European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 9, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Effects on Chaim Potok Merika Haus director Helena Kane finn turned to the tradition of holding a literary Salon at her residence to introduce american author Chaim Potok to inter a ested readers in Frankfurt Germany. The height of the event turned out to be a lecture and not the expected Reading from his works. Herman Harold Potok was born in new York on feb. 17,1929. He later changed his name to Chaim. He was educated at the jewish theological sem Inaiya it new York and is an ordained rabbi. He has taught at the University of Pennsylvania and Bryn mawr a College. Potok served with the engineers and a medical unit during the korean War. It was an experience that inspired one of his books a the Book of lights. Potok charmed his Frankfurt audience with the Story of his rite of passage from what he called a the tight Little world of orthodox Jewery into which i was born to secularism and the rest of the  Potok noted that modern Man must Cope with his estrangement from the old and rigid traditions of ethnic upbringing. Potok wittily related How he first ventured out of his a tight Little world by going to the Library and choosing a Book by Evelyn Waugh. A i pronounced it was and thought it was a woman a Potok said. A no Man in Brooklyn would be called Evelyn. A i was warned by the librarian who knew me As a talmudic student that i would be confronted by a very different world in was  As Potok Learned the Waugh world of Catholic British aristocrats during world War i were a Long Way from fundamentalist jewish Brooklyn. Potok remembers How the language in the Book so overwhelmed him that he decided he wanted to become a writer. A i then read Joyce a portrait of the artist As a Young Man and was determined to  a Quot a. A a / the Way Potok figured it if the diverse worlds of a Waugh and a Joyce could mean something to the boy from Brooklyn Why should he be surprised that the world of Brooklyn could mean something to people outside that world How did his Mother take this career decision a first you become a brain surgeon and then write in your spare time a she told him. Potok became a writer anyway and won prizes for his literary work. A i think my Mother is proud of me a Potok said. A she was vacationing in Miami when a group of women found out who she was. They bought my Book at the local Bookstore and came to her on the Beach to have them signed. A she sat in her Beach chair and wrote in the books a Molly Potok Mother of Chaim Potok a asked if he would write anything about his trip to Germany Potok said a novelist can never know that in Advance. He said he met with Young and older germans during his two weeks in the country and had interesting conversations. A the recent outburst of anti semitism does no to Surprise me a Here in Germany or anywhere else in the West. What can you expect of people who have been taught it a Potoky a novels Are the chosen nominated for the National Book award in 1967the Promise won the athenaeum award in 1969my name is Asher lev 1972in the beginning 1975the Book of lights 1981a Vita s Harp 1985 and the gift of Asher lev 1990. Red re Avis staff writer reviews the Hope by Herman Wouk Little Brown. A a Balagan is a hebrew word that can be translated As Folly or fiasco or foul up. Significantly Thebes Sellers a amps Jim Derheim Chaim Potok from Brooklyn to Frankfurt. Word comes up again and again in the Hope Wouk a ambitious historical novel set amid the wars that forged the state of Israel. Wouk uses the term Balagan to describe the chaos that characterized the infant jewish state and its ragtag army in the earliest years. But the  also amounted to a kind of unofficial strategy. Sometimes As Wouk shows us a Balagan was just what Israel needed As when a unit of israeli Armor somehow misunderstood its orders and raced to the Suez canal in the last minutes before a cease fire went into effect during the six Day War. At 78, Wouk is a master of the historical novel and a at nearly 700 pages a the Hope is a surprisingly fast read. Perhaps it is too fast. The heroism and the historical grandeur Are Well displayed in the Hope but somehow the ache is missing. A Jonathan Kirsch los Angeles times Bertolt Brecht journals 1934-19s5 translated from the German by Hugh Rorrison edited by John Willett Routledge Bertolt Brecht was ostensibly a marxist playwright but that is a bit like saying that George Bernard Shaw was a vegetarian playwright. Brecht like Shaw in fact juggled ideas like flaming torches while trying less successfully than Shaw to keep his distance from the heat. In his theater the ideas Are primarily characters their role is far More dramatic than intellectual. This profoundly contradictory Man thank goodness for the switchbacks because his straight always could be repellent was a believer in dialectic the pulsing of opposites and More than a believer. It gave him Energy As love traditionally gave poets Energy. No Genius though can inhabit another Genius scheme without breaking it and Brecht quite thoroughly Dis arranged the hegelian marxist theory of Progress through contradictions. This put him at cautiously simmering Odds with his fellow communists at least from the mid-1930s, when Stalin decided it was synthesis time and began to shoot intellectuals by the thousands. A a cautiously is the key. Brecht stayed out of Moscow. A Richard Eder los Angeles times this wheel on fire Levon Helms life with the band by Levon Helm with Stephen Davis William Morrow amp co. The tale of the band is a counterculture version of the classic show business tale in which Gritty Earnest nobodies driven by the need to sing or play or dance or act work valiantly year after year until one Day an All powerful producer spots them plucks them out of the Small time and sets them on the Road to Fame. That the tale is still Worth hearing has a lot to do with the fact that Helm wanted to make Good Rock a no Roll More than he wanted to be a Solo driven Rock superstar. Margo Jefferson the new York times new York times ust hardback fiction 1 slow Waltz in Cedar Bend by Robert James Waller last week 1 weeks on a. List 10 a. A. 2 the Bridges of Madison county by Robert James Waller last week 2weeks on list 74 a. 3 nightmares amp dress capes by Stephen King last week 4 weeks on list .13 a a. A 4 without remorse by Tom Clancy last week 3 weeks on list 20 5 the client by John Grisham last week 5 weeks on list 43 6 like water Tor chocolate by Laura Esquival last week 6 weeks on list a 39 a �.,��� A a a a. A a a 7 Lasher by Anne Rice last week 7 weeks on list 15. 8 the Book of Guy  Keillor last week 9 weeks on list 4 9 or. Murder by Dean Koontz last week 10 weeks on list 9 a 10 the Hope by Herman Wouk last week 8 weeks on list 5 11 a dangerous Fortune by Ken Follett last week 12 weeks on list 11 12 vanished by Danielle steel last week 14 weeks on list 1713 a cup of Christmas Tea by Tom Hogg last week 11 weeks on list 3 14. Graf fun a Sabine by Nick Bantock last week 15 weeks on list 46 15 the truce at Bakura by Kathy tots last week 13 weeks on list 6 nonfiction 1 see i told you so by Rush Limbaugh last week 1 weeks on list 8. 2 private parts by Howard Stern last week 2 weeks on list 12 3 Sel language by Jerry Seinfeld last week 3 weeks on list 18 4 the hidden life of dogs by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas last week 4 weeks on list 20 a a5 would t take nothing Lor my journey now by Maya Angelou last week 5 weeks on list 14 i love can build a Bridge by Naomi Judd last week 6 weeks on list 5 7 the Book of Virtues by William j. Bennett last week 10 weeks on list 3 8 having our say by Sarah and a. Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth last week 8 weeks on list 6 9 embraced by the Light by Betty j. Eadie with Curtis Taylor last week 9 weeks on list 35 lag Bombeck Iasi week 7 weeks on list 14 ii rare air by Michael Jordon last week not listed weeks on list 4 12 women who run with the wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes last week 15 weeks on list 74 13 further along the Road Lata travelled by m. Scott Peck last week 13. Weeks on list 14 14 n took a Licking and kept on ticking by Lewis Grizzard last week 11 weeks on list 3 15 the beit cat Ever by Cleveland Amory last week 12 weeks on list 6 miscellaneous 1 age Len body timeless mind by Deepak Chopra last week 1 weeks on list 24a 2 and it you play Golf you re my Friend by Harvey Penick with Bud Shrake last week 2 weeks on list 8 3 Harvey Penlick s Little red Book by Harvey Penick with Bud Shrake last week 3 weeks on list 57 4 men Are from Mars women Are from Venus by John Gray last week 4 weeks on list 33. 10 a marriage made in Haaven. Or too tired for an affair by Erma paperback fiction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 i 9 the Pelican Brief by John Grisham weeks on list 47 Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King weeks on list 6 a time to kill by John Grisham weeks on list 91 along came a spider by James Patterson weeks on list 7 mixed blessings by Danielle steel weeks on list 8 degree of guilt by Richard North Patterson weeks on list 2 the firm by John Grisham weeks on list 95 the killer Angels by Michael Shaara week on lists 12 the Joy Luck club by Amy Tan weeks on list 54 10 the remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro weeks on list 57 11 interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice weeks on list 10 12 Schindler a list by Thomas Keneally first week on list. 13 the invitation by Jude Devraux. Weeks on list 3 14 red Square by Martin Cruz Smith weeks on list 6. 15 desire by Amanda Quick weeks on list 4. 19 private pleasures by Lawrence Sanders weeks on list 5 nonfiction 1 the Way things ought to to by Rush Limbaugh weeks on list 17 2 rare air by Michael Jordan weeks on list 10 3 the Road Lata travelled by m. Scott Peck weeks on list 531 4 i know Why Tho caged sir Binge by Maya Angelou weeks on list 47 5 submarine by Tom Clancy weeks on list 11 9 Oprah by Nellie Bly weeks on list 4 7 the cat who Camo for Christmas by Cleveland Amory weeks on list 36 9 the to of Piglet by Ben amen Holt weeks on list 6 9 a year in Provence by Peter Mayle weeks on list 117 10 us of by Robert Fulghum weeks on list 21 11 it does t Taka a hero by h. Norman Schwarzkopf with Peler Petro weeks on list 14 12 Young men and fire by Norman Maclean weeks on list 11 13 where Angela walk by Joan Wester Anderson first week on list 14 Genius by James Gleick weeks on list 6 15 Truman by David Mccullough weeks on list 24 miscellaneous 1 the Days Are just packed by Bill Walterson weeks on list 15 2 the far Side gallery 4 by Gary Larson weeks on list 9 3 mtg s Bervis and butt head by Sam Johnson and Chris Marcil weeks on list 6 4 the chickens Are restless by Gary Larson weeks on list 3 most books listed Are available or on order at stars and stripes bookstores. January 9, 1994 sunday Page 25