Who is the narrator, can she or he read minds, and, more importantly, can we trust her or him?
First Person (Central Narrator)
Asher Lev is the star of the show in every way—the novel is named after him, written about the events of his early life, and narrated by him. Unlike a peripheral first person narrator (Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby, anyone?), a central first person narrator is in the thick of things, telling us about his or her story as it unfolds.
My Name Is Asher Lev couldn't be more clear about its first person narrative technique. We need look no further than the very first paragraph of the book to find evidence of it:
My name is Asher Lev, the Asher Lev, about whom you have read in the papers and magazines, about whom you talk so much at your dinner affairs and cocktail parties, the notorious and legendary Lev of the Brooklyn Crucifixion. (3.1)
The important thing to remember when you're dealing with a central narrator is that he/she may or may not be reliable. Fortunately for us, Asher Lev is about as levelheaded and reliable as they come. In fact, the whole process of writing this book is supposed to be about telling the truth and whacking through the jungle of myths and rumors spread about him since he painted the controversial paintings that rocked the Hasidic world:
The fact is that gossip, rumors, mythmaking, and news stories are not appropriate vehicles for the communication of nuances of truth, those subtle tonalities that are often the truly crucial elements in a causal chain. So it is time for the defense, for a long session in demythology. (3.4)
Asher promises to be reliable by defining his autobiography as the opposite of untruthful stuff like gossip, rumors, and mythmaking. This book is intended to capture the "nuances of truth" which no other account of Asher's life could capture otherwise.