|
WIDE AWAKE REVIEWS
School
Library Journal
In this novel set in the near future, The Decents, who use God and family values to spread hate, are in the minority. The real Jesus freaks, who feel He would have loved everybody regardless of race, religion, or sexual orientation, have prevailed. Gay, Jewish Duncan Weiss, 17, is elated when gay, Jewish Abe Stein is elected President of the United States. Then the governor of Kansas calls the election into question. The teen and a busload of his friends travel to Topeka to join millions in protest. Duncans arc from well-meaning bystander to political participant stands as allegory to the uselessness of empathy without action. Levithans dialogue is as natural and evocative as ever, and elegant, persuasive political speeches help sustain the wondrous mood. Duncans friend Gus, a campy man-slut who ends each sentence with la, provides much-needed comic relief. The members of The God Squad, Janna and Mandy, are equally natural and believable. Oddly, though, the romances lack juice. Duncans earnest narrative will engage any teen who has felt powerless, but his militant boyfriend, Jimmy, is just too flat to care about. Keisha, Mira, and Sara, a love triangle of indistinguishable lesbians, speak of pain that readers never feel. The story still moves briskly, by force of the uncertain outcome more than by involvement with the characters. However, in conjuring a world where every vote actually counts, Wide Awake stands with Levithan's extraordinary Boy Meets Boy (Knopf, 2003) in sheer creativity of plot, setting, and message. Johanna Lewis, New York Public Library
BUY THE BOOK >
BACK TO TOP >
Booklist
In Boy Meets Boy (2003), Levithan created a town where being gay is no big thing. In his latest, he imagines a future America--after the Reign of Fear, after the Greater Depression, the War to End All Wars, the Jesus Revolution, and the Prada Riots. Living in this not quite but almost believable America are Duncan and his boyfriend, Jimmy, who start out the book rejoicing that Abe Stein, both gay and Jewish, has been elected president. Unsurprisingly, however, the governor of Kansas demands a recount, causing both Stein supporters and Stein haters to travel en masse to Kansas. Into this politically charged atmosphere go Duncan and Jimmy, who experience what proves to be a life-changing journey for them and their country. Levithan is best when he's focused on the two nuanced teenagers. Duncan's first-person narration--vulnerable, insecure, caring--absolutely sings, and his relationship with the outspoken Jimmy has all the awkwardness and intensity of first love. Clearly responding to current politics, Levithan's vision of the future occasionally dips into heavy-handed moralizing, but politics are so well integrated and thought-provoking that those moments are forgivable. As much about love as about politics, Levithan's latest reaches out to shake readers awake, showing them how each person's life touches another, and another, until ultimately history is made. Krista Hutley
BUY THE BOOK >
BACK TO TOP >
|
