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With Chaim

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Out with a new book
for young adults,
renowned novelist
Chaim Potok pays a
visit to Farmington Hills.

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AMY MINDELL

Special to The Jewish News

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998

86 Detroit Jewish News

enowned author, rabbi and
theologian Chaim Potok
will visit Borders in Farm-
ington Hills on Tuesday,
Nov. 24, to discuss and sign his new
book, Zebra & Other Stories (Random
House; 818), a collection of short fic-
tion for young adults.
Many teens have read his adult
works, but this is his first book
geared specifically for the young
adult audience. Potok is probably
best known as the author of The Cho-
sen, which was made into a 1981
movie starring Robby Benson and
Rod Steiger.
He is the author of two children's
books, several works of nonfiction and
11 novels, including My Name is Asher
Lev, Davita's Harp and I Am the Clay.
Zebra and Other Stories contains six
quiet tales of young adults grappling
with complex issues like personal
injury, family breakdown, violence
and drugs. The Vietnam War is also a
theme in several stories.
In "Nava," a girl practices self- -
defense against a threatening, drug-
dealing classmate. In "Zebra," an artis-
tic young boy meets a Vietnam veter-
an who inspires him. In "Isabel," a
teenage girl copes with the death of
her father and her mother's subse-
quent remarriage.
The stories are finely drawn and
beautifully told and will probably

appeal to adults as well as a younger
audience.
Potok, 69, was born and raised in
New York City. He grew up, he has
said "in a Chasidic world without the
beard and the earlocks." He started
writing as a teenager and went on to
earn degrees in literature and philoso-
phy. He also is an ordained rabbi and
served as an Army chaplain during the
Korean War.
He spoke with The Jewish News
from his home in Philadelphia.

JN: Why did you write a book for
young adults?
CP: First of all, I must say that I have
no clear notion of what makes up an
audience of "young adults." Nowa-
days, young adults tend to read very
adult stories, and most of the stories
in this book first appeared in adult lit-
erary magazines. I would like to
believe that these stories transcend
age. I bring them to the world in a
book for young adults because of my
concern for the tribulations youths
face these days and my sense of the
regard and seriousness they will extend
to stories that look openly and honest-
ly upon their lives.
JN: What were some of your favorite
books as a boy?
CP: The Sherlock Holmes stories and
the works of Mark Twain. In my mid-
teens I read and loved Stephen Crain's
The Red Badge of Courage. But the two
novels that profoundly changed my
life, that turned me into a writer of