zahavasdad,
If you are not used to a more general light then the Chosen is not for you.
Aha, so I can’t properly appreciate The Chosen because I’m locked in some kind of sheltered frum box, used to sanitized Artscroll biographies exclusively? Not quite. I read The Chosen before I became frum, and formed my interpretations with that mind set. The author’s polemic against the perceived chassidic “circle the wagons” approach to modernity, and the juxtaposition of Reuven’s saintly father and Reb Saunders is quite unsubtle.