In the Beginning relates the changing fortunes and attitudes of the Luries, a Jewish family living in the Bronx. In particular it is the story of David, the narrator, and of the shaping of his character and vocation by the influences among which he grows up….
Chaim Potok has remarkable gifts of recall. He catches beautifully the atmosphere of a family party or a school quarrel. Rarer than this is the skill with which he shows how what a child learns and what it experiences are fused and transformed by the imagination. As an evocation of a religious childhood In the Beginning is impressive. But the author is aiming at something much larger than this. What David Lurie learns of scripture or history, what he hears about his parents' past, what he endures himself in the way of accident or cruelty all become aspects of a single experience—the Jewish experience.
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