One of Americas most popular Jewish writers Chaim Potok b. 1929 is theauthor of such novels as The Chosen 1967 The Promise 1969 The Book ofLights 1981 and Davit... » 

One of Americas most popular Jewish writers Chaim Potok b. 1929 is theauthor of such novels as The Chosen 1967 The Promise 1969 The Book ofLights 1981 and Davitas Harp 1985. Each of his novels explores thetension between tradition and modernity and the clash between Jewish cultureand contemporary Western civilization which he calls coretocore cultureconfrontation.Although primarily known as a novelist Potok is an ordained Conservative rabbiand a worldclass Judaic scholar who has also published childrens bookstheological discourses biographies and histories.Conversations with Chaim Potok presents interviews ranging from 1976 to 1999.Potok discusses the broad range of his writing and the deep influence of nonJewish novels in particular Evelyn Waughs Brideshead Revisited and JamesJoyces Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man on his work. Interviews bearwitness to Potoks many other influences Orthodox Jewish doctrine Freudianpsychoanalytical theory Picassos Guernica and Jewish kabbalah mysticism.Though labeled an American Jewish writer Potok argues that Flannery OConnorshould then be called an American Catholic writer and John Updike an AmericanProtestant writer. In his mind editor Daniel Walden writes just asFaulkner was a writer focused on a particular place Oxford Mississippi . . .so Potoks territory was a small section of New York City.Potok often explores conflict in his writings and in his interviews. StrictJewish teachings deem fiction an artifice and therefore unnecessary yet sincethe age of sixteen Potok has been driven to write novels. At the root of all ofthese conversations is Potoks intenseinterest in the turmoil between Jewishculture religion and tradition and what he calls Western secular humanism.As he discusses his work he continually includes broader issues such as thestate of Jewish literature and art pointing out with pride and enthusiasm «