Contemporary Literary Criticism | Potok, Chaim (Vol. 112) - Irving Abrahamson (review date 17 May 1992)

Irving Abrahamson (review date 17 May 1992)

SOURCE: "Chaim Potok Traces a Korean War Orphan's Existentialist Journey," in Chicago Tribune Books, May 17, 1992, p. 6.

[In the following review, Abrahamson finds shortcomings in I Am the Clay, citing Potok's "unsuccessful foray into the realm of existentialist thought" and his simplistic appeal for Christian love.]

In The Book of Lights (1981) Chaim Potok drew upon his experience as a U.S. Army chaplain in South Korea from 1955 to 1957. In I Am the Clay, his eighth novel, he draws upon it once again, this time taking the 1950–53 Korean War for his canvas. Potok is not interested in the 38th parallel, in the North Korean invaders and their Red Chinese allies, nor in the clash of armies. What interests him is the impact of the war upon the countryside and its peasant farmers. He renders this impact through the eyes and experiences of an old peasant couple and Kim Sin Gyu,...

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