From The Writer's Almanac:It's the birthday of Chaim Potok (books by this author), born in the Bronx (1929). His parents were immigrants from Poland, and he grew up in a strict Orthodox Jewish culture. When he was about 14 years old, he happened to pick up a copy of Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, and it changed his life. He said, "I lived more deeply inside the world in that book than I lived inside my own world."
How amazing that the novel would have such a profound effect on an Orthodox Jewish boy. That the book had the same effect on me, with a background in the Roman Catholic Church, is not so surprising. Of course, I was much older when I read the book. Waugh has a way of writing that makes his characters come to life, and we are drawn into the lives of the characters and care about what becomes of them. I loved Potok's novel, The Chosen, and I just now placed the sequel, The Promise, on my wish list to buy in the future. I may have already read the book, but, as with The Chosen, which I've read more than once, the sequel may be well worth another read.
