Trudy asked my question.

I am finding the book wonderful, but painful. I hurt so for young Asher, that I can't rush through it. And I hurt for his mother too, even though I wanted to shake her. And just reading about Siberia makes me wonder about the color of ice. And och.

I just checked. Menachem Schneerson died in 1994. The Gift of Asher Lev was published four years earlier.

I'm pretty sure the Ladover are supposed to be the Lubavitcher. In addition to a lot of other similarities, there's the phrase repeated several times of the Rebbe wearing an "ordinary dark hat." (In the forties and fifties, the Lubavitcher Rebbe deviated from tradition and started wearing a regular sort of hat, the kind most men wore then, while most of the other Chasidic sects were wearing the much older style of hats. There's a scene in The Chosen at somebody's wedding or bar mitzvah, where all the Rebbes from the various Chasidic sects in Brooklyn walk in, and they're described as mostly a crowd of old men in traditional clothing, and one younger man in an ordinary hat.)

Also, the few lines right near the end of My Name is Asher Lev, where Asher's father is talking about reaching out to questioning Jewish students on college campuses, is exactly what the Lubavitch were doing then.

I hate bringing up administrative stuff, but we still don't have a book to follow Small World. I think the last consensus was that we'd make a list of Buffistas who volunteer to choose a book for the club, and find some random way to choose one. Does that sound right?

What is the discussion date for Small World ?

October 11.

And who is the author of Small World?

And who is the author of Small World?

David Lodge

BTW Hec, I'm really enjoying this book. I need to steal a highlighter (maybe several in different colors) to mark all the stuff.

BTW Hec, I'm really enjoying this book.

So glad. When I first moved to LA back in '85, my couch-surf hosts had it lying around and I was totally absorbed in it. Just an incredibly fun read.