Davita's Harp is a book about storytelling and the nature of stories themselves. Potok structures the plot around numerous inset stories that Davita learns from her parents, Jakob Daw, Aunt Sarah, books, and newspapers. The careful placement of each story reinforces the themes presented in the outer framework of events. Through each puzzling or frightening new tale, Davita gradually fuses together her emotional inner life and the world of external events. Davita's growing ability to relate stories to life and to use them in the creative processes of her own imagination and soul marks her progressive maturation and self-identification both as a young woman and as a budding artist.

Drawing strongly upon the forces of historical realism and mythology, Potok weaves the aura of dream shattered by nightmare to enliven what might otherwise be a dull social document. Through the use of symbols such as the...