In the Beginning, Potoks fourth published book, marked a stylistic advance in his art.

In its
extensive use of flashbacks and impressionistic language, Potok moved forward and backward in
time creating concrete worlds suffused with the stuff of dreams, preparing the reader for the final
vision of the climax. The novel is David Luries story. Now a teacher, Luries reminiscences
transport him to his sixth year. At the close of the novel, Lurie has become a graduate student at
the University of Chicago.
The Luries, an Orthodox Jewish family, emigrated from Poland and settled in the Bronx. Davids
father, Max, founded the Am Kedoshim (Holy Nation) Society to bring fellow Jews to the United
States and away from the bloody pogroms that plagued their homeland. Max Lurie is full of rage
at the Gentiles who perpetrate such violence. David himself falls victim to anti-Semitism after he
accidentally runs over the hand of a neighbor boy with his tricycle.
Eddie Kulansky torments the sickly David, who struggles in his thoughts against the bullies of
the world. David dreams of the Golem of Prague, similar to Frankensteins monster, and
imagines his putting to rest all those who would persecute the Jews.
Though he is frequently ill, David is (as are all Potoks narrators) a prodigy, making adults
uncomfortable with his questions and picking up attitudes of anger against the Gentiles. With the
failure of Max Luries real estate business during the Depression and the financial ruin of the Am
Kedoshim Society, the family must face Maxs own depression. Maxs wife, Ruth, the widow of
Maxs brother David (Max married her according to the Law of Moses) is frail and superstitious.
Ruth reads to her son in German, and the young...

In the Beginning Summary (Masterpieces of American Fiction)

In the Beginning is a journey into the heart of an Orthodox Jewish family, Polish immigrants
who have settled in the Bronx. It is the reminiscence of David Lurie, now a teacher, then a young
boy struggling to piece together the meaning of his life in the midst of dark and troubling visions.
When the novel opens, David is approaching six years of age; at its close, he is setting off for
graduate study at the University of Chicago.
David is a sickly child, his frequent fevers the result of an undiagnosed deviated septum
sustained in a fall with his mother, who was bringing him home from the hospital after his birth.
Mishaps continue to plague his early childhood, and one day he accidentally runs over the hand
of Eddie Kulanski, one of the neighborhood boys, with his tricycle. Eddie, a violently antiSemitic bully, uses the incident as a pretext to threaten and torment David, who thus experiences
at first hand the reality of the irrational hatred that even then was preparing the way for the
Holocaust. Throughout his childhood, David is haunted by his impotence against the goyim in
his neighborhood and those in Poland whose pogroms had so angered his father, Max Lurie. In
fever dreams, David imagines the Golem of Prague, a kind of Frankensteins monster, able to
subdue all those who persecute the Jews.
Davids earliest memories involve meetings of the Am Kedoshim (Holy Nation) Society,
founded by his father. Successful in real estate, Max Lurie is working with fellow Jews to bring
relatives and friends to the United States to escape the bloodshed in Poland. Max is no passive

victim; in his homeland he had organized the Lemburg Jews to defend themselves, and when he
saw that the situation there was hopeless, he led a group which emigrated to the United States.
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In the Beginning Bibliography (Masterpieces of American Literature)

Hock, Zarina Manawwar. Authority and Multiculturalism: Reflections by Chaim
Potok.Language Arts 72 (April, 1995): 4. Hock discusses Potoks use of multicultural themes to
expose attitudes toward social issues. She demonstrates how his fiction reflects the battle
between traditional and new sources of conduct.
Potok, Chaim. The Invisible Map of Meaning: A Writers Confrontations. Tri-Quarterly 84
(Spring, 1992): 17-45. Potok discusses the major theme that runs throughout his works, that of
cultural conflict and the influence this conflict has on the direction of an individual life. Potok
describes his first encounter with mainstream Western literature and shows how this experience
shaped his subsequent writing, including In the Beginning.
Potok, Chaim. Wanderings: Chaim Potoks History of the Jews. New York: Fawcett Books, 1990.
Potoks compelling history of the Jews recreates historical events and explores the many facets
of Jewish life through the ages. Although this work does not address Potoks fiction, it does
provide insight into Potoks ethnic heritage which has a direct bearing on his writing.
Walden, Daniel, ed. The World of Chaim Potok. Albany: State University of New York Press,
1985. This rich resource on the writing of Chaim Potok features critical essays, as well as
reviews and a bibliographic essay. It does not directly discuss In the Beginning but provides
valuable insight into Potoks fiction that can be extended to the entire body of his work.