["The Chosen"] is Chaim Potok's first novel and—let's face it—there's something rough and unpolished about his style. Narrated in the first person by Reuven Malter, his speech rhythms are sometimes awkward, and the imagery blurred. And yet, while Reuven talks we listen because of the story he has to tell; and, long afterwards, it remains in the mind, and delights. It is like those myths that, as C. S. Lewis reminds us, do not essentially exist in words at all. Potok's style is transcended because he has given us a configuration of events which grip the imagination on their own.

The plot is simple enough. Two boys—Reuven and Danny Saunders—become friends, are estranged, and renew their relationship. (p. 4)

[Their] backgrounds are utterly different. Reuven is merely Orthodox; Danny is a Hasid, the son of a rabbi, and destined by his father to take his...