs?)

i am still confused about the religion question. as an “artist” of some sort and also quite religious i feel sort of betrayed by the idea that one has to sacrifice one’s beliefs for the sake of art. i don’t feel like i’ve done that. but, at the same time, there are probably those within my religion who would disagree with me–that i have sold myself in some way by writing about the things that i do. so, who knows? who can draw the line?

i just can’t stop thinking — couldn’t asher have been an artist without hurting his parents so deeply? it seems like he allowed his art to cut off communication. (i don’t know how i would keep from slapping my kid if he kept giving me one word answers like asher over and over over.)

maybe the real question is — is asher lev just plain crazy?

are genius and crazy the same thing?
Kathleen on January 31, 2008 8:03 pm
Maren,

I have not read the book yet. I want to. I need to get it from the library still, especially after reading your comments and jessie’s comments. I apologize for joining book club without having done my homework. But, I am grateful to have a glimpse of the book through your thoughts before reading it.

Take care,
kathleen
sarajane on January 31, 2008 9:50 pm
Potok’s novel is beautiful both in form and idea. When an author can create visual connections between words and art I have to give my applause. I feel like I was taken on Asher’s journey with him. His journey to bring balance to the universe became my mission also. There were moments that I became impatient with Asher and wanted to skim a page or jump to the next section but to journey with someone means that you endure all aspects of the adventure including the awkwardness of their preadolescents.

Asher Lev fascinates me. He is an observant Jew who paints, a follower who sees. How would it be to live in constant juxtaposition to what you believe? How would it be to see another way but not to follow where that path leads. For me Asher Lev represents the choice we have in life, to follow Tradition vs. insight. Do you choose your own path or follow the road that has been passed down form generations? What if that generation is gone and your path now leads you toward the truth. What if your path leads you to lies? How can we know? What is the balance?

Potok’s choice for Asher’s culminating painting was intriguing. It is interesting that as a faithful Jew Asher paints a crucifix. I see that he was aiming for “universal relevance,” as Chagall says of his White Crucifixion. The crucifixion is an image of anguish but it is also an image of rebirth. I am guessing that as a rabbi, Potok dose not see the crucifixion as an image of rebirth but only of suffering and pain. The window is an image of sight and light which to me represents knowledge. Throughout the novel Asher looks both in and out of his Brooklyn window; his mother also looks in and out, but his father is only depicted as looking outward and not in. Sometimes it is necessary to see the world from a different view, Aryeh sees only his view. Asher says “Now I thought of my mother and began to sense something of her years of anguish. Standing between two different ways of giving meaning to the world.” (p. 325) Asher gave “meaning to paper and canvas rather then to people and events” as his father had done. It is wise to see as Asher does, that people give meaning to this world in many ways.

Asher and his father talk of moral and aesthetical blindness. Where is the balance? Do you follow in blindness or do you open your eyes and question. Questions bring change and change brings a break from tradition. What traditions do you hold on to and why? What traditions do you abandon and how? Asher must discover his answer to these questions as we must all choose our path. Potok gives us some idea that in order to chart a new path we must first understand the road we are already on. “Only one who has mastered a tradition has a right to attempt to add to it or rebel against it.” (p. 213) spoken by Jacob Kahn the teacher. How can you criticize something you are unfamiliar with, that is blindness.

Asher Lev and I part pathways when he states that “Creativity was demonic and divine. Art was demonic and divine.” As a Christian I only see creativity as divine. Creation is the power of God, and as his children we have that power and it is divine.
It is choice that gives us our divinity without choice we are not divine but demonic. Who created balance in the universe? Thank you Asher Lev for helping me see that I am on the path that I choose.
jes on January 31, 2008 10:13 pm
interesting, sarajane. i didn’t notice that his father never looked into the apartment. interesting.

but, i want to know, did you (any of you) find the inside of asher’s head a little bit disturbing? he is an observant, practicing jew, but we never get any sense of his convictions–only fear of his father. his interactions/reactions to people don’t exactly seem normal. in any case, i don’t think i ever really know what asher believes. is it a product of his youth? is he a little off his rocker?

are those last few bursts of paragraphs the first time that asher truly understands himself?
Kate on January 31, 2008 10:58 pm
Oh yes, the inside of Asher’s head is definitely disturbing. In fact, I wondered at points if he was mildly autistic. But I think that pared-down, extremely focused perspective allows us to really feel the overwhelming need to create, the unstoppable need to follow one’s talent.

I agree wholeheartedly with Sarajane that the book lacks the balance we all attempt to cultivate in real life, even if we strive to be artists in whatever little way we can. However, it’s not supposed to be the portrait of an ordinary “real life” kind of person. It’s a portrait of genius, which is naturally a bit more extreme — good or evil, us or them, art or nothing.

Of course Asher could have “whored” himself, and he probably still would have been ok in the long run. He would have survived. It’s what most of us would have done to survive. But the point was that all art is an act of self exploration AND self exposure. You cannot create truthful art without revealing the deepest parts of yourself, a process that is often painful to you and hurtful to those you love. Asher wanted to share the emotions and trials of being in his community, but could only do so by betraying that community.

My favorite aspect of the book was that Potok is traveling this path with Asher, revealing the greatness and the weakness of his community, discovering the story of true art within himself and dragging into the light of day to put in on the page. Creation and creativity as innate, unstoppable forces. Forces that can be channeled to share a unique human experience with others.

Isn’t that what we all want? To have ourselves understood and validated in writing or in art or whatever outlet? To capture a universal human emotion or experience that is both uniquely ours and shared by all who touch it? And if we opened ourselves up as truly as Asher does, I doubt there is a human being alive that would not have a close friend or family member upset at them for sharing too much, exposing a fault or depicting things in a way they think false.

Again, Asher’s story is an extreme, but it’s a story I found extremely moving.

My full review (in which I wish I would have included some of this rant) is at:
http://www.katejonuska.com/2008/01/31/my-name-is-asher-lev-chaim-potok/
Maren on January 31, 2008 11:17 pm
Those are some great insights, sarajane. I especially like your points about the apartment window and about Asher living in juxtaposition to what he believes. How does he do that? I want to be critical of him, to ask how he can reconcile that sort of an existence. How can you believe something but chose not to live it. And yet really it’s something we all do. There are plenty of things I believe I should be doing that I don’t always do and vice versa. Maybe Asher’s juxtaposition is a little starker than most of ours, but surely we all have a little bit of juxtaposition between our beliefs and our actions.
Maren on January 31, 2008 11:20 pm
Jessie, I definitely find Asher’s mind a little disturbing, almost sociopathic at times. And I, too, wondered about his decision to live as a practicing Jew when there’s no indication of him having any real faith in his religion.
jes on January 31, 2008 11:40 pm
true, kate, true: “You cannot create truthful art without revealing the deepest parts of yourself, a process that is often painful to you and hurtful to those you love.”

and i forgot to say in all my wordiness, that i love this book (love it) and wouldn’t have put it down for even a second if i hadn’t had a little face to spoon vegetable beef pilaf and yogurt into at regular intervals.
Kate on February 1, 2008 10:59 am
Your notes about Asher’s religious beliefs are true. He seems to follow the doctrine without really giving the beliefs too much thought, he attends his religious schooling only because he must. But I don’t know if that means he is not a true follower. His faith is the foundation of his life, always in the background of whatever he does. Even when he travels abroad, he does so in the same way his father does, eating and praying as he would back home. I don’t think he can separate himself from his faith. Maybe he should be musing on the meaning of his religion more? Maybe if we could listen in on his prayers? Hmm. I don’t know how seriously he takes his Orthodox Judaism.

Two (smaller) signs of his faith are, number one, how much it wounds him when he can no longer be a part of the community he loves and had drawn/painted so lovingly at one time. And two, he, too, feels the need to follow through with the path laid in front of him, not to leave things unfinished. Just as his mother felt she needed to complete her brother’s work.

Perhaps it’s the fact that he pursues his individual (selfish?) goals instead of working for the common good? Can one be Orthodox and also an individual?

I don’t know the answers to these questions. I’m just asking.
jes on February 1, 2008 11:31 am
i think i am forgetting, too, that asher is so young. those same years of my life i went through the motions of religion without knowing if i actually believed in what i was doing. it’s easy to keep the outward trappings of a certain belief so you don’t upset family and cultural traditions without knowing if you have the same sort of conviction as your parents.

maybe asher didn’t believe in his religion until that moment when he finally understood the anguish of his mother. maybe it’s that flash of empathy that gives him the maturity to understand the religious and cultural tradition that he’s a part of. maybe he has to use the symbol of another religion (ie the cross) in order to come to a realization of and to articulate his personal beliefs.

(this is an aside, but, at times, doesn’t it seem like his mythic ancestor is more of a religious presence than god…?)
sarajane on February 1, 2008 1:40 pm
I agree, it seems that there is no real evidence that Asher really believes in the faith. He goes through all the motions but where is the emotion? We don’t get any hint from him that it is faith that draws him toward the Jewish tradition rather then fear of parents, opinions of those around him and yes the ancestor of his dreams. Jessie I agree that the mythic ancestor has more of a presence in Asher’s life then God, and more influence also. Is fear a stronger motivator then faith / love?
Rebecca on February 1, 2008 9:06 pm
I just barely finished the book. I know, a day late. I found Book I a little slow. But by Book II I was hooked. I wanted to know what would become of Asher and his painting.

I found it interesting that in the beginning of the book Asher’s father always reminded him to say his Krias Shema, but by the end of the book, little was mentioned of the prayer. Unfortunately, as Asher grew was a painter, he let go of some of the religious things that once were so important (to his family anyway). How hard that would be as a parent to watch one’s child stray from a belief that one feels so strongly about.

I wish Asher’s father would have been more open and understanding of Asher’s need to paint. I wonder, if he would have been, maybe the Crucifixtion would never “have” to have been painted.

Maren, I liked your comment regarding whether or not Asher could control himself. Asher seemed to think he could not. Maybe he couldn’t control his thoughts, but surely he didn’t have to put all thoughts to canvas. I think Aryeh was right that only an animal can’t control themselves.

I was sad that Asher’s painting had finally taken him so far from his family. Without his family, what will he have to paint about, as it seemed all of his paintings focused around them. I definitely think he should have warned his parents. Surely he could have said something to them. Like the picture of the nudes, they wouldn’t have come, but wouldn’t that have been better? To just say there was a picture of a Crucifixtion? They would have found out in the end, so maybe it didn’t matter.
Rebecca on February 2, 2008 3:05 pm
Something else…as I think about this book, it bothers me that Asher is so easily able to say “No” to his mother in relation to traveling to Vienna, but cannot say “No” to Anna. Couldn’t he have sold the paintings to the museum and not put them in his show? Since his parents don’t venture to museums, they would’ve never had to know. And if it wasn’t in the show, it wouldn’t have been in the newspapers. Isn’t that an easy fix?

I also wonder how much the Rebbe knew. Was he the one who had told Jacob Kahn to become a painter? Did he know what was in store for Asher, and Asher’s parents? If he would’ve told Asher to be something else and paint on the side, would Asher have followed his leader’s advice? I wonder…
jes on February 4, 2008 10:46 am
i think saying no to vienna is on a completely different level than acquiescing easily to anna.

and asher is just as mad at himself for not being able to say “let’s go to vienna” to his mother as he is for not asking anna not to hang the paintings.

i can understand why one thing is in the realm of possibility for asher and the other isn’t.
Jamie on February 4, 2008 4:16 pm
QUOTE (Rebecca):

[I also wonder how much the Rebbe knew. Was he the one who had told Jacob Kahn to become a painter? Did he know what was in store for Asher, and Asher’s parents? If he would’ve told Asher to be something else and paint on the side, would Asher have followed his leader’s advice? I wonder…]

I that about that too, but I’m not sure I’ve come to any conclusion. I thought about it when Asher was told to study Russian. He had a serious aversion to Russian, but the Rebbe convinced him to take it. I can’t remember it exactly, but the Rebbe told Asher that he has glimpses of insight. He doesn’t always know why people should do things, or what is going to happen, but he accepts this partial blindness and acts on what insight he receives. Remember when Asher first started school and the teacher told him about three kinds of people? Most people were the first kind, and then there was a second, higher, kind. Those people were driven by something greater than themselves…I’ll find the quote when I get home from work. But I see Asher as that second type, and I think the Rebbe did too. I think he accepted Asher’s fate before Asher was even fully aware of his gift.

I loved this book, too. Thank you Jessie for recommending it.
annie on February 4, 2008 11:20 pm
still waiting on the provo library hold. honestly jess, how many people in utah are on your book club?? i mean, it’s good, but bad for me. poor little ol’ me with no book. sniff sniff.
(it’s my fault for waiting so long though, go figure)
tiff on February 5, 2008 4:52 pm
Just finished the book. I’m hoping that the beauty of an online book club is that you can show up a few days late, no problem!
So, not to be argumentative, but I want to throw another idea out there about Asher’s faith. I am wondering if we are looking too much at Asher’s beliefs from our own tradition (I think most of us are Mormon or at least Christian) rather from the framework of Judaism. I think that maybe Potok simply doesn’t focus on Asher’s thoughts about his own faith because he takes it for granted that if Asher is living the life of a Hasidic Jew, then he must believe it. I don’t think the Jewish faith has quite the stress on “finding out for yourself” that we do. If Asher says his daily prayers, keeps kosher, follows the rituals of Shabbos, etc—then he must believe. I’m not sure that things like faith and tradition are seen as separate entities. It seems like all or nothing to me. You either are a Hasidic Jew or you aren’t. I think the very fact that he sees his mythic ancestor and is so bothered by how upset his parents are is evidence of the fact he believes. That respect for tradition and what has gone before is his faith. Just an idea.

Now for another idea that I know is biased by my background. I am much more bothered by the fact that Asher would display the nudes than the crucifixion, and that his community could seem to pretend he didn’t display nudes, but would not forgive him for the crucifixion paintings. I may not agree with his father’s opinion, but to me opposition to a nude is a moral stance. If that is against the faith, then displaying such a thing seems indicate that art is more important to Asher than following the faith. I’m not sure that Asher agrees that a nude is against his religion, but his father certainly does and this creates a rift between them that I can understand. However, the community’s complete rejection of him for using the symbol of another religion is much more baffling to me. I could have misinterpreted this, but it seemed to me like the issue wasn’t so much that he portrayed his mother’s anguish, but that he had used a Christian symbol to do it. I don’t mean to judge another faith so harshly, but it seems like an unwillingness to listen to the meaning behind the symbol of a faith other than your own, and the apparent rejection of the possibility of anything good coming from it simply helps increase the rift that they already feel with the rest of the world. Yes, their people had been persecuted for many years, and yes not too long before the setting for this book, too many Christians had sat idly by during the Holocaust and not done anything. However, completely casting off anything related to Christianity seems at best close-minded and at worst, an excellent way to increase the divide between them and those of other faiths. I suppose that I am biased because I too come from a faith that claims to be the only true Church; the place for God’s chosen people.

Yet, the one thing that I have learned more and more over the past few years is how much good can be found elsewhere. I suppose that the one thing I like the least about the culture that can surround my faith is when people make the mistake that believing they belong to the “true Church” means believing that truth cannot be found everywhere. In fact, I feel like there are some truths that can’t be learned without venturing elsewhere and not to do so is giving up the opportunity of learning those wonderful things. It was probably me projecting my own struggles on Asher, but in him I saw someone who struggled to find the difference between his culture and his faith–someone who sought to make a separation between them that no one around him did. This seems like the only way to remain true to his religion as well as true to his art. So this may seem a bit contradictory to what I’ve seen before, but I’m trying to sort out what I feel the difference between faith, tradition, and culture is; what Asher may see those three things as; and how his Hasidic community did or did not separate those three concepts. Any ideas?
jes on February 5, 2008 8:57 pm
good point, tiff. i think i am projecting my own idea of “religion” and “religious belief” onto asher. [and, yes, the online book club doesn’t have desserts sitting on a table going stale–you can chime in whenever you get the chance. i’m glad you read it.]

i think your last few sentences are quite insightful. i don’t have any answers to your questions, but the fact that you were able to articulate the questions seems to be the most important element.

i know that there are certain things i would never write about because i would betray my faith (eg the temple). but there are things (eg, my mission) that i have written about and people have found offensive. i don’t know how to equate that with the difference between nudes and the crucifixion but there seems to be a connection…
annie on March 2, 2008 4:32 pm
asher lev has been sitting ontop of my refrigerator for a few weeks now. finally found some time to finish. what a journey through his life we take. an amazing novel, so glad i read it. asher kept me company through my lonely nights up sick with the flu.

i enjoyed all the insightful comments. art to me is a strong subject to address when it comes to religion.i would rather discuss asher as a boy, as man,as the artist he is.

yes i would agree that he is a little crazy. i believe that all the great artists were what we consider a little ‘off.’ to give yourself so fully to a cause and sacrifice everything you are takes more than normal people like us are willing to give. or are even capable of i believe. asher was born an artist. i believe asher suffered greatly under the hand of his father’s unacceptance and mother’s early illness.
i think he turned out amazingly well considering.

the one thing about his father that really bothered me, was his constantly reference to control and animals. he always told asher that only animals cannot control themselves, and yet he could not bring himself to understand his own son. he couldn’t see him the way others did. he acted like he tried, but couldn’t ‘control’ that he didn’t understand.

overall though…
i fell in love with asher’s art. i felt like i traveled with him in europe and grew close to jacob. i feel like i literally sat and marvelled at the pieta and david.
asher had a very hard life, and a very blessed life,and i think deep down,heknew he could never stay at home anymore. to be a true artist, he needed the separation. not only from his father, but almost from his past.
but i do love this book. thank you for the much needed exposure.
stephanie on March 3, 2008 10:02 pm
better late than never….it seems i say that a lot lately….

well i read this book as well as the gift of asher lev well before the end of the month…so much before that i forgot to get on and comment. so here i am a month late. but here are my thoughts, for what they’re worth.

first, do you have to give yourself over completely to your art form? is it not possible to put any sort of filter on and say, no, i’m not going to hurt the people around me? for example, i have tried writing about relationships between mothers and daughters, mothers in law and daughters in law but i just know things would come out that would be hurtful to them. And to me that’s just too high of a price to pay for art. does that mean i can’t write anything worthwhile? or does it just mean i’ll never be really good?

i also didn’t see why asher couldn’t have either kept the crucifixion pieces out of the show or at least told his parents about them so they wouldn’t go. He could have just said I painted crucifixions. and that would have been enough to avoid them seeing their family in giant christian symbolism on exhibit.

also i recommend reading the gift of asher lev–the first book deals with his turbulent coming of age and coming of artist period. the sequel shows how he lives with himself as the person/artist he has become–also husband and father, and how those relationships affect/are affected by his art.

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