Community Reviews

Rating(4 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
34(34%)
4 stars
33(33%)
3 stars
33(33%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
0(0%)
100 reviews
July 15,2025
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The original article is not provided, so I can't rewrite and expand it specifically. However, I can give you a general example to show you how it might be done.

Let's assume the original article is: "The cat is on the mat."

Expanded version:

The cute little cat is peacefully lying on the soft mat. It seems to be enjoying the warm sunlight that filters through the window. The mat is colorful and fluffy, providing a comfortable place for the cat to relax. The cat's fur is smooth and shiny, and its eyes are half-closed, looking very content. It is such a lovely scene to see the cat on the mat.



Please provide the original article so that I can rewrite and expand it according to your requirements.
July 15,2025
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I set this book aside for a few months after I started it.

Later, I returned to a story of a Ukrainian Jew in a Russian conflict. It was very poignant to read during the current Russian aggression in Ukraine.

This book consists of three short stories that are framed as they are told to Davita Chandal, the main character in one of Potok’s earlier novels.

They all vividly illustrate the tension between the experiences of Jews in Europe as they were transitioning to America.

It describes "Old World men with threadbare dreams entering the fearful midnight of their lives."

The stories offer a deep and moving exploration of the challenges and changes that these individuals faced during that significant period of transition.

They provide a window into the complex emotions and struggles of those who left their familiar homelands in search of a new life in a foreign country.

Potok's writing brings these stories to life, making the reader feel as if they are right there, experiencing the events along with the characters.

Overall, this book is a powerful and thought-provoking work that sheds light on an important aspect of Jewish history and the immigrant experience.
July 15,2025
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A depressing and at times disturbing study of memories from the past and their uncanny ability to haunt the future. This work presents a collection of three distinct stories centered around Ilana Davita Dinn. Each story delves deep into various aspects of World War I and World War II, but from a unique Jewish perspective.

It offers a profound exploration of the human experience during these tumultuous times, shedding light on the often overlooked or forgotten aspects of history. The vivid descriptions and engaging narratives draw the reader in, making them feel as if they are a part of the characters' lives.

I would have given this book more stars, except I had some difficulties with the third story. It seemed a bit disjointed compared to the first two. However, if you are a fan of Potok's, don't go into this expecting it to be like The Chosen. It has its own charm and depth, but it is a different kind of work altogether.
July 15,2025
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Ilana Davita Dinn is a character who serves as a literary device to connect three distinct stories, making them seem like one cohesive book. However, she only has a significant role in the first story.

The first story is quite good. It's about Ilana Davita teaching English to a young Holocaust survivor. It highlights the complete lack of understanding among American Jews in the immediate post-war years regarding what these survivors endured. Ilana Davita knows the boy is the sole survivor from his town, yet whenever he mentions someone from his past, she repeatedly asks, "Oh, what happened to him?" One would think she'd eventually realize the likely fates were "shot in the forest" or "sent to Auschwitz," but no. She comes across as an idiot, constantly asking and failing to understand the pain on his face. After a while, I developed a bit of a dislike for her.

The second story would have been interesting if I hadn't already read "Darkness at Noon" by Arthur Koestler. It's essentially the same story but told from a different perspective, with less depth and thoughtfulness. If you want to truly understand Soviet Russia and the arbitrary arrests and tortures, even of former elites, during the Stalinist era, it's better to read "Darkness at Noon" rather than this.

The third story is just strange. An old man becomes oddly fixated on Ilana Davita, who is now also old and his neighbor. He watches her in a stalkerish way and fantasizes about her while taking care of his dying wife. It's quite creepy. The story starts off interestingly as he prepares for his bar mitzva with a "trope" teacher (which should be spelled "tropp" as that's not how it's pronounced!). This teacher survived WWI with the boy's father. He's smelly and mysterious, and the boy grows to appreciate him. Many secrets are hinted at, which kept me reading, but they are never explained. He goes to Europe in WWII as a soldier and searches for his old teacher while fighting, and ends up being somewhat haunted by him. But we never find out what really happened to the old teacher, his relationship to the boy's father, or what truly went on in the war. I was left feeling like the whole story was a waste of time, a bad note to end the book on. While Potok writes well, I'm not a big fan of this book. It was the first one of his that I read, and I suspect I made a poor choice.
July 15,2025
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I have discovered that both The Chosen and The Promise are extremely powerful novels. However, I feel slightly disappointed by this particular work.

I don't believe that having Davita narrate the first story was a very successful choice. In my opinion, female narrators are not Potok's forte.

I can empathize deeply with the boy in the first story, but I don't have the same level of connection with the other men. Moreover, I don't find the way Davita extracts their stories to be very convincing.

Considering the publication date and the author's death, it is highly likely that this is an unfinished book that could have benefited from a great deal more revision.

Perhaps with further refinement, the flaws I have identified could have been addressed, and the novel could have reached the same level of excellence as The Chosen and The Promise.

Nevertheless, despite its shortcomings, this work still offers some interesting insights and themes that are worth exploring.
July 15,2025
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This apparently was Potok's last book. It is, in fact, composed of three novellas or long short stories that are skillfully stitched together.

The common theme running through these tales is the act of recapturing memories, especially those of Jews who suffered as victims in the Second World War.

The stories are unified by an enigmatic woman. We first encounter her as a high school student tutoring a teenage survivor of the concentration camps in English. The young man, a talented artist, gradually reveals the story of his small village in Poland and the rabbi who enlisted the young men to repaint the lush foliage and creatures that adorned the inside of their wooden synagogue, just before everyone in the village except him was brutally killed by the Nazis.

In the second story, she is a college student and is asked to accompany a famous Russian defector during a campus visit. She encourages him to share his story, and he later mails her his brief yet chilling memoirs of his time as a KGB interrogator and the reasons for his flight from the Soviet Union.

In the last story, she is a mature and well-regarded author who moves next door to an aging military historian. His wife is dying, and he is struggling to write his memoirs. With her encouragement over coffee and donuts, he begins to unearth memories he had buried of a New York boyhood and being taught Torah by a strange, shambling man who was his father's best friend. This man suddenly decided to move back to Europe after the Nazis took power, knowing full well what fate awaited.

Of the three stories, I found the middle one about the interrogator to be the most captivating. This is partly because Potok describes the purges, interrogations, and paranoia of Stalin in such a matter-of-fact way, and partly because he exposes the anti-Semitism that was an essential part of the terror.

It is a fine book with a master's sure touch, and it will be of particular interest to those who have a passion for Holocaust fiction.
July 15,2025
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These are three loosely-linked novellas that, in my opinion, share common themes. Among them, I found the second novella to be the most captivating.

It was quite interesting to read Potok's work with a narrative set during The Shoah in the third book. This is a subject that he had not really explored in-depth before. Presenting it from the perspective of an observant American Jew serving in World War II was a great choice. It was truly compelling and held my attention throughout.

For me, this is good Potok, but it's not his absolute best. However, even so-called "good Potok" is still some of the finer American writing from 1960 to 2015. His works have a certain charm and depth that set them apart. They offer unique insights into different aspects of Jewish life and history, and this particular collection is no exception. Each novella brings something new and interesting to the table, making it a worthwhile read for fans of Potok and those interested in exploring the themes he presents.
July 15,2025
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I wouldn't call it Potok's best work.

One aspect that I do appreciate is the continuation of character lines throughout his various novels. Davita is back! I was truly charmed by this intuitive and inquisitive child in Davita's Harp (which had a nod to a pre-Chosen Reuven Malter!). It was a real treat to see her as a high school graduate preparing for her studies at Columbia University.

The Ark Builder is fascinating. It honors the tradition of the Covenant, of safeguarding the story of the past for the young, the future generation (as shown in Noah's drawings of his home for Davita's kid sister Rachel). This is also mirrored in Noah's memory of the rabbi painting the ark, a prominent figure in Jewish history, representing the faith and the relationship between the Creator and man.

The War Doctor is an enriching piece of historical fiction. It takes us into the mindset of a Jew, not as a victim, but as a KGB. We see a Communist in a different guise, contrasting with the typical Orwell-style monster from the restricting government form. Instead, it is the result of the politics, the atrocities of war, and the leadership from the White Army that shaped this man and drove him to do the things he has done.

However, I was not impressed with the final short story. It is interesting to see Davita as a middle-aged woman, but it strongly reminded me of Barbara Kingsolver's novel Prodigal Summer. For those who have read the book and remember the characters Garnett Walker and Nannie, you will understand my dislike for this final story.
July 15,2025
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Three captivating stories unfold, delving into the struggles of people with history, life, and loss. Davida, from Davida's Harp, appears in all three, yet more as an observer. His pacing, even in these short tales, is remarkably patient. At the end of my copy of the book, there's an interview where he discusses the novel and its capabilities. One aspect is the handling of characters. The novel, he argues, can explore people in significant depth over long periods, moving back and forth in time like no other form. People and time, he believes, are the essence of the novel and are limitless. He exemplifies this better than anyone I've read.


The last story stands out most vividly as it's the one I recently finished. An old man, Benjamin Walker, a famous war scholar, attempts to write his memoirs but struggles to recall his early childhood memories, specifically, someone who taught him about the Torah's rhetoric and language. Davida moves in next door and tells him about the "ram in the bush." The story then explores the exchange between creativity, meaning, and history.


Ben and a fellow historian, a Holocaust survivor, have lunch. The historian shares a conversation with a young Jewish boy in Germany who was secretly learning Torah. The boy was crying uncontrollably. When asked why, he told the story of the ram. There was a Garden of Eden on Earth and in heaven, and everyone was watching Abraham bind Isaac. Suddenly, the ram pleaded to take Isaac's place. But the angels, who loved the ram, refused to let it go. The ram cried out, "The future must be saved!" and leaped from the Garden, across a bridge of stars, to the mountaintop near Abraham, calling out in a human voice not to slaughter his son. Three angels flew after it, but it entangled its horns in the thicket.


Ben asks, "The boy was crying for the ram?" The answer is, "And because he thought that he was the ram." Ben then asks, "He?" The response is, "He, we, all of us were the ram." [Jews in Germany] Ben then queries, "If all of you were the ram, who was Isaac?" The historian replies that he asked the boy that, and the boy said, "The civilized people of the world."


It's a harrowing and beautiful tale, made even more intense in the given context. The boy read splendidly at his bar mitzvah, giving a talk about the ram's beauty, wisdom, and self-sacrifice to save the future of Creation. Four days later, he was shipped to Auschwitz and killed immediately. The fellow historian then tells Ben, "Every story is some kind of explanation, which explains why I dislike stories... I became a historian so I would not have to explain anything, only recount the evidence, the facts." Potok's writing always offers a great deal to ponder, and that's just scratching the surface of the actual plot of the stories.

July 15,2025
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I read this as the'sequel' to Davita's Harp.

There are three short stories, all centered around Davita Chandal, and each one is written with great excellence. They vividly depict different parts of her story after she graduated from high school.

By and large, when it comes to the second and third stories, Davita's presence seems rather unnecessary. However, this does not detract from the fact that all of them are wonderful reads.

I was especially intrigued by “The War Doctor,” which is a novella. It tells the story of a Jewish man who served as a Soviet NKVD agent. He was involved in the act of torturing those whom Stalin considered as enemies of the state. The complexity and the dark side of this character's actions make this story a truly captivating one.

Overall, these stories offer a unique and engaging perspective on Davita's life and the events that surrounded her.
July 15,2025
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Full disclosure: I have an unwavering love for the name Noah. I find great pleasure in saying it, hearing it, and seeing it grace the pages of a book. The first story in \\n  Old Men at Midnight\\n was like a beautiful ode to the name Noah, as it was prominently featured throughout. I happened to pick up this book at the library. I turned around, faced the shelf it was on, and randomly reached out because I was familiar with the author's name and had long desired to read his words. To my delight, when I flipped to the first page, the very first word that jumped out at me was Noah.

All the subsequent details were an added bonus. Noah is a sixteen-year-old survivor, living on his own with his aunt and uncle in Brooklyn, under the guidance of eighteen-year-old Davita.
\\nOld Men at Midnight is a trilogy of related novellas about a woman whose life intersects with three very different men, exploring some of the profoundest themes of the twentieth century. Ilana Davita Dinn is the listener to whom these three men share their lives.

Old Men at Midnight has a unique writing style that varies from what I typically prefer in books, with minimal dialogue. However, I was more than willing to take a chance for Noah Stremin.



The story of Noah immediately evoked compassion and a sense of connection within me. His experiences capture the magnitude of loss that survivors often endure. “You have pictures. I have nothing.” I realized about halfway through the story that while I was initially drawn in by Noah, his character would only be present in "The Ark Builder," and I had two more men's stories to get through. Unfortunately, the subsequent stories had some aspects that I found less than ideal. For example, in "The War Doctor," there was a character who betrayed his people to serve in the KGB, and in "The Trope Teacher," there were vulgar descriptions of women, such as “Close up, a woman small and dainty in stature, jeans tight, without the revealing curve of panties, he couldn't help noticing; sandals and thin ankles and bare toes; he felt the beat and drum of his blood.” and “She must have sensed his approach, for she straightened and turned. He noticed immediately the bony shoulders and small, firm breasts and the nipples beneath the blue jersey. She was not wearing a brassiere.” These descriptions left me perplexed as to their purpose and value in the book.

Despite these drawbacks, I did get what I wanted from the Noah story, and I decided to leave it at that. I'm still on a quest to find more books with characters named Noah. So far, my list includes: TRC by Maggie Stiefvater, the Mara Dyer Series, I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson, and Turtles All the Way Down. If you happen to have any additional recommendations, please let me know in the comments below.

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This review and more can be found on my blog.
July 15,2025
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There were certain aspects of this book that I truly liked.

The characters within its pages were quite interesting, each with their own unique personalities and traits that drew me in.

Moreover, as I have a great interest in learning about Jewish culture, this particular aspect of the book was truly satisfying. It provided me with valuable insights and a deeper understanding of that rich and vibrant culture.

However, overall, I was just plain baffled. The story seemed to take some rather unexpected turns that left me scratching my head.

The end, in particular, was especially confusing. I felt as if I had missed something of great significance, something that would have tied the whole story together and made it all make sense.

And there were also some rather tedious moments throughout the book when I seriously thought about not finishing it.

Overall, I cannot say that this is a book that I would recommend. Instead, I would suggest reading "The Chosen" by the same author. That book is much better and offers a more engaging and fulfilling reading experience.

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