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I went to a MO High School and I read it there. Because its controversial it wasnt madatory and the teacher was forced to give people a choice either the Chosen or some other book (I forgot the name)
Did you read the book or are you just qutoting people who may or might not have read the book and just decided it was bad.
You also forget the other part of the book, while it is true the Chassidic boy did become more modern. The More modern boy became more relgious, again maybe not what his father wanted