Love Is the Higher Law in Q&A with David Levithan

Nov 27, 2012 Claudia rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2012-book-challenge-160-books, contemporary-fiction

I cried all afternoon reading this one. Levithan obviously begins with his deep and abiding love for NYC and for the people who live there. His eye for kids and his ear for their words make this book, with its three narrators, ring true. His author's notes tell us some of the phrases come from his own emails at the time. I absolutely believe this brings that authenticity to the story. He was there, blocks from the Towers. He was in a city he adores, a city he watched change in an instant.

This bo I cried all afternoon reading this one. Levithan obviously begins with his deep and abiding love for NYC and for the people who live there. His eye for kids and his ear for their words make this book, with its three narrators, ring true. His author's notes tell us some of the phrases come from his own emails at the time. I absolutely believe this brings that authenticity to the story. He was there, blocks from the Towers. He was in a city he adores, a city he watched change in an instant.

This book is much-needed, for the exact reasons Levithan says: we must never forget. We near OKC are already seeing students who have no memory or understanding of the Murrah Building tragedy, and it won't be long before our memories of 9/11 will fade as well.

This story is told through the words of three friends: Jasper and Peter and Claire. They all are going about their morning when the world changed forever.

The strength in this book is in the details ONLY someone who was there would know: the papers that blew out of the building, the ash that permeated the air. The posters, the rain...the candles. The tacky tourists. This wasn't author research. This was author memories.

Claire's voice is the one I loved the most. Her search for goodness in others, for a purpose gave me the same kind of hope she found. Her connections with Peter and Jasper, and their connection and attraction to each other, were important, but she saw the potential for goodness, for lessons learned. It was her heart that was most dreadfully broken in the years after.

This book sent me to maps of NYC, and to the lyrics of the U2 song, "One". I had to understand everything these three beautiful children were experiencing.

And I cried -- again. I cried with the memories I hold of that day, and those weeks after. I cried for the war we started under false pretenses. I cried for these three, who tried to believe in the goodness of the adults around them, the adults who failed them.

"There is not one moment when that feeling of inadequate sorrow goes away. It just lessens and lessens until it is mostly a memory of itself"

"I honestly thought we were going to be better. After what happened. As a country."

"I don't know if you can change a country. You can only change the people." ...more

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Feb 18, 2014 David rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: advocacy, gayinterest, fiction, 2014-books, youngadult, history, acquired

Wow. Advocacy five. Short read, emotionally charged. The lives of three young New Yorkers on 11 September 2001 and following.

I like my books to either be funny or emotionally moving. While I can't say that this is a gut buster of a book, I certainly was moved. I remember what happened on that day although I was on the other side of the continent, and asleep. That's an inglorious response to the question "Where were you on September 11th when the planes hit the towers?" Thankfully one of the char ...more

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Mar 22, 2011 Irene rated it it was amazing

Beautiful, moving book. I wouldn't expect anything but that from Levithan. It will stay with me for a long time. First thought after I finished reading it was: Damn, I wish I'd read this sooner. ...more

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